Come for the recipe; stay for the story!
Video Tutorial: Here
8 oz AP flour (1 3/4 cu)
about 1/2 tsp salt
6-8oz buter, COLD, cut into 3/4-1" cubes (12-16 tbls)
4 oz cold water (1/2 cu)
1. Toss your flour, salt, and butter cubes in a bowl until butter is completely coated with flour.
2. Sprinkle a little water into the mixture and stir. Continue the adding and stirring process until you have used all the water.
3. Once the water is incorporated, dump mixture onto table and gather dough (at this point you shouldn't have a dough formed already, it will kind of look like a shaggy, chunky mess!)
4. Fold and push down the dough until gathered into one piece (this will be a short process, it took me 4 times of folding and pressing to make it fully gathered. Also note, you are folding and pushing, not kneading like you would with bread dough, in order to preserve the chunkiness of the butter.)
5. Using a rolling pin, press down on dough a little at a time to help gently flatten it.
6. Once dough has been gently flattened, roll dough into a rectangle making sure to keep your corners as squared as possible. It helps to roll from the middle of the dough down to the bottom and then rotate 90 degrees and repeat.
7. Once your dough is about 1/2" thick you will do your first "turn." You are going to fold your dough like you would a letter. Take the bottom of the dough and fold it up to the middle, and then take the top of the dough and bring it down to cover the other half of the dough.
8. Refrigerate dough. This is the tricky part. You want the dough to be cold enough that when you roll it again the butter isn't just smearing, but not so cold that the butter breaks instead of rolls. It's a tricky balance, but since at this point your butter is pretty obvious you can gently press on it and see how soft/hard it is.
9. Once your dough is cold enough to roll, roll it into a 1/2" thick rectangle again and do another "turn" (letter fold). You will repeat this process until your dough has been folded 6 times total.
10. Once your dough has been folded a total of 6 times, you can use it as desired! It will stay good wrapped in the refrigerator for a few days or in the freezer for 6-12 months. Bake it at a high temperature (400-425F) until golden brown and then lower the temperature (375-350F) and continue baking until it's dried all the way through usually another 20 or so minutes depending on how thick your dough is. This quick puff is good for some puff pastry uses, but if you need your puff to raise perfectly even, you will want to use a classic puff pastry and NOT this quick puff pastry. Because the butter is added randomly throughout the mixing process, you cannot ensure that your layers will be perfectly even like you would through the more classic method.
Firstly, this is super exiting because it's another BONUS BLOG, but it's also exciting because this is officially my 10th blog post! If you've followed along since the beginning, we've made it to double digits together! Yay us!
Puff pastry can be super scary, but hopefully through this post and the video tutorial this quick puff wont be as scary. Pastry is very technical, but as long as you allow yourself to follow the technique and see the beauty in the process, you will succeed! And you know what success in pastry brings? DELICIOUS results!
I'll be honest, when I was in pastry school, I really didn't like anything about puff pastry. I didn't like making it. I didn't like eating it. I didn't like being graded on it. But I think it has grown on me over the years. I actually kind of like it now. Both it's crispy, flakiness, and of course it's buttery goodness!
One of the great things about puff pastry is its versatility. Because the dough itself is relatively neutral you can use it for so many different things! You can make fruit turnovers with it, and then top with egg wash and coarse sugar before baking. Or you can make more savory turnovers with things like spinach, cheese, mushrooms, and even meat! (Make sure that any fillings have been fully cooked and excess liquid has been removed before using in puff pastry to avoid the dreaded "soggy bottoms.") The possibilities are really endless! We are beginning "Tart week" with a classic French dessert-Tarte Tatin, so this is what we will be using our puff pastry for. Super exiting!
The history of puff pastry is the classic story of not only necessity being the mother of all invention, but also that it's true that you are never too young to have brilliant ideas! In 1645, Claudius Gele was finishing up his pastry apprenticeship. His father had been put on a very strict diet, and Claudius wanted to make a bread for his father that fell within the parameters of his diet. The baker warned Claudius that his dough, which had butter folded into it, wasn't going to work. His theory was that the butter would just melt out and be a greasy mess. Much to the baker's surprise, it didn't, and instead they arrived to a loaf with flaky layers.
Later, Claudius began working at a patisserie and took his invention there with him. He was able to perfect the process so that we have the puff pastry we still eat today. Of course, true to most history, he didn't get the glory for his delicious invention, the brothers that owned the patisserie did. We all know the truth though, and as they say, the rest is history!
https://joepastry.com/2008/puff_pastry_history_the_french_version/
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