Puff
pastry is used to create layered pastries for starters, main
dishes, and desserts. Picture
on the right shows puff pastry ready for use:
To make puff pastry, you need to prepare
dough A (with butter or other type of shortening) and
dough B (without butter). Both types of dough should have
the same texture.
Dough
A:
Strong white flour
300 g
Butter, margarine or lard
300 g
Take
the butter and rub it into the flour.Roll the dough
out on a lightly floured surface, shaping it into an oblong
and put into the fridge for 30-40 minutes:
Dough B:
Strong white flour
500 g
Water
250 g
Vinegar
1 tbsp
Salt
1 tsp
Sift the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl.
Add the vinegar or lemon juice and form into a stiff dough,
adding a little water if necessary.
Put into the fridge for 15 minutes:
Rolling out the Pastry:
Roll dough
B out on a lightly floured surface, shaping it into
an oblong. Place
dough A
into the middle of one half of the dough
B:
Then fold the other half of
dough B
over
dough A.
Fold the sides of dough B
to form a closed enveloped with
dough A inside it.
Turn the pastry envelope
over:
Press on top of the pastry with the
rolling pin and then roll the pastry out into an oblong:
Fold the
pastry into four and put into the
fridge to rest for 15-30 minutes:
Roll, fold and rest
three more times before finally
placing in the fridge again for a few hours (or over night if
convenient).
The dough
is now ready to roll out and use:
It is important that the pastry is well chilled
otherwise the pastry will become greasy and tough when baked.
