Potato Onion Pithivier
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First of all, let’s get the pronunciation out of the way. For Americans, it’s Pi-tiv-e-a. Once you sound it out, you’ll be ready to eat and enjoy this Potato Onion Pitivier. But first, you have to make it!
A Pithivier is a rustic but slightly upscale potato pie made with rough puff pastry, potatoes cooked in cream and lightly caramelized onions. The potatoes and onions are pre-cooked and then married together with salt, pepper and nutmeg in the beautiful, flaky pastry shell. This one was served with a Roquefort cheese sauce which is delicious and gives the dish a lot of flavor.
Pastry Week 2023
The bakes for Pastry Week 2023 were all intriguing to me, how about you?
- Signature Bake: Individual Picnic Pies, made those a year or two ago (pork pies)
- Technical Bake: Dauphinoise Pithiver with Roquefort Sauce
- Showstopper Bake: 3 Sweet Crust Pies highly decorated with a theme binding them together
We had to go to go with the Pithivier, right? I mean rough puff pastry, potatoes, onions and creamy blue cheese sauce? Yes, Please!
What I thought of this bake
I think the filling, as described in the original recipe, is bland. I ended up salting the potatoes. Maybe the potatoes in France are more tasty than our waxy yellow potatoes? I don’t know! But taste your potatoes before layering them in the pie. Add more salt if needed.
I feel like it would have been outstanding if it had some cheese layered into the filling. And skip the cheese sauce. Or use the cheese AND put cheese in the filling.
Other pastry week faves
We’ve done a few other pastry weeks that I enjoyed such as these Religieuse and the Puits ‘d Amor. We have even made Vols au Vont shells. And who could forget the Pain au Raisin! Those were fun, this one is fun, and I love a good savory bake.
What you need to make this Pithivier
- flour
- salt
- cold butter
- cold water
- frozen butter
- pepper
- egg
- nutmeg
- yellow potatoes
- onion
- garlic
- Roquefort or blue cheese
- milk
- heavy cream
- tarragon
- baking sheet
- knife, pastry brush, bowl, strainer
- cheese grater
- heavy bottom Dutch oven
ABOUT THAT PUFF PASTRY
You can swap out the portion of this recipe where you make Rough Puff Pastry with 2 full sheets for Pepperidge Farms Puff Pastry. Yes making your own is part of the recipe and experience but swapping out for store-bought means its easier to make this dish.
How to fold puff pastry or rough puff pastry when rolling it out
You can “Book Fold” OR “Letter Fold” your puff pastry dough when rolling it out. Here’s a diagram of it, ignore the measurements, just look at the folds!
If you have leftovers
A pithivier is best served warm while the cripsy pastry is still flaky and delicious. Once it’s cooled, it’s not as good, and the pastry will begin to get soggy. But if you have leftovers store them in an airtight container, like Pyrex.
Potato Pithivier
Ingredients
Potato Filling
- 1 2/3 pound yellow potatoes
- 1 1/4 cups heavy cream
- 1 1/4 cups milk
- 2 TBSP minced garlic
- 1 tsp salt more as needed, taste your filling bofre baking and add more as needed
- 1 TBSP light olive oil
- 3 TBSP butter
- 1 cup thinly sliced onion
- 2 pinches nutmeg
- 2 TBSP unsalted butter
- pepper
Rough Puff Pastry
- 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 4 1/2 TBSP cold butter
- 11 1/4 TBSP frozen butter
- 2/3 cup cold water
- 1 egg
Blue Cheese Sauce
- 3/4 TBSP butter
- 1 1/4 TBSP all-purpose flour
- 9 1/2 TBSP Roquefort or Blue Cheese
- 2 TBSP fresh tarragon chopped
Instructions
to make the potato filling
- wash and thinly slice the potatoes, leave the skins on
- warm the heavy cream, milk, and garlic together in a heavy bottom dutch oven
- add the potatoes to the cream mixture, and cook just until the potatoes are fork tender
- meanwhile heat the oil and butter together in a skillet, and begin to cook the onions
- when the potatoes are cooked lift them out of the cream mixture and drain them, reserve the cream mixture
- lay the potatoes on a pan in a single layer and sprinkle them with the 1 tsp salt cool them until ready to use, taste and add more salt as needed
- cook the onions until they just start to carmelize and then set aside to cool
to make the rough puff pastry
- whisk the flour and salt together
- chop the cold butter into the flour and then work it into the flour with your hands
- once the flour looks like crumbs add JUST enough of the water to the flour to hold the dough together
- roll the dough into a 5×15 inch rectangle
- grate half of the frozen butter over the dough
- fold each side of the dough together to the center of the dough, then fold the whole thing in half— this is the book fold, this graphic shows you how to do it, ignore the measurements just look at the folds
- then rotate the dough 90° and roll it into another 5×15 inch rectanglehere's another diagram of folding dough, this is the letter fold
- grate the remaining frozen butter over the rectangle of dough
- repeat the book fold again, then wrap the dough and freeze it for 15 minutes
- repeat the roll out and fold as above but without the butter
- wrap the dough and freeze it for 15 minutes
assemble the Pithivier
- remove the dough from the freezer and divide it into 2/5s and 3/5s, wrap and chill the 3/5s piece of dough
- roll the 2/5s piece of dough out until you can cut a 10-inch circle out of the dough
- line a baking sheet with parchment and lay the 10-inch circle of dough on the parchment
- IMPORTANT taste the filling before adding it to the bottom crust-put one layer of chilled potatoes, onions, salt, pepper, and grated nutmeg on the potatoes, leave a one inch rim of dough uncovered
- repeat the layers of the potatoes making a dome with a 1-inch ring of uncovered dough
- place the baking tray with the potato dome into the fridge to chill
- roll the remaining dough out to an 11 1/4-inch circle
- beat the egg with a TBSP of water
- remove the baking sheet from the fridge and lay the circle over the top of the potatoes
- use a pastry brush and brush egg over a short area of the 1-inch rim of unfilled dough, press the top crust dough and pinch it together
- repeat around the pie, easing the top crust down and fitting it together
- scallop the edge of the pie, press 2 fingers on the outside of the dough and one finger on the inside to crimp it all the way around
- knock up the edge by then pressing the scallop up so it stands upright
- brush the whole top of the pie with the egg wash
- at the very top of the dome cut a vent hole to let out steam
- then use a paring knife to gently score the dough down from the circle to the the scalloped edge
- refrigerate 30 minutes
- meanwhile preheat the oven to 400°
- once chilled bake for 40-45 minutes until baked, browned, and crispy
make the sauce
- meanwhile make the sauce if you're using it
- melt the butter and flour together an cook over low hear for 3 minutes to cook the flour
- strain the cooking cream and slowly add enough of the strained liquid to make a thick sauce, cook and stir to keep it lump-free
- crumble the cheese and melt it into the sauce
- add tarragon and pepper to taste
- when the pie is done serve it hot, move it to a cutting board to slice and serve it with the sauce if using
