Puff Pastry

A block of butter folded into dough until there are hundreds of layers, where both must be the same firmness at every fold.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (butter).

Ingredients

For the dough

• 300 g strong white flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 30 g butter, melted
• 150 ml cold water

For the butter block

• 250 g cold butter, good and firm
• 30 g plain flour

Method

1. THE BUTTER AND THE DOUGH MUST BE THE SAME FIRMNESS at every single fold, and this is the only thing that matters. Butter harder than the dough shatters into shards and the layers break; butter softer than the dough squeezes out at the edges and merges into it, and then there are no layers at all. Press both with a thumb before each fold: they should dent equally. If either is wrong, back in the fridge until they match.
2. THE FLOUR IN THE BUTTER BLOCK IS NOT A MISTAKE. Thirty grams worked into the butter raises the temperature at which it goes greasy and makes it roll instead of crack, which is most of the difficulty removed.
3. AND THE EDGES ARE CUT, NEVER CRUSHED. A cut edge lets every layer lift; an edge squashed by a blunt cutter, or sealed by a thumb, is glued shut and that side will not rise. Trim the ragged edge off the finished block with a sharp knife in one stroke before shaping.
4. Flour and salt in a bowl, the melted butter and cold water added, mixed to a soft dough. Kneaded 2 minutes only -- it wants to be smooth, not elastic.
5. Wrapped and chilled 30 minutes.
6. The cold butter beaten with the 30 g of flour between two sheets of baking paper and shaped into a 15 cm square. Chilled 15 minutes.
7. The dough rolled to a 30 cm square. The butter square laid on at 45 degrees, corners to the middle of each side, and the four flaps folded over to enclose it completely with no gaps.
8. Rolled gently to a rectangle three times as long as it is wide, always in the same direction, pressing rather than shoving.
9. FIRST FOLD: in three, like a letter. Wrapped, chilled 30 minutes.
10. Repeated FIVE more times, a quarter turn each time so you always roll across the open edges, with 30 minutes in the fridge between every fold. Six folds in all. Mark the dough with fingertip dots to keep count, because losing track is the commonest way this goes wrong.
11. Rested 1 hour after the last fold before it is rolled for use, or it shrinks and twists in the oven.
12. Baked hot -- 200C or above. Below that the butter melts and runs out before the steam can lift the layers, and the result is a flat greasy biscuit.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under France · All recipes