Day 23: Jalousie, Pithivier

Ahh... This day was one of my favorite puff pastry days! Actually, most of the puff pastry days were my favorites! =) Anyway, the Jalousie and the Pithivier were both uber scrumptious! And both have juicy, scandalous back stories to go along too!

The Jalousie, which supposedly means a slatted blind is named accordingly because it looks like a slatted blind! The story goes that a baker/pastry chef had a suspicion that his wife was cheating on him, so he would try to peek through a slatted blind to see if he could catch her cheating... Well, when you look into our slatted blind pastry you won't find a cheating wife, but you will find almond cream and raspberry jam! The combo was pretty good!















Now for the Pithivier, supposedly there was a king who wanted to go meet with his mistress, so he disguised himself as a commoner. On his way to see his mistress, he was kidnapped by a gang and they brought him back to their town - Pithivier (in Orlean, Fance)! Well, when they got back to the town, they realized that they had the king!!! Oh no! And so, to make the king feel better, they made him this wonderful treat so that he won't throw them in the dungeon (or something like that)... Okay, I don't really remember all the details, but you get the gist of the story. Anyway, this one is also called a "Twelfth Night" cake served on the Epiphany. They can be baked with a whole nut hidden in it and whoever gets the nut gets to be the King/Queen for the day - fun!