The Leaf Pie's Cousin - "Firewood" Pie

Another goodie from Osaka: Maki Pie by Rikurou Ojisan no Mise (Uncle Rikurou's Shop) at Namba, Osaka.

I love it when foods are named the way you would title pieces of art! It just enhances my appreciation of it so much more. Maki literally means firewood, and if you take a look at the shape, it's obvious why it's so called. It's so apt because it reminds me of warmth from the hearth and fireside quality time... and it's also in line with the family-homey feel of the patisserie's name.
Each pack comes with two sticks.They are twisted evenly and do kinda look the way they are named - like twin pieces of firewood.
The grand total of five ingredients were as pure as you can get: wheat flour, butter, sugar, wine vinegar, and salt.

And they put a LOT of butter into it. As you bite into the crisp sticks, the flavour of butter kind of overwhelms your palette. Indeed, they used so much that you can see some buttery oil against the clear packaging. A downside is that some may find this too buttery... but it didn't come across that way to me. In fact, it was about as perfect as pie pastry could get.

Even the texture is perfect, with each of the many intricate layers sporting the same crispiness as the outer ones. The twisting effect is probably key to this amazing layering.
They were intricately and delicately layed all the way inside, an effect achieved by the twist.
The sugar also added to the crisp or crunch. I think most of the sugar was on the outside and they used very little of it in the pastry itself, so the sweetness was not overwhelming but just right.

Indeed, like firewood on fire, it kind of crackles in your mouth in a delicate and warm way. Highly recommended!

Found this puff interesting? Check out more unusual pastries here!

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