This week’s TWD was chosen by Jacque of Daisy Lane Cakes: cottage cheese pufflets! Ok – moment of honesty: before I even looked at the recipe my first thought was “ewwww, cottage cheese!” I’m really not a cottage cheese fan so the cottage cheese pufflets didn’t exactly excite me. On top of that, there was a lot of discussion over on the P&Q’s and on Twitter about the dough for the pufflets being fussy. Since the dough for the turnovers last week gave me fits, I didn’t relish the thought of struggling again this week. All that said, the recipe was easy to scale down (I made 1/4) so I figured why not at least give it a shot.
The results reminded me why I wanted to be a part of this group. I’ve flipped through Dorie’s book a million times and never once have I noticed this recipe so it’s likely I would never have tried it, but I ended up loving it! I kept the dough well chilled and really didn’t find it any more difficult to work with than other pastry dough. Instead of rolling it out between wax paper or plastic wrap, I just went with a really well floured counter. Instead of cutting the dough into squares, I made circles with a 2 1/2-inch cookie cutter and I filled half of my pufflets with Nutella and half with blueberry preserves. For reasons that aren’t entirely clear to me, some of my pufflets got really puffy in the oven and some stayed fairly flat. They were, however, all really flaky and delicious! The dough isn’t too sweet so it worked well with both the Nutella and the blueberry preserves and I really couldn’t pick a favorite. I’m planning to use the leftover cottage cheese to make these again with different fillings too!
Many thanks to Jacque for a great pick this week! You can find the recipe on her site and head on over to TWD to check out all of this week’s treats.
Lemon Bars
Glazed Grapefruit Cake
Orange Sherbet
Meyer Lemon Pound Cake
Love the photo! That bit of jelly oozing out the edge of your pufflet looks delicious. Somehow, and I don’t know how, cottage cheese managed to add something really good to this dough.
The Nutella ones sound delish!!
Ciao ! I’m so happy you loved them too !!
Hi Tracey! Glad you liked these!
They look super awesome!
Beautiful. I love the first picture. The pufflet has a smiley face in it. I bet the nutella was delicious.
Yours are some of the best looking pufflets I’ve seen! If mine looked like that, I’d definitely eat them again. Well done.
They look so good!!
I believe that if my pufflets turned out like yours I might have loved them too! I think I cut the recipe too much, and maybe adding flour was the ticket. Great job, and glad you enjoyed them.
Oh my gosh! I have serious pufflet envy. Look how flaky yours are. They look super, super tasty.
Ooohhh those look so good! Never heard of a pufflet before, but that’s something that would get me to eat cottage cheese, which I otherwise loathe. Yummy!
These look wonderful! Your photos are beautiful and I am sure the little pufflets appreciated your post this week and your lovely photo as they were getting some less than enthusiatic press from many! We liked them, too, but just too fussy for me for a regular routine kind of thing. Maybe for the Christmas tray this year, however.
They are absolutely gorgeous! I didn’t bake this week, but I’ve got a bunch of cottage cheese in the fridge right now. Maybe I’ll whip up some dough and freeze for the holidays!
now that is what I call puffage! I really think yours show what this little guy should have looked like. The nutella was a great idea- I bet it was heavenly!
Gorgeous pufflets, Tracey! It’s funny, I actually really like cottage cheese, but these were a miss for me.
They look so nice! I’m glad that you liked them so much, especially since you’re not a cottage cheese fan.
Oh Tracey – these are SOOO cute! How on earth did you get them to get that wonderful shape? I am so impressed – love the powdered sugar – yours looks so nice and fresh. Great filling choices too! Nicely done!
you and i had the EXACT same reaction. ewwwww cottage cheese. i just can’t wrap my mind around it. i’ll have to try these now.
the nutella convinced me 😀
So glad you liked them..they look very tasty.
Wow you must have achieved the best looking pufflets over the blogosphere!! They look great, and must taste amazing, with the Nutella!!!
We really enjoyed this one too! Isn’t it great when you aren’t particularly excited about a recipe but end up loving it? I didn’t find the dough any more difficult to work with than most pastry dough either. I might have just jinxed myself for the next time I make these! Yours look beautiful – I LOVE the nutella version; why didn’t I think of that?
Those look out of this world! Glad these worked so well for you. Even though mine were ugly, I think the cottage cheese made a nice, tender dough.
Those might be the cutest pufflets I’ve seen yet. They look wonderful, and I’m so glad you loved them! I thought they were pretty good – especially straight from the oven.
Those look great, Tracey! I keep going back and forth, trying to decide whether to make these or not. Now I’m leaning toward yes again. =)
I think a lot of people had your reaction at first but I’m so glad we got to bake these!
The extra flour is what makes these manageable. Glad you enjoyed them.
your pufflets actually puffed!!! i am so impressed! mine were very flat, but oh-so-yum
Great job on the pufflets. They came out beautifully. Nutella was a grate idea (great minds, tracey, grate minds.
Yay! Your puffs look great. I thought the dough was not too bad to work with if I kept it chilled and a well floured counter. I didn’t really have issues, but I could tell when it was getting sticky. I did a bunch of different things, and debated Nutella, but didn’t. Now I wish I would have!
I’m so glad you liked them. They were a pain, I admit.
Your pictures look fantastic! I love how cute and puffy these are. Mine didn’t really puff and I’m guess it was because they leaked so badly.
Thanks for baking along this week 🙂
they are adorable, would love to try one!
I’m so upset I didn’t make these! They look great- and you’re right, this is exactly the reason why I joined too! I don’t even remember seeing this recipe in the book, but it seems like a serious winner! Gorgeous job!