Puff pastry is easy!

[mamster]

Okay, I made the greatest thing last night and nobody knew just how dead-simple it was.

A few years ago in Cook's Illustrated, Nick Malgieri gave his method for simplified puff pastry.  I've never made puff pastry before because of its reputation, but last night I had friends over and felt like going crazy, and there's always decent takeout pizza down the street.

Here's the idea.  9 oz flour in the food processor with the metal blade.  Mix in 4 tbsp cold butter until well mixed.  Then add in two more sticks of cold butter and pulse, adding 6 tbsp water and 1/2 tsp salt.  Add a little more water if necessary and just mix with 1 second pulses until it comes together into a rough ball.

Take the ball out, form into a rectangle, and then roll it out into a 12"x18" rectangle between two sheets of well-floured saran wrap.  Remove the wrap, fold into thirds along the short side, and roll up like a jelly roll.  Flatten it back into a thick rectangle by hand, wrap it, and refrigerate one hour.  Then roll it out and do whatever you like with it.

Here's what I did.  Rolled the dough out to about 1/3" thick.  Cut out 3" circles with a biscuit cutter.  Pureed prosciutto with olive oil and garlic.  Spread the proscuitto mixture to within 1/2" of the edge of each circle and topped with halved cherry tomatoes (I had some colorful green, orange, and red ones).  Baked 15 minutes at 400 F.  Topped with julienned basil.  Looked like a million bucks and tasted better.  Served it with a side of black mission figs with chunks of parmigiano and a light drizzle of balsamic vinegar.

The tart recipe was inspired by the cover recipe from Tamasin Day-Lewis's Art of the Tart.

I don't know if my retelling of the pastry recipe gives you enough to go on, but it's almost impossible to screw it up, and I'm generally terrified of pastry.

[Andy Lynes]

Sounds fantastic. I too have never attempterd puff at home, although do fancy myself as a bit of a pastry wiz, but this seems a very do-able version.  

[magnolia]

a bit of a tangent I guess, but reminds me of one of my first dates with my boyfriend who is a good cook - it was my job to make the tarte au citron which was meant to complement the wine, and I was really scared to screw it up. I have never made pastry before - this recipe needed shortbread pastry rather than puff. Frozen wouldn't do. After deliberating and agonising for a few days, I went to St John Bakery (Clerkenwell, London) with my own pie tin, and talked them into doing the crust for me. Then I took it home and made the filling. Worked a treat!

[yvonne johnson]

And now, magnolia, the question is: Did you let on?

[cjsadler]

(Wow, this is the oldest thread in this forum!).

I stumbled upon this CI recipe for puff pastry, which they claim takes 15 minutes to make (!). The 'jelly roll' idea is a stroke of genius. Made it tonight, and it is dead simple. Haven't yet baked any of it off. If it works, I'll be pretty damn happy.

[Anna N]

cjsadler:

Do let us know how it turned out. I for one would love to be able to make a simple puff pastry and have it work! And it gives me another reason to play with my new toy - a food processor.

Edited because I quoted the wrong post!

Edited September 16, 2004 by Anna N (log)

[binkyboots]

sounds a bit like nigella's take on puff (and danish) pastry, I've made the danishes and although the dough looked very worrying at stages they turned out very nicely, I'll be trying the puff version soon

[AlainV]

I am just an amateur here and, for me, Nick Malgieri's Quick Puff Pastry is a great shortcut that I use all the time.

The purists will say it doesn't rise so high and so evenly that real puff pastry but ... no 6 turns and no lengthy resting periods.

And it taste so good compared to supermarket frozen puff pastry, made with margarine instead of butter.

My simplest apple dessert : "feuilletés aux pommes".

Roll the dough out to about 1/3" thick. Cut out 3"x5" rectangles and let rest in the fridge. Meanwhile, slice an apple (I use Golden) with a mandoline.

Arrange apple slices on pastry rectangles, add a little sugar and bake 15 to 20 minutes at 450 F. Glaze with molten apple jelly and eat while it is still hot.

Very simple to prepare and so good

[Redsugar]

There's nothing new about making mock puff pastry: I've use a recipe on numerous occasions since the mid-80s to build the casing for a large, multilayered Torta Rustica. Mock puff pastry is splendid for its ability to hold sturdy compound fillings. Mix the dough, turn it out onto the floured worksurface, press & roll into a rectangle, fold lengthwise into thirds, turn and repeat the folding twice more. After the third fold, refrigerate for 1 hour. Voilà, it's ready for use!

Since 1989, I've often made another shortcut version of puff pastry using my Cuisinart to distribute the butter through the flour. I pulse it very briefly so as not to overmix the dough. The entire procedure takes less time than classic puff pastry and is really quite simple. True, it's flakier than the classic version and it doesn't "puff" as dramatically, but it's entirely suitable for Gâteau Saint-Honoré & Napoleons.

In sum, there are two time-redeeming factors in such abbreviated methods. First, there is no requirement to rest the détrempe overnight before the sequence of rolling-&-folding stages. Second, the resting periods are not included in the overall procedure.

