Cooking Recipe Puff Pastry
Recipe Ingredients
Directions
Makes about 2 3/4 lbs dough, making a 36- by 12-inch rectangle 1/4"
thick.
To measure flours, scoop dry measure cups into a container and sweep
off excess with the flat edge of a knife. Rapidly cut the butter into
big dice; toss butter and flour together on your work surface. Mixing
it rapidly with the flour, flatten the chilled butter into lima-bean
size. Do it by hand or in an electric mixer with a flat beater. (A
food processor cuts butter too small.) If butter has softened, chill
everything 20 minutes. Blend in 3/4 cup of iced water, lifting and
turning, adding droplets more until mixture holds together. A mess!
Push, pat and roll dough into a rough rectangle; flour the top
lightly as necessary. If it breaks too much, sprinkle on drops of
water. It will look quite awful. When the rectangle is 18" long, flip
one end over onto the middle, then the other end, like folding a
letter, making 3 layers. Scrape and flour work surface. Turn dough so
top flap opens on your right. Push, pat and roll it again into a
rectangle. Clean rolling pin and flour it lightly; if dough softens,
refrigerate at once. Again fold the dough into 3; use a pastry sheet
to help. Again roll it out into a rectangle. To prevent it from
sticking, keep dough floured, work surface clean. These rolls and
folding into 3 layers are known as "turns" -- you now have made 3
turns. Make the fourth turn, shoring up the edges with side of
rolling pin. By this time, you have a real dough. Wrap and
refrigerate for 45 minutes at least-- to relax it. Complete the fifth
and sixth turns and it is ready to roll out and form.