20. Homemade Puff Pastry

Puff Pastry. Honestly not as difficult as it's made out to be. Yes, it is time consuming and, yes, you can buy good, all butter puff pastry in many supermarkets nowadays. But it's not nearly as satisfying as saying "Hey, I made this entire thing myself, from scratch". It's a good thing to know how to make, and with all the butter bashing and folding and rolling, it's actually quite useful if you need to let off any hot air and relax for the afternoon.

A few things to remember before getting started...

1. Good pastry takes time. This isn't that wham-bam minute pastry you stick in the food processor and voilà. It probably takes about 6 hours to make this at it's quickest, so make sure you prepare the day before you want to bake with it.

2. You can fit your pastry around your schedule. All times stated are minimum. You can leave your pastry in the fridge overnight and fold it in the morning if you like. Resting times are there to make sure those buttery layers stay intact and don't melt into the dough, giving you nice definitive layers.

3. Be honest with your dough. If you're working in a warm environment and your dough starts to feel sticky, give it 10-15 minutes of fridge time to firm up again before continuing.

4. You can double up and freeze half. Wrap it in a bit of cling film and use within 2 months. (See, the time saving has begun!)

Puff Pastry

Makes about 600g

250g plain flour

125g water

1/2tsp salt

40g unsalted butter, melted
170g unsalted butter, chilled

The first step is to make your détrempe by combining your flour, water, butter and salt and mixing until it is well combined. Wrap in cling film and chill for 2 hours.

Take your chilled butter and flatten between two sheets of parchment paper until it measures a 15cm by 15cm square and refrigerate until ready to start making your puff.

Your dough and butter should feel of the same consistency before starting your folds. If your butter is too cold, remove it from the fridge 5-10 minutes before rolling your dough out otherwise it will break up into lumps in between your layers. Roll the détrempe out into a square about 25cm by 25cm thick. Place your square of butter diagonally on top of your dough and fold the corners of the dough over to create a sort of envelope. Pinch the seams together, then turn so you have a flat side facing you.

Fold down the top third

Fold up the bottom third

Turn your dough 90º and indent to indicate the number of folds

Roll your envelope out to 3 times it's length, then fold the dough in thirds (like a letter) and give it a 90º turn. This is called a turn. Repeat the process of rolling into a rectangle and folding, then cling film and refrigerate for at least an hour. Remember: if at any point your dough starts to get sticky and warm, place it in the fridge for 15 minutes before resuming your folds. You've now done two turns (woohoo!). Repeat the rolling, folding, rolling, folding, chilling another two times so that you have a total of 6 turns in all. Chill for 2 hours before using. Keeps for 4-5 days.

Now relax, and think of all those flaky-buttery-delicious layers you've just created!