Christmas Eve Tree Decorating Pastries - M'hanncha

We usually get our tree either on Christmas Eve or the day before but no matter when we buy or cut down our tree, we always decorate on Christmas Eve. While decorating we have eggnog and pastries. Last year, I did Chaussons Aux Pommes, well they actually I used Cherries. This year, I did M'hanncha, a great Moroccan Snake Pastry. It is rolled and coiled filo dough stuffed with almond past.

Almond Paste Filling

8-15 sheets of filo dough. I like to use 3 sheets per snake but Nancy, my pastry chef uses 5.
1/3 cup granulated sugar.
2 1/2 cups of blanched almonds
1 tablespoon melted butter
2 tablespoons orange blossom water
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Honey Water

1/4 cup good honey
2 tablespoons orange blossom water

as needed melted butter
as needed egg yolk wash
as needed fried almond slivers. (Fry the almond slivers in butter until golden.)

Fried Almonds. I used slice rather than slivers. I like the look better and that's what I had.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

First get the dough of the refrigerator and over with a damp cloth so that it does not dry out. If you bought frozen dough, and I recommend you buy your filo, make sure to defrost it IN YOUR REFRIGERATOR the night before.

Next, lets make the almond paste. This is very easy. Do not over think this. In a Cuisinart, mix the sugar, almonds, butter, orange blossom water and the 1t of cinnamon. This should take about 5-10 minutes in the Cuisinart.

You may want to make the paste a little finer than the one shown hear.

Next, and really this is all there is to it, roll our the almond paste into a snake almost as long as the filo dough's longest side. Then take 3-5 sheets of filo dough, apply melted butter gently and then place the almond paste snake in the filo and roll as shown in the picture. Create about three snakes.

Mise en place

Note that I am holding the filo in landscape.



And roll.

Roll.

Roll your snake.



Use the melted butter to grease an 8 inch pie pan. I like to use glass. Then coil the snakes into a spiral shape and apply butter and then the egg yolk wash to the coils.

Bake for 40 minutes or until golden brown. While you are waiting, heat the honey until it's fluid. I like it to just start simmering. Keep hot and add the orange blossom water to it.

When you take the M'hanncha out of the oven, drizzle the honey water on top of the snake and decorate with the fried almonds. Then eat.

I also created a pistachio version. To make the pistachio version substitute pistachios for the almonds, rose water for the orange blossom water and I would cut the filling recipe in half.



I didn't and the pistachio was so solid and blocking it was hard to chew and rather lumpy but delicious.

Shape as before. You can see how much more substantial the pistachio is than the almond.

Roll as before.

Bake as before and sprinkle rose water honey water on top. I didn't add any decorations. You may want to add a little raw crushed pistachio. Then eat. Yummer.

Chaussons Aux Pommes (Apple Turnovers) - Step 3

The final step in our wonderful Cherry and Apricot Turnovers. I made some with apple-butter but I do not think those will turn out well. To be on time for our Christmas Eve tree trimming tradition, I rushed and left out a couple of steps. Much better if you do not do that.

Preheat the oven to 400F. Then continue.

First thing to do is roll out the puff paste. Now I use my bench scraper, my dough knife to cut the size squares that I needed. It was easier that way. That means these turnovers will be a good size. Chill the squares for about 1 hour. Do not stack them but wrap them and leave them on your sheet pan. Don't let them touch. You can get away with 20 minutes if you don't have time but do chill them.



Next, brush the INTERIOR of the dough with an egg wash, that's an egg mixed with water. Do not brush the edges. Leave then naked.



Then fill the interior of the square with your mixture. If you did not add the liquor and overcooked the sugar, chip out the mixture and lay it in the center of the dough.



Then fold into a triangle and press the edges together. Use a fork to make a seal all around the edges. I cut both perfect squares as well as odd shapes. Do the best you can with the odd shaped ones. If you don't want to use the odd shaped ones, you can trim your dough before you start cutting.



Then put the square into the fridge for 30 minutes. When they have chilled, take out, dip them into sugar and put on a baking sheet. Brush with the egg wash and bake 20 minutes at 400F, turn turn down to 350F and bake for 25 more minutes.



