W
e all know the fable called “The three little pigs”, right? “I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll huff and I’ll puff…” and so on, the big bad wolf said many times – and what happened? He ended in the cauldron of boiling water, that’s what! Well, in this video no pigs or wolves will be hurt, but there IS going to be some serious huffing and puffing, because – today we are making puff pastry!
Now, let me tell you something about it. As usual in gastronomy, we can’t be a 100% sure about the origin and history of a dish and that is also the case with the puff pastry. Puff pastry seems to be related to the Middle Eastern phyllo and is used in a similar manner to create layered pastries. Some sources ascribe it to the 17th century French painter and cook Claude Lorrain, but other think that the predecessor of today’s puff pastry is a simple meal consisting of thin sheets of dough spread with olive oil from the medieval region of Muslim Spain – that is where Spain and Portugal are today. Interestingly enough, chef Domingo Hernández de Maceras, a head cook of the University of Salamanca, Spain, published, in 1607, a book called Libro del arte de cozina (Book on the art of cooking) and there we can find a first known recipe for modern puff pastry – using butter or lard!
Before you start, you need to learn how to make laminated dough. Now, let me remind you that puff pastry is one of three main types of laminated dough. The other two are croissant pastry and Danish pastry.
OK, so let’s get back to huffing and puffing! First – you have to roll out your dough not once or twice, but five times! A few huffs and puffs there, I guess! Also, there will be some puffing in the oven, when the butter in your puff meets the heat, and finally, when every nook and cranny of your kitchen is filled with the divine smell of freshly baked puff pastry you will wolf it down so fast that at the end you will be huffing and puffing again, but this time-in a good way! So, enough with the word play, let’s get busy and make that puff pastry!
Puff Pastry Recipe
by:Tereza Alabanda,The Pastry Maestra
PRINT PDF (EN) ISPIŠI PDF (HR)Prep. time : 60 minutes
Ready in 90 minutes
Level : Advanced
Ingredients:- All purpose flour 340g (12oz)
- Water 150g (5.3oz)
- Salt 8g (2Tsp)
- Butter melted 75g (2.6oz)
- Cold butter 250g (8.8oz) (at least 82% fat)
- Mix flour, water, salt and melted butter, make the dough, wrap it in a plastic foil and chill it.
- Prepare the butter – put some flour on the surface and a piece of cold butter on the top. Sprinkle with some more flour and beat with your rolling pin until flattened. Work the butter so it stays cold but manageable and shape it in the form of the rectangle. The butter should be the same consistency as the dough.
- On a lightly floured surface roll the dough into the shape of the rectangle, double the size than the one made of butter. Use a brush to clean any excess flour from the dough.
- Place the butter rectangle in the center of the dough and fold the rest of the dough over the butter, so it covers the butter completely. The dough should look like an envelope.
- Press the dough with rolling pin carefully and roll it slowly in one direction without rotating it on the surface, so the butter spreads evenly inside the dough.
- Fold the dough into thirds (this is called single turn) and rotate it for 90°, so the seamless side is to your left. Roll the dough again maintaining the shape of a regular rectangle, brush the excess flour and make one more turn.
- Cover the dough and put it in the refrigerator for 15-20 minutes to chill.
- Repeat the rolling, brushing and folding until you make five single turns in total. Chill the dough well before shaping and baking. You can freeze it, but you have to use it within 2-3 months.
Copyright© PastryMaestra.comTM
So, you have made your very first puff pastry and it wasn’t that scary, was it? Now leave it in the fridge, preferably overnight and take a well-deserved break. Tomorrow is another day, and I predict that it will be filled with a wonderful smell from your oven..? Don’t forget to tell me all about it!
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