Puff pastry - recipe

This is a staple recipe, that everyone should try at least once in their life: the puff pastry. It's a bit difficult to describe, but with Sonia's tips you can cook it yourself! Find this and many more recipes on the Giallozafferano App in English http://itunes.apple.com/app/giallozafferano-recipes/id384387249?mt=8

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Today we'll use a few simple ingredients to make quite an elaborate recipe, that in my opinion everyone should try at least once in their life: the puff pastry.
For the dough (détrempe):
• 1 cup (250 ml) of water
• 1 1/3 tsp (8 g) of salt
• 1 cup (150 g) of bread flour
• 1 ½ cups (200 g) of all-purpose flour
For the butter block (beurrage):
• ½ cup (75 g) of all-purpose flour
• 2 1/5 sticks (250 g) of butter
Now, we'll make the dough: I'll use a stand mixer with paddle attachment, but if you don't have it you can knead by hand. First of all, keep in mind that puffy pastry is best handled at cold temperatures, so you need a fresh place. Take the fresh water, and dissolve the salt in it, combine and sift the flours, and add to the mixer. Then pour in the water in a thin stream and knead the dough for about 8-10 minutes, until smooth and even. Beat at medium speed. When the dough comes off the sides of the bowl, you can take it out. Sprinkle just a pinch of flour on the work surface, the texture should be quite soft, softer than bread dough. If the dough is too sticky, use a pastry scraper and add a pinch of flour. Now place it on a plate, cover with a cloth and let it rest for at least ½ hour, to relax the gluten so the dough won't shrink back when rolled out. While the dough is resting in a fresh place, move on to the butter block, so take the butter, which is neither at room temperature nor straight from the fridge, cut into cubes and place in the bowl of the mixer, with paddle attachment. Then add ½ cup (75 g) of sifted flour and beat until you have an even mixture, with no lumps. And here's our butter block, it's pretty sticky, so flour your hands and the work surface, and form it into a square or rectangle, take 2 sheets of parchment paper, place the butter block in the middle, cover with the other sheet of parchment paper and, with a rolling pin, roll it out to a thickness of ½ inch (1 cm); after that, keep the butter block on the lowest, and coldest, shelf of the fridge for at least ½ hour. Take a pastry board, slightly floured, and place the dough on it, now roll it out into a rectangle, 10 inches wide (25 cm) by 20 inches (50 cm) long. Do not move the rolling pin only back and forth, but also in a diagonal motion to roll the dough as evenly as possible and form a perfect rectangle. When the dough has been rolled out into an even rectangle, take the butter block, place it in the middle and enclose it in the dough. Now sprinkle some flour on top and gently tap with the rolling pin to make the butter block more pliable. Then roll out the pastry again into a rectangle of the same size as before. Now it's time to make the so-called folds: you may find a 3-fold or a 4-fold puff pastry recipe. What's the 3-fold method? Fold the bottom third over the centre, and the top third down to cover. As you can see, there are 3 layers of pastry. In our recipe we'll make a 4-fold: fold one end not towards the centre, but one third of the way in, more or less, do the same with the other end, leave some space in the middle or it won't fold well, then fold everything over: as you can see, there are 4 layers. So, a 3-fold means that there are 3 layers, while a 4-fold makes 4 layers. After the first fold, make an indentation with a fingertip, to remind you that one fold has been made. Then take the pastry, place it on a tray, cover with cling film and keep in the fridge for at least ½ hour. After ½ hour, take the pastry out of the fridge and place it with the short side towards you and the seam on your right-hand. Now take the rolling pin, sprinkle some flour and roll it out again, exactly as before. It's crucial that you keep the pastry in the fridge well covered, in this way it won't dry out or crack when you roll it out. Here we are, the pastry is rolled, so fold it again: fold in one side, fold in the other side, leave about ½ inch between them, then fold it over in half; press 2 fingertips into the pastry, because 2 folds have been made. Then return the pastry to the tray, cover well and keep in the fridge for ½ hour more. Here we are, after ½ hour we're ready to fold it for the third time: the procedure is the same as before. So let it rest for ½ more, then we'll fold it for the fourth and last time. Finally, it's time for the last fold: proceed in the same way, and fold it for the fourth time. Now the puff pastry is ready: before using, keep it in the fridge for at least an hour, still covered. If you're not going to use it after such time, you can freeze it and thaw it out when you need it. It wasn't so difficult, was it? Just a little bit complicated!

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• puff pastry
• puff
• flaky
• flaky pastry
• dough
• detrempe
• butter
• block
• beurrage
• pate brisee
• flour
• French
• homemade
• turn
• fold
• staple
• basic
• recipe
• giallozafferano
• yellowsaffron

[siapada]

can i just using all purpose flour instead bread flour ? coz its kinda hard to find bread flour in my region

[yellowsaffron]

@siapada You need a flour with a high gluten content (with more proteins), maybe in your country you can find it under other names (manitoba, strong flour...), otherwise the dough will crack while rolling it out!

[conishuaa]

I want to try this so hard!! There is a lot of desserts that use puff pastry as a base, but please tell me: what can I do If I don't have bread flour?

can I use margarine?

THANKS

[yellowsaffron]

@conishuaa You definitely need a flour with a high gluten content (with more proteins), maybe in your country you can find it under other names (manitoba, strong flour...)... otherwise the dough won't be elastic and it will crack while rolling it out!

[conishuaa]

@yellowsaffron I will try to look for the bread flour but what abo

ut the margarine? can I use it?

[yellowsaffron]

@conishuaa Yes, you can use it as a substitute for butter, but the latter is always a better choice, in my opinion

[dij02]

u should use a pastry flour because it's lighter i think...i use pastry flour instead of bread flour for puff pastries and bread flour for croissants....

[dij02]

@conishuaa u can use margarine but if u do use margarine then u have to use bread flour because of the oils from the margarine...just add 4tbs of wheat gluten additive(found in the baking aisle) to a cup of all purpose flour...

[dij02]

@siapada look in the same aisle you find the flour and look for a wheat gluten...it comes in a small box for like 2.00...it sometimes just say gluten on it but when u see it u will kno what it is...add 4 tbs to a cup of all purpose flour and you'll have bread flour...

[GoldfishLight]

the music is strangely nostalgic O.o

[GoldfishLight]

She actually looks younger with that haircut