Or if you want you can brush with the wash and sprinkle the sugar over the turnovers. Either way. Do not over fill or they will explode and don't forget to press hard when sealing them. However, even if they explode, they'll still taste great.

If you do it right, they'll look like this...

ooh, aaah....

and if you rush, like I did tonight, they'll look like this....

Still a big yummer.

And let me tell you, I've had both and I love them, So no worries if they explode, you'll have to eat those and serve the better looking ones to your guests.

Chaussons Aux Pommes (Apple Turnovers) - Step 1

Actually, I'll be making Chaussons aux Cerises, that is, the same thing with cherries and also with apricot and I'm going to try it with Kim's favorite apple butter.

Step 1 is making the puff paste. Not that hard but it will take some patience. Here is how I was taught. I had thought I'd put this recipe up here already but I can't find it so here it is.

Ingredients -
3 cups AP or Bread Flour
1 cup pastry flour
1 t salt
2 t lemon juice, I use fresh
1 1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons butter

1 pound of butter (take this out to warm up. It needs to be chill but workable.) The best thing to do is use your rolling pin to knead and pound the butter into a nice flat cake shape. Working it like this will warm it up. I like to warm it by putting it in the microwave for 30 second and then leaving it out for 20 mins.

I first blend the flours and salt. Then I add 1 cup of water to the mixture and the lemon juice. I use a 20 qt mixer with a paddle. Then I add the butter a little bit at a time and continuing adding the rest of the water until I get a smoothish dough.

Knead for 8 minutes. I normally do this on medium. My mixer has 1, 2 or 3. Three is an airplane taking off. It's very fast and I mostly use it for brioche. If you are kneading this by hand, make a well, pour in the 1 cup of water and the lemon juice stir and then knead violently. Pound it for 8 minutes. As soon as you have a smooth elastic dough, wrap in plastic and let sit in the fridge for 20 minutes to rest. If you have the time, let this rest 2 hours.

The next step is to roll out the dough as thin as you possibly can. I like to put a little bit of flour on my steel tables and roll it out. Remember, always roll from the middle and only in one direction. When you are done with the first half, flip it over and roll out the other half. You can roll the dough in the width direction if you need to. By one direction I mean, from the middle out and always away from your body.

Once you have it rolled out, put the butter cake in the middle and then fold all the corners up and fold again until you get a nice square and the butter is completely covered. Rolls this out and then do a book fold. That is, fold so that both ends overlap in the center. Rap and put in the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes to rest. By the way, if your kitchen is hot, good luck. It's easier to do this on steel or marble. I use a marble rolling pin. You can put your marble in the fridge between folds if your kitchen is hot.

Sorry, I didn't take any picture because I wasn't going to go into detail about making puff paste. I was just going to say, make or buy puff paste and leave it at that but I had a change of heart and decided to give you the full magilla. You can still go out and buy the puff paste. Making päte feuillettée is a challenge.

OK. Secrets time. One of the most important things is, at each stage of the 4 or 5 folds you will be doing is to have it square at the end. Let me show you. When you take your paste out of the fridge is should look thusly...



As you can see, I've already done the covering of the butter and the first fold. Then I roll out.



Now, secret two is, roll out the dough as thin as you can without getting any bubbles or tears. However, if you do tear or get popped bubbles do not worry. Just repair what you can and fold. Depending on how bad it looks, you may want to throw a little and I mean a little flour on the popped dough or if butter squishes out.



I always lightly dust my table top and again I mean lightly. Notice in this picture I got it pretty thin. If I had the time or was making this for my guests, I would have gotten it even thinner. But this is thin enough. It's about 1/8 inch.



Now we fold.



If you do a book fold, that is in 3, with both ends overlapping in the center, then you need to do 5 folds. I normally do a book fold and turn the book sideways and fold up the ends to meet in the center. If you do this, all you need is 3 or 4 folds.



And remember, make sure you end up with a square look to your folded dough.



Then wrap in plastic, I reuse the plastic, and put into the fridge for 20 mins. Repeat.



When you are done, fold and then let rest in the fridge for at least 3 hours, overnight is better. OK. Maybe you can cheat with only 2 or 1, if you want to be a hot dog. Enjoy your puff paste.

What to do with it next. Making cream puffs is easier. Maybe you should go read that post. You can make those in time for Christmas or even Christmas Eve.