Puff Pastry

Ingredients

Butter Block

14 oz butter (room temp, cubed)

1/2 cup AP flour

Détrempe (dough)

2 3/4 cups AP flour 

1 1/4 tsp salt

6 oz butter (cold, cubed)

1 cup cold water (might not need all)

Equipment and tools

Stand mixer, bowl, paddle, hook

Bowl scraper or rubber spatula

1 sheet parchment paper

Plastic wrap

Rolling pin

Pastry brush (optional)

Sheet pan

Directions

BUTTER BLOCK

1. Take one sheet of parchment paper, fold in half. Then fold down each edge so that you are left with a 7”x7” square. Unfold and set aside.

2. Combine the 14 ounces of room temp, cubed butter with 1/2 cup of flour in bowl of stand mixer. Use paddle to beat until all flour is incorporated and butter is creamy.

3. Using bowl scraper, remove butter mix and spread in the center of the square on the parchment paper. Fold paper over butter and tuck edges under. Flip packet over and roll butter to fill the square in one even layer. Set aside.

DÉTREMPE

1. Using same bowl, add 2 1/2 cups flour, 1 1/4 teaspoon salt and the 6 ounces of cold, cubed butter. Using paddle on low speed, mix until flour turns golden in color, and mixture looks like sand, with a few slightly larger pieces of butter (no bigger than small peas).

2. Remove paddle attachment and replace with dough hook. Turn mixer on lowest speed, and pour in all but the last 1/4 cup of water. Allow to mix for a bit to see if more water is needed. If dough looks quite dry after a minute of two add more water.

3. Allow to mix until the dough is uniform, soft, slightly tacky, and is cleaning away from sides of bowl.

4. Lightly flour the countertop or wooden board and scrape the dough onto the flour. Dust the top with flour if it seems overly tacky/sticky. Fold over a few times and very lightly knead dough. Roll out to a square about the same size as your butter packet. Wrap with plastic wrap.

5. Place détrempe and butter pack in fridge for 20 minutes max. Both should be firm, but pliable when done chilling.

INCLUSION

1. Lightly flour work surface. Take détrempe and butter block out of fridge. Unwrap détrempe and place on lightly floured surface. Roll to a square 14” x 14” (measuring the square and marking with a line in the flour is helpful). Once dough is the correct size, place butter pack in the center, at an angle so that it looks like a diamond.

2. Fold each edge of the dough over the butter, working clockwise so that each corner slightly overlaps the previous corner in the middle (think pinwheel shape).

3. Once dough is completely covering the butter pack, use your rolling pin to beat down dough (gently! Don’t rip the dough!) from one side to the next. This will make sure the butter is evenly spread out.

4. Roll the dough to a large rectangle, approximately 10” x 20”. Mark the dough into thirds by gently pressing your finger into dough. Fold the dough like a letter, bringing the left side in to cover the middle third, use pastry brush to brush off excess flour, then cover with the right side. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and place in fridge for 30 min.

5. Take dough out of fridge, unwrap and place in opposite direction on your work surface as you finished folding it (ie rotate dough 90 degrees so that the long edge is facing you).Roll into rectangle again, approximately 10” x 20”. Fold like a letter again, rotate and roll and fold one more time (total of 2 rolling and folds). Wrap and chill dough for 30 min.

6. Repeat rolling, folding and turning 2 more times for a grand total of 5 turns. You can now wrap the dough and chill or freeze for later use. If you want to use right away, you must chill the finished dough for at least an hour (preferably 8 hours/overnight) before rolling again.

NOTES

• If the room is quite warm, or your dough just seems to be warming up too quickly after each turn, you can chill the dough after each turn. Another option is to use ice packs to chill your counter before rolling the dough.

• If you get a “butter break through”, lightly dust with flour and that should keep the butter contained when it is baked.

• Use pastry brush throughout rolling and turning process to remove any excess flour.

• Depending on final use of puff pastry, you can portion dough once it is done into 2 or 3 pieces, wrap and save for future use.

• If you want to make a bigger batch, you can double this recipe and it will still fit in your stand mixer, but it will be quite full.

• Dough can be made without stand mixer. Use pastry blender, two butter knives, or your hands to “cut in” butter to détrempe before adding water, then mix in with your hands and knead on counter top until final consistency is reached. Be more frugal with the water, as kneading very sticky dough is messy.