Quick Puff Pastry

Recipe: Quick Puff Pastry

Page: 271

Date Cooked: April 29, 2011

The secret to puff pastry is well butter and there is not a doubt in my mind that Jonathan Waxman was already well aware of this secret. In the past, I have either bought puff pastry from the grocery store or prepared it using a food processor, but this recipe called for a bit of elbow grease in the rolling pin department.

Ingredients: Unsalted butter, all-purpose flour, ice water (not shown), and salt

I placed the flour into a bowl and created a well in the center. Melted butter, salt, and ice water are then added to the well and all the ingredients were mixed to create soft dough. I then chilled the dough in the freezer for several minutes.

A well of flour filled with melted butter, ice water, and some salt

While the dough chilled, I used a rolling pin to smash some butter into a square. This step was a little more difficult than anticipated. The rolling pin continued to pick up pieces of butter. Moreover, I wanted to work quickly, so the butter wouldn’t melt or stick to the surface. It may not have been a perfect brick shape, but I believe it did the trick.

Brick of butter

I then pulled the chilled dough out of the freezer, rolled it out to the desired size, placed the block of butter into the center, and enclosed the butter by wrapping the dough around it. This nifty little package of buttery dough is then put into the refrigerator for a bit.

Package of butter filled dough

Lastly, when refrigerator time was up, the dough is rolled out into a rectangle, folded, then rolled out once more, and finally placed pack in the fridge. Since I knew I would be utilizing the dough the very next day it was kept in the fridge overnight.

After being rolled out twice

Because I didn't actually cook the dough in this recipe, I won’t comment on its texture and flavor in this post. Yet, I can comment on the process itself. At the time, the process appeared to be quite tedious (granted I was in the midst of writing 3 papers and felt the need to put in another recipe). Nonetheless, the technique was novel to me. I understood why the butter was smashed into a brick and placed in the center – a smart way of truly incorporating butter across layers of puff pastry – but it also seemed to just be an additional step. Moreover, the recipe required one chilled session in the freezer and two sessions in the fridge before you could even use the dough. That’s almost more than 2 hours of just wait time. I wasn’t thrilled about that component either.

However, the true and final test is the taste. And the verdict is still out on that…

Enjoy!