Feuilletine

By stancec44

I have no idea who invented feuilletine or when, its history evolved en francais. Jacques Torres (no surprise) championed it in America as far back as the mid 90s. Sometime in the early aughts, he used it in a baking demo I attended at CIA. I have no idea what he made, only that it contained the mystical feuilletine.

Back then, he recommended Rice Krispies as a substitute. Feuilletine and cereal do have a lot in common, though I think they favor Corn Flakes, if anything. Both are strangely compelling to eat by the handful, but cereal’s got nothin’ on feuilletine’s buttery, caramelized flavor.
Tasty as it is, feuilletine doesn’t constitute a dessert of its own. Instead, it shows up in recipes as an ingredient used to add textural contrast to otherwise creamy sweets. You’ll see it folded into mousse or stirred into ganache, or simply sprinkled between layers of cake and filling. I use it to accompany individual cheesecakes when I want a change from graham crackers, as a replacement for granola in parfait, or as a bed for a scoop of ice cream.

Feuilletine turns up frequently in professional recipes, but didn’t get mainstream attention until Christina Tosi put it in the spotlight. Even so, good luck finding it anywhere but online. I can order it through the restaurant but never bother. Making it myself means not only can I flavor each batch to suit the dessert I want to pair it with, but I can control the size of the flakes too. I’m partial to leaving some large “nuggets” in the mix.

Don’t freak out that this feuilletine recipe yields nearly 14 cups. If you’ve ever gone through a box of cereal, you know how quickly handfuls of light, flaky, crunchy morsels can disappear. Plus, it keeps incredibly well and is mighty convenient to have on hand to jazz up a plain scoop of ice cream for company.

Ingredients

• 4 1/2 ounces unsalted butter, room temperature
• 4 ounces brown sugar
• 1 Tablespoon baking soda
• 6 ounces molasses
• optional: vanilla bean, a teaspoon of your favorite spice or extract, orange zest, etc
• 1 egg
• 13 ounces flour, sifted (see note below for GF substitution)
• 2 ounces milk

Preparation

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 350° F and set aside two baking sheets lined with silicone mats.

Cream together the butter, brown sugar, baking soda and optional flavors (if any) with a hand or stand mixer until light and fluffy. Shut off the mixer, add in the molasses and beat for another minute at medium speed, then add in the egg.

(If you’ve decided to make a half batch, get a perfect “half egg” by cracking it into a small bowl set on a scale tared to zero. Take note of the weight, then beat with a fork for a minute and portion out half the weight of the egg.)

Scrape down the bowl with a rubber spatula and return to mixing at low speed. Next, add in the flour all at once, then drizzle in the milk. Mix only until uniform.

Put about 3 ounces of batter on each sheet pan. Use an offset spatula to spread it into an incredibly thin layer over the silicon mat. You want it paper thin, almost translucent in places.

If you don’t have a silicon mat, you can do this on parchment paper but it is not quite the same. It’s very difficult to spread the batter thinly enough over parchment, which tends to bunch up and wrinkle as you try to spread the batter. The baked feuilletine won’t release cleanly from the parchment and you wind up with a few good flakes and a lot of powdery crumbs.

Whether you have a silicon mat or opt for parchment, remember the thinner, the better. You want to wind up with razor thin flakes.

Once you’ve spread out the batter, bake for about 8 minutes, or until uniformly golden and firm to the touch. The feuilletine will be a little pliable while warm, so be sure to cool thoroughly before crumbling into pieces.

Keep spreading and baking until you use up all the batter. You don’t have to bake it off all at once, the batter will keep in the fridge a couple of days.

Store the cooled flakes in an airtight container; they are incredibly sensitive to humidity.

You can easily vary the recipe by adding vanilla bean paste, spices, extracts into the batter or by sprinkling cocoa nibs or ground nuts over the top before baking.