December 2015 Daring Bakers' Challenge: Gateaux Pithiviers

This time of year, I go into high gear when it comes to baking. I have quite the to-do list because I really like making cookies for Christmas: sugar cookies, gingerbread men/women, pizzelles, krumkake, etc. Needless to say, this can make getting my December Daring Bakers' challenge a bit to get around to, no matter how excited I am to complete the challenge. This year was no exception! Here I am on the 27th and just now finished the monthly challenge.

This month's challenge definitely required some planning and some upper body strength! We had to make our own puff pastry, which is time consuming because it requires quite a bit of resting/cooling time, and rolling out cold dough gives my various arm/torso muscle groups a lovely workout. Can't complain when baking causes muscle soreness!!

The gateaux pithivier is basically a frangipane (sweet almond-based paste) sandwich that has puff pastry instead of bread. :)

Because my creation is currently cooling, I can't tell you how it tastes yet, but it sure is pretty!! I'm thrilled with how my puff pastry's layers turned out. Their lamination makes me quite happy, I must say!! I even made cinnamon sugar twists with the leftover puff pastry. Whee!!

Thanks to the Daring Bakers' community for another fun challenge that added a new recipe to my "been there, done that" baking checklist.

For the month of December, Kat challenged us to make Gateaux Pithiviers.