Jump to content
  • Welcome to the eG Forums, a service of the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters. The Society is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the culinary arts. These advertising-free forums are provided free of charge through donations from Society members. Anyone may read the forums, but to post you must create a free account.

Making Escargot


Jean Blanchard

Recommended Posts

They're called Escargot aux Raisins or Pain aux Raisins.

Dorie Greenspan has a recipe in "Baking, From My Home to Yours" on p. 56. She calls them Brioche Raisin Snails.

I've seen them made with danish, brioche, and even puff pastry, but I think danish is the most common dough. You could probably get away with a simple cinnamon roll dough.

The distinguishing characteristic of Escargot aux Raisins is the use of pastry creme (and raisins, of course) as filling.

I especially like them filled with (rum-soaked) currants, (chopped, roasted) walnuts, pecans or pistachios, shredded coconut, and pastry creme.

Here's an online recipe and tutorial (in French, but easy enough to translate).

Rose Levy Beranbaum has a recipe that's similar, but uses Remonce (almond cream filling) instead of the usual pastry creme. It uses danish dough. It's in the Pie & Pastry Bible, p. 502, "Danish Snail Buns".

gallery_25933_6761_130882.jpg

Edited by fooey (log)

Fooey's Flickr Food Fotography

Brünnhilde, so help me, if you don't get out of the oven and empty the dishwasher, you won't be allowed anywhere near the table when we're flambeéing the Cherries Jubilee.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There's a book called "Baking Artisan Bread" by Ciril Hitz which has a croissant formula I made last weekend. One of the variations he suggests is a hazelnut or almond snail, in which the croissant dough is spread with a ground nut/sugar/corn syrup paste, rolled up, sliced and baked. Would be pretty easy to add raisins to this, although he doesn't suggest the traditional pastry cream filling.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When I was in pastry class we made these and called them brioche royale. It was brioche dough rolled out, spread with pastry cream and sprinkled with raisins, then rolled up, sliced and baked.

There is a recipe for snail rolls in Raymond Calvel's Taste of Bread that uses croissant dough to make something similar. He also calls them "schneckes". Calvel also has a recipe for brioche royale which is similar to what I described, but he uses candied fruit in place of raisins.

The brioche royale that I have made is indeed very tasty.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I make them using Nigella's food processor danish dough (easist dough for homemade croissants, pan au chocolat etc).

I think they's be even better with a proper laminated croissant dough ... but that usually takes much longer and more effort!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

The standard French way to make a pain aux raisins is with a classic pâte levée feueilletée (croissant dough) but as mentioned there are some lovely variations with brioche. Then you just need bog standard crème pâtissière and raisins.

Here is a snap taken before rolling:

temp2.jpg

(Photo taken from a post on pains aux raisins here on my old blog.)

I haven not made these since I was at school but a few tips I can remember:

- Don't roll the sausage too tightly. This would prevent the yeast from rising as wanted.

- Make sure the sausage is well chilled before slicing to avoid sealing the leaves of pastry.

- Try macerating the raisins before use. Rum, tea or similar.

- You can see in the photo the bottom inch or so has not been spread with cream. This is to help seal the sausage. The sausage is rolled from the furthest point towards the body so this uncreamed patch of pastry is what will make the joint.

- You can seal by dampening this uncreamed margin. Another way is to flatten this section with a small palette knife, working it into the work surface. The fat which emerges helps fix the seal.

- When chilling the sausage before slicing, ensure the seam is lowermost. This helps reinforce the joint.

I hope that might be of use to somebody.

R

===================================================

I kept a blog during my pâtisserie training in France: Candid Cake

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...