Puff Pastry
Makes: 1250gr
Part: 1
Ingredients:
- 450gr Salted Butter, at room temperature
- 15ml Freshly squeezed Lemon Juice
- 115gr White Bread Flour
Method:
- Mix all the ingredients together, shape the mixture into a block 10cm x 10cm.
- Cling wrap tightly and place into the fridge to get cold for a few minutes (just cold not hard).
Part: 2
Ingredients:
- 200gr Cake Flour
- 200gr White Bread Flour
- 50gr Salted Butter, cold
- 250ml Water, ice cold
- 15ml Freshly squeezed Lemon Juice
- 5ml Fine Salt
Method:
- Sift the cake flour and white bread flour together.
- Add the butter and work it in with your fingertips to resemble the same texture as breadcrumbs.
- Make well in the flour and pour in the water, lemon juice and salt.
- Work the ingredient into the dough, trying to knead it as little as possible.
- Cling wrap the dough tightly and place in the fridge to get firm and cold.
Part: 1 and 2 together
- Take the part: 2 dough out of the fridge. Make a cross on the top. Roll out from each cross-point edge to form four extensions with a thick centre.
- Place the mixture from part: 1 on top of the thick-centred-cross, making sure that it fits neatly on the cross, if not roll out a little more.
- Fold the dough extensions over the butter (one-at-a-time) to close and cover it completely, if I could say snuggly.
- Flour the surface well. Roll the dough into a rectangle (only rolling up and down, never to the sides), then take the bottom corners of the dough and fold them a third up to the middle, then take the top corners of the dough and fold then down two-thirds, so they meet the bottom corners of the dough.
- Then turn the dough a quarter of the way so that the closed side is on the left (try to imagine seeing a books-spine).
- That counts as one fold for the puff pastry, between each fold the puff needs to be rested in the fridge, for at least 30 minutes or until cold.
- The folding needs to be repeated 6 times, then the dough will be ready for use.
- Puff pasty freezes very well. When needed just take out of the freezer the night before, and slowly defrost in the fridge.
- Roll out to desired shape and size. Oven back above 200°C.