Puff pastry diamonds

[hansjoakim]

Hi all,

After reading the brilliant tutorial on puff pastry at this forum, I decided to have a go at making a puff dough from scratch. I've done croissants a couple of times before (using a total of three single folds), so I do have some experience in making laminated doughs. This was my first attempt at puff, however. I used the small-batch puff dough recipe from Friberg's book, and made five single folds. I think it went pretty well - at least I didn't get any butter oozing out of the edges, or breaking up in large, cold sheets!

After completing the fifth turn, I chilled the dough briefly in the fridge, before rolling it out to a rectangle approx. 2-3 cm (1 in.) thick. I put this in the fridge for about six hours before I cut off a third of the dough that I rolled out to about 3 mm thickness, and made up as puff pastry diamonds, again following Friberg's directions. I photographed two of the diamonds:

One thing that I noticed on the baked diamonds, is that the frame is "shrinking" as you move up along the frame wall (the opening gradually gets smaller). Now, I'm thinking that this is because the two twists at the opposite corners are puffing as well, so the top of the frame is gradually "pulled" tighter and tighter as the twists continue to expand. I would really like to make some of these diamonds with more "evenly rised" frames, if you know what I mean? I would like to have more even, vertical sides to them... I was thinking that I could blind bake some of them, and fill them with savory fillings later, and for that I'd like a more straight square... Is there something I could do to get a more vertical rise? For these ones, I let the egg washed, made up diamonds rest in the fridge for approx. 20 minutes before baking. Would a longer rest help? Thanks in advance for any thoughts or suggestions!

Edited April 14, 2009 by hansjoakim (log)

[chefpeon]

Good job on the diamonds! My opinion is that they are fine! I come from a bakery that bakes off zillions of the things, and that "curving in" thing is just part of what they do; and your theory about the "twist" that is causing it is absolutely correct.

If you really want to be anal retentive about straight sides, you might want to place a sheet of parchment on top of your diamonds, then place another sheet pan on top of that. Bake them for 12-15 minutes with the pan and parchment on top, then remove them for the remainder of the baking. The only problem you may have with that is that the puff may not rise as much. It's sort of a trade off.

I think your diamonds are fine the way they are.

[hansjoakim]

Hi chefpeon, and thanks so much for your reply, your words of advice and your compliments!

It's great to know that the narrowing frame is to be expected for this shape, because I was starting to wonder if I had over-developed the gluten in the dough during lamination, or if I didn't allow enough time for the made-up diamonds to relax before baking. Thanks!

I like the puff and the volume of these things, so I think it's better to bake them as they are, and not weigh them down.

By the way, when you bake puff pastry sheets (for Napoleons for instance), do you weigh them down with baking paper and a second baking sheet, or is it sufficient to simply dock the sheet well before putting it into the oven?

[chefpeon]

Hi chefpeon, and thanks so much for your reply, your words of advice and your compliments! 

It's great to know that the narrowing frame is to be expected for this shape, because I was starting to wonder if I had over-developed the gluten in the dough during lamination, or if I didn't allow enough time for the made-up diamonds to relax before baking. Thanks!

I like the puff and the volume of these things, so I think it's better to bake them as they are, and not weigh them down.

By the way, when you bake puff pastry sheets (for Napoleons for instance), do you weigh them down with baking paper and a second baking sheet, or is it sufficient to simply dock the sheet well before putting it into the oven?

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Yes....when I bake off sheets for Napoleons I do weigh them down with another sheet pan for the first part of the bake. That's about the only time you don't want your puff to rise too much!