Puff Pastry: A labor of love

Puff pastry means 1000 layers in French, and after making it homemade it doesn’t take long to realize how it got that name. It is an extremely labor intensive product due to the fact that those layers appear from folding and rolling the dough out a total of five times. It can easily take up hours and hours of the day and even go on to a second day before a product is ready to eat. After making it once I clearly see the joy and simplicity that comes from buying it, but to truly understand puff pastry it is not a bad idea to attempt making it homemade. The bonus is that as with everything homemade, your product will truly represent a labor of love, and your friends and family will love you for it.

The recipe I was given for puff pastry requires very few ingredients, but they are all essential.

Guidelines for Puff Pastry:
*You need strong gluten to support the height, since it raises 8 times its original height during baking. Therefore, bread flour is a good choice.
* In order to develop the gluten, it requires a high amount of mixing.
* In puff pastry there are two rounds of butter. The first amount of butter is rather small and the proportion is 1oz to every pound of flour. This first amount is used to condition the gluten. The second round of butter is much heavier and should be equal to the amount of flour. One pound of butter is used for every pound of flour. This round is essential for the flavor and flakiness of the product.
*There is no leavener used in puff pastry because steam acts as the leavening agent. Salt is still necessary for flavor and to condition the gluten.
*Egg is used for protein coagulation and water is essential for gluten development.
*Puff Pastry is a laminate dough which means it must go through a series of tourns (the folding and rolling of the dough).
A puff pastry will go through a total of five tourns until it is ready to bake. However, between every tourn the dough must be allowed to rest and this stage is called the retarding stage. This is essential so that the gluten can rest and the butter can be chilled before the next tourn. If the butter is too soft, it will not hold the steam and if the steam escapes the product the dough will not rise.
* There are two types of folds that are used during the folding process.
Single Fold- Fold the top third of dough to the center. Then fold the bottom third over the top.
Double Fold- This can also be called a book fold. You fold the top and bottom half to the center. Then you fold the entire dough in half again to achieve the book fold.
* Almost all forms of puff pastry are baked on parchment paper. While baking you do not want to remove the product from the oven until the dough is puffed, the product is golden brown and there are no moisture droplets on the outside.

RECIPE:
1 lb bread flour
1oz butter
½ oz salt
1 egg
8 oz water
1 lb butter for lamination
Combine all dry ingredients
Cut the fat into the dry
Make a well and add the egg
Add the water and knead until it springs back at you
Bench it for ten minutes
Roll into rectangle ¼ thick
Enclose fat (this is done by layering the fat in the center of the rectangle, leaving a 1 inch border and then folding the dough over)
Then put one thumbprint in the side of the dough. This is a mark used to indicate what stage of the folding you are on. Retard to 50 degrees
Do single fold, put in two thumbprints and retard to 50 degrees
Do double fold, put in three thumbprints and retard to 50 degrees
Do single fold, put in four thumbprints and retard to 50 degrees
Do double fold, put in five thumbprints and retard 30 minutes to an hour
Dough is ready for make –up or to store.

Once the dough is ready it can be used in a variety of ways from sweet to savory. Some options include napoleons, turnovers, bear claws and baked apples.
Happy Baking!!