Puff Pastry
Puff pastry, also referred to as
"pâte feuilletée," is a light, flaky pastry containing several layers
of dough which is in solid state at 20 °C (68 °F). Puff pastry is a laminated
dough (a culinary preparation consisting of many thin layers of dough separated
by butter, produced by repeated folding and rolling) which is composed of
butter and dough.
Making puff pastry at home is a
time taking process and you need to be patient, it requires a lot of
refrigeration, a lot of rolling and folding. But this also ensures that you have the best and pure ingredients as compared to the market available products because they might use margarine or any other kind of fat in place of butter.
Puff Pastry is great to have in
home to make quick party appetizers or sweets treats. Only making the pastry is time taking, post that it is very quick and easy to make items such as baked samosa, veg puffs, veg patties and many more sweet dishes which are very pricey in the bakeries. I tried it and it came
out awesome. You can try different fillings sweet or savory with these pastries.
Ingredients
- 225g (1cup/8oz.) all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 250g of chilled butter
- 150ml of cold water
Method
The Dough
- Sift the flour into a bowl on a cool work surface, add the salt and 50gm of butter and mix well
- Now add a little water at a time
to get it together make sure dough is not too dry
- Make a round ball with the dough
and cover in a plastic and refrigerate for about 30 minutes
The Butter Block
- Now take the rest of the butter
and sprinkle some all-purpose flour and knead it to make a square shape and cover
in a plastic and refrigerate for about 30 minutes
Pastry Making
- After 30 min take the dough out and lightly flour your work surface roll it out with the help of rolling pin and make the corners like x-shaped but leave the center little bit thick from the corners
- Take the butter square out from
refrigerator and put in the middle of the dough and cover with the dough as
shown in the picture
- Now lightly tap the top of the
pastry with a rolling pin to seal the edges and to enlarge and flatten the
square. Start to roll out the pastry and after every two rolls, pick it up and
flip it and sprinkle some flour to stop it from sticking to the surface
- Roll the pastry out to a
rectangular shape about 6-7 inches brush off any excess flour fold the pastry making
each side half the distance between opposite corners of the dough as in
picture, the corners folded into the center so they meet and cover the join, refrigerate
for 30 minutes
- Again take out and roll out the pastry into a long rectangle fold into thirds refrigerate for 30 minutes
- Repeat this process of rolling and folding and refrigerating again for 2 more times
- When you’ve finished wrap it in
pastry and chill it for at least another 30 minutes before you’re going to use
it
Storage
- Puff Pastry Dough can be stored in the refrigerator for 3-4 days, and in the freezer it can be stored for about 2 months