So then, I would say that the mock puff pastry would be quite suitable for weighty entrees, such as Beef Wellington (filet de boeuf en croûte) or even friands, but the classical spirit should arise in the cook to prepare a full-fledged version for a more delicately elegant dish, such as a salmon coulibiac. As for delicate tea pastries such as feuillantines or palmiers, you must be your own authority and let your experience be a discerning guide.

Curious as to the provenance of puff pastry, I found this interesting account: "A very early form...probably existed in ancient Greece, and flaky pastry cakes were mentioned in the Middle Ages, but it did not enter the realms of popular pastries until the seventeenth century. Two claims are made for its invention then, one attributing the pastry to a painter, Claude Gelée, and the other to a pastry cook in the house of Condé, named Feuillet." ~ Hilary Walden, Pâtisserie of France, p. 123. Now, which candidate garners the vote of the pastry contingent on eGullet?

Edited September 16, 2004 by Redsugar (log)

[jgarner53]

I did a similar mock puff pastry and made it into apple turnovers. Report is that they were quite tasty, and they appeared to be more flaky (sort of like a cross between puff and pastry dough).

Something in me still loves making puff pastry, though, what with the folds and turns and waiting. The reward is so worth it, and the stuff keeps well in the freezer (vacuum-sealed to keep out off flavors). Which reminds me - I have half a batch in there right now!

[cjsadler]

I think I'm ok as a savory cook, but I am awful with pastry. I hesitate to even post this.

Warning: what you're about to see is very graphic and disturbing.

Cross-section of the dough. This doesn't look promising.

Ready for action

Uh-oh....

These taste about as good as they look. Very dense and unpuffed. It's just as delicious as my tart dough

Not sure where this all went wrong. I'm guessing it must have been the butter getting too warm at some point in the process. I chilled the dough for about 10 minutes after rolling (prior to rolling it had come straight from resting in the fridge overnight). My kitchen is rather warm, but it just didn't seem like enough time for the butter to melt. Maybe it got too warm when I was making the dough. Back to the drawing board.

[Anna N]

...  Back to the drawing board.   

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Oh dear! That's likely how it would have turned out for me too! Still enough posters have suggested that this can work so I still might give it a shot. Thanks for being the experimenter.

[AlainV]

Cjsadler,

Next time try this recipe. It's from Malgieri's How to Bake and I can assure you it will work

Cut 8 ounces butter in 0.2 to 0.4 inches cubes. Cut 2 ounces butter in 4 pieces. Dissolve 1 teaspoon salt in 1/2 cup cold water.

Put 2 cups (9 ounces) all-purpose flour in the work bowl of your food processor equipped with the steel blade. Add the 2 ounces butter and pulse 10 to 12 times (1 second pulses). Then put the small butter cubes and pulse 2 times. Add salted cold water and pulse until a ball just begins to form. You then follow the instructions given in the first post for rolling the dought.

I always give the dough a night rest in the fridge and roll it on a cold marble, just to be sure butter doesn't melt.

Try it and you will see

Edited to say that, looking at your pictures, I think your problem comes from not cutting the second batch of butter in small cubes. So you end up with big chunks of butter instead of little flakes.

Edited September 17, 2004 by AlainV (log)

[Malawry]

Butter gets warm fast, Cjsadler. If puff pastry is feeling supple and workable, that's your cue to stop working immediately and put it in the fridge. Let it sit in the fridge for an hour before taking it out to work on it again. If you're really pressed for time you can cheat with 15-20 minutes in the freezer. 10 minutes in the fridge is only long enough for the very surface to get cold, unfortunately.

I can make puff pastry beginning to end in about an hour if I work in a very cold kitchen, but at this time of year I'd expect to take 3 hours or so with lots of lengthy resting for a successful pastry. I haven't ever made the "rough" sort of puff pastry described here though.

[Adam Balic]

Curious as to the provenance of puff pastry, I found this interesting account:  "A very early form...probably existed in ancient Greece, and flaky pastry cakes were mentioned in the Middle Ages, but it did not enter the realms of popular pastries until the seventeenth century.  Two claims are made for its invention then, one attributing the pastry to a painter, Claude Gelée, and the other to a pastry cook in the house of Condé, named Feuillet."  ~ Hilary Walden, Pâtisserie of France, p. 123.  Now, which candidate garners the vote of the pastry contingent on eGullet?

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RS - Puff Pastry is very common in 17th century English cookbooks, so I imagine that its invention pre-dates this period.

Some Pastry History

Tuscan apparently. Not sure if this can be correct, as I am not sure about the use of butter in historical Tuscan cooking.

[mamster]

Two claims are made for its invention then, one attributing the pastry to a painter, Claude Gelée, and the other to a pastry cook in the house of Condé, named Feuillet."

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A pastry chef named Feuillet? Isn't that like a butcher named Sally d'Agneau or a short-order cook named Patty Turner?

I'm so glad this thread is back, even though I haven't made this tart in years. Not for any good reason, I just forgot about it.