Do shops know food better or should we make our own? Let's make this puff pastry to see if buying or making is worth our time!
Course Dessert
Cuisine Sugar free recipe
Prep Time 1 hourhour30 minutesminutes
Cook Time 30 minutesminutes
Total Time 2 hourshours
Ingredients
Beginner
4cupsFlour
3teaspoonsSalt
½cupWater
8ozButtercold
Advanced
4cupsFlour
3teaspoonsSalt
1cupWater
8ozButtercold
Overkill
4cupsFlour
3teaspoonsSalt
1cupWater
1teaspoonFresh yeast
8ozButtercold
Instructions
Beginner - Fortune pastry
Measure flour, salt, butter water into a kneading bowl or kneading surface.
Knead them together by hand or with a kneading machine. We are after a crumbly rough texture so don't go watching Netflix, it's just a minute or less.
Form a ball.
Roll it out to a square, wrap it up and put it into the fridge for half an hour until the butter chills back.
Take it out of the fridge, roll it out to desired size and use it as desired. Keep in mind that the butter shouldn't be incorporated with the flour. If no pieces of butter are visible in the dough, it means we overdid the kneading and this puff pastry most likely never do anything flaky. It will be nice as a shortbread cookie though.
Advanced - Traditional Puff pastry
Measure flour, water, salt and knead it until a uniform texture dough forms.
Roll the dough out to a square. Size doesn't really matter but in this case it is about a 7" / 18cm dough.
On a parchment paper measure out the slab of butter we are about to fill into our dough. We need about half the size of the rolled out dough which in this case 4" / 10cm.
Wrap it up tightly then with a rolling pin roll the separate slabs into one. Mind to keep the parchment paper in shape. It's a bit tricky but doable.
Place the butter onto the dough, rotated by a quarter turn.
Wrap the butter by folding the opposite corners of the dough on each other. (If the butter sticks to the parchment paper because it warmed up, wrap it back and put it into the fridge to chill for 15 - 30 minutes.)
Flip the dough, flour both sides and roll it out to a 12"x 6" / 30cm x 15cm rectangle. The butter may need a bit of gentle whacking and nudging but it will get there.
Fold the top side of the dough down to the middle then fold the bottom side of the dough up to the middle. The two sides should meet at the middle now.
Fold the dough onto itself at the middle where the two edges meet. It's a pretty arduous technique but French do it this way, so This, is the way.
Wrap the dough into something that prevents it to dry out and put it into the fridge for half an hour to cool off.
Roll the dough again into a 12"x 6" / 30cm x 15cm rectangle. Luckily, one of the sides are already done so we only have to work on matching it with the other.
Now comes the second folding technique the single fold. Mark the dough into 3 parts then fold 2/3 of the dough to the 1/3 mark.
Fold 1/3 of the dough over the two third. It sounds more difficult than it looks.
Wrap the dough up and let it cool off in the fridge another 30 minutes.
Roll the dough out and use it as desired.
Overkill - Croissant
Measure flour, water, salt, yeast and knead it until a uniform texture dough forms.
Cover the dough and place it to a 68°F – 81°F /20°C – 27°C corner to double for 45 - 90 minutes.
Roll the dough out to a square. Size doesn't really matter but in this case it is about a 7" / 18cm dough.
On a parchment paper measure out the slab of butter we are about to fill into our dough. We need about half the size of the rolled out dough which in this case 4" / 10cm.
Wrap it up tightly then with a rolling pin roll the separate slabs into one. Mind to keep the parchment paper in shape. It's a bit tricky but doable.
Place the butter onto the dough, rotated by a quarter turn.
Wrap the butter by folding the opposite corners of the dough on each other. (If the butter sticks to the parchment paper because it warmed up, wrap it back and put it into the fridge to chill for 15 - 30 minutes.)
Flip the dough, flour both sides and roll it out to a 12"x 6" / 30cm x 15cm rectangle. The butter may need a bit of gentle whacking and nudging but it will get there.
Fold the top side of the dough down to the middle then fold the bottom side of the dough up to the middle. The two sides should meet at the middle now.
Fold the dough onto itself at the middle where the two edges meet. It's a pretty arduous technique but French do it this way, so This, is the way.
Wrap the dough into something that prevents it to dry out and put it into the fridge for half an hour to cool off.
Roll the dough again into a 12"x 6" / 30cm x 15cm rectangle. Luckily, one of the sides are already done so we only have to work on matching it with the other.
Now comes the second folding technique the single fold. Mark the dough into 3 parts then fold 2/3 of the dough to the 1/3 mark.
Fold 1/3 of the dough over the two third. It sounds more difficult than it looks.
Wrap the dough up and let it cool off in the fridge another 30 minutes.