Happy 2014! I’m kicking off the new year making my second favorite pastry dough, puff pastry. It loses out to pate a choux for the sole reason that it takes SO LONG to make. I’m specifically talking about inactive time, which may not sound bad but when it is in intervals, 2 hours each x 4 in this particular recipe, you really need a day at home for this project. Perfect snowed-in activity.
Here is my “turn” table with all the puff pastry-making necessities:
1. Bench flour- It is important that the dough does not stick to the board. If it snags and tears it will ruin the layers you’ve created.
2. Pastry brush- I have two types of brushes, one for buttering pans and another for working with dough. Having this distinction just makes baking life a bit easier because I know I’ll always have a super clean, oil-free brush. The dry brush here helps when I’m making the book folds/tri-folds. I like to brush off excess flour so the layers adhere better.
3. French rolling pin- This is just personal preference. I find it is the perfect balance between the tapered and the rolling with handles but to each his own.
Morning sun shining brightly as I begin my first turn of the day.
This recipe has a total inactive time of 24 hours which includes two overnight chills so it is a 3-day process. It’s worth it trust me! Nothing is difficult about the technique, it just requires planning and scheduling.
DAY 1 Preparing the Components: In the evening, I made the butter block and ball of dough and chilled them both overnight.
DAY 2 Turns: I found the dough to be very elastic so I had to really use some muscle to manipulate it. The Bouchon Bakery cookbook provides dimensions for both the butter block and rolled out dough. However when I went to wrap the butter, envelope style the dough wasn’t large enough so I had to roll it thinner. Be careful if you do this because if it is too thin, it will be more prone to tearing and butter will seep through when you go to do your turns.
Between each turn there is a 2-hour chill time. This allows the butter to firm up in the newly made layers. I did have some tearing because of the thinner dough. I was more delicate with rolling in those areas. If you find that its getting too difficult, put the dough back in the fridge to chill before rolling again.
After the fifth turn, I chilled the dough till the next day. I love the trick of having vinegar in the dough to keep it from oxidizing and turning grey. Great tip!
DAY 3 Sheeting:
If you don’t plan to use the dough right away, the nice thing is you can freeze it. I like to sheet the dough first so it is easier to defrost and use when I need it. To sheet the dough, I divided it in to 3 portions and rolled each one out the size of a half sheet pan (11 x 17″). I stacked them on the sheet pan with parchment paper in between and froze the stack.
I did have a little trouble with the dough being elastic and bouncing back when sheeting. I simply put the rolled out dough back into the fridge to let it relax, took it back and and rolled again.
I know I’ve stressed that it takes a bit of time to make this dough but it really is so much better than store-bought puff pastry, not that what you buy is bad, but I find that the dough is more flaky when it’s homemade. It shatters just perfectly when you bite into it.
Week 58 of the Bouchon Bakery Book Project
Read the Project recap on Puff Pastry
Bake with us!
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