Category Archives: puff pastry

Puff the Magic Rough Pastry

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It’s really rough puff pastry and it’s magic that I made it! Usually, I buy either Pepperidge Farm, or Trader Joe’s puff pastry. Pepperidge Farm puffs up at least twice Trader Joe’s and I choose depending on what I am baking.

While significantly more work than driving the couple of miles to the supermarket, this is significantly less expensive and more self satisfying. I was pleasantly surprised with the resulting puff pastry and even more amazed at the resultant baked pastries.

Rough Puff Pastry has been in my “What’s Up in Dede’s Bakery” for months and to give you an idea how bored I was this morning, I decided today is the day!

I had good lamination (left) , resulting in a flaky pastry.
Blackberry Hand Pie (top) and Pain Au Chocolat, bottom.

I found an excellent blog (theflavorbender.com) with detailed, clear instructions. Her instructions, with minor edits, are below. The hardest part is grating the frozen butter (without skinning a knuckle) and the last few rolls of the laminated dough.

Rough Puff Pastry

INGREDIENTS
• 60 g unsalted frozen butter grated and kept in freezer while the flour chills
• 200 g unsalted frozen butter grated and kept in freezer while the flour chills (weigh the butter after grating it)
• 350 g AP flour that has been kept in the freezer for a couple of hours
• 1 tsp salt
• 120 – 150 g ice cold water I used about 9.5 tbsp (142ml)
• ½ tsp lemon / lime juice / white vinegar

Costs
• Butter ~ $1.50
• Flour ~ $0.15

METHOD

  1. In a bowl, sieve the flour, salt and freeze for about 2 hours
  2. Add the 60 g of frozen, grated butter. With your fingers quickly rub the butter into the flour.
  3. Add the lemon and water, a tablespoon at a time, while mixing with a wooden spoon or your fingertips to bring the dough together.
  4. Add enough water to form a firm dough (that is not tacky or too wet).
  5. Knead the dough on a floured surface for about a minute and leave it to rest for about 5 minutes (in the fridge).
  6. Roll the dough out into a long rectangle (about 6 – 7 inches wide, and 15 – 16 inches long).
  7. Sprinkle 100 g of frozen, grated butter on 2/3rds of the area of this rectangle.
  8. Fold over the portion without butter, towards the middle.
  9. Then fold the first fold over the still butter exposed end. You completed one-fold (while laminating butter).
  10. Turn the dough 90 degrees and roll it out to form another long rectangle (about 5 – 6 inches wide, and 15 – 16 inches long).
  11. Repeat with the rest of the butter and fold over, (completed 2nd fold with second lamination) and turn 90 degrees. Now you have incorporated all the butter in two folds.
  12. Complete 3 more folds so you have folded the dough about 5 times. You shouldn’t need to refrigerate between folds, if you work quickly, HOWEVER if it’s a hot day and the butter starts to seep through, keep the dough in the freezer for about 10 minutes to harden the butter and continue.
  13. After the fifth and final folding, wrap the dough in plastic wrap and store it in the fridge until needed.
  14. Let it rest for at least 2 hours before using. (I prefer to leave it longer, even overnight for best results.)
  15. If you’re not using it right away, cut the dough in half, wrap individual pieces in plastic wrap and store in the freezer.

Fruit Braided Tarts

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Ok, so I made fruit tarts in braided tart shells. Should the title be Braided Tarts with Fruit, or Fruit Braided Tarts, or Braided Fruit Tarts? Reminds me of Eats, Shoots and Leaves.

Did I fail to mention I had some frozen choux pastry, and as creme diplomat is made with creme patisserie which when piped inside choux and coated with chocolate makes profiteroles and as long as the oven was hot, decided to add some frozen chocolate chip cookies to conserve energy?

QC had the day off and was out with some friends, leaving me home alone, heh, heh, heh. What to do, oh what to do?

There were braided tart shells in the freezer and I recently bought a kiwi and picked an orange from my neighbor’s tree. I promised a couple of friends I would make them some fruit tarts when everything came together and yesterday all the stars aligned.

First freshen the frozen tart shells (notice the braided sides) in the over at 400F for 5-8 minutes, then an additional 5 minutes at 320F.

Peel and cut the kiwi into thin slices and slice the orange and strawberries.

Make the Crème Diplomat and pipe into the cool shells, add the fruit in your best imitation of a pretty pattern. Sprinkle a few blueberries around the other fruit for color.

Serve as soon as possible as the Crème Diplomat will deflate fairly quickly.

A good, quiet “me” day.

Crème Diplomat

INGREDIENTS
• ½c sugar
• ¼c corn starch
• Pinch salt
• 2 c whole milk
• 4 egg yolks
• 2 Tbl butter
• 2 cups heavy cream, cold

METHOD

  1. Whisk eggs and milk together and add to all other ingredients (except vanilla) to a medium saucepan.
  2. Bring to boil whisking constantly
  3. Cook until thickened (it will look lumpy, its ok)
  4. Sieve lumpy mixture into a bowl and add 1 tsp vanilla, mix thoroughly
  5. When incorporated, cover with plastic directly on the cream and cool about an hour.
  6. Whip the cold heavy cream to medium peaks.
  7. Fold a few spoonfuls of the custard into the cream. Gradually add the rest of the custard, being careful to not knock the air out.

Notes

  1. You can make the custard or creme patisserie ahead of time, it will keep for a few days in an airtight container in the fridge. However, I would not add the whipped cream until you were ready to serve it. It is best served immediately.
  2. Mix crème patisserie 1::1 with whipped cream if making crème patisserie in advance,

Raspberry Drop Scones and Blackberry Hand Pies

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As mentioned elsewhere days without golf can be dangerous. Along with a new Pumpernickel/Rye Bread and High Hydration Honey White Bread I tried a new puff pastry to make blackberry hand pies and raspberry drop scones to freeze and thaw for breakfast.

The more important thing is I was able to try out my new hexagonal cookie cutter. I never liked the square, or triangular (folded squares) hand pies. Circular were good, but the space between the circles wasted a lot of puff pastry. The hexagonal cutter was nearly as efficient as cutting squares, but look more like round pies.

My new hexagonal cookie cutters

I used a larger cutter for the top to assure good coverage of the smaller bottom. I docked the bottom piece with a fork to manage the puff of the pastry.

The edges of the covered pies were pinched with the fork, and egg wash painted on, a steam vent cut on the top and sparkling sugar sprinkled on each pie before baking.

Puits d’Amour – ‘Wells of Love’

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We saw this pastry on GBBO. I hadn’t made any complex pastries in a while so thought this would be fun to try. I made a few changes to Prue Leith’s recipe. I used my own recipe for the creme patisserie and choux. The recipe and method below are as I made it.

I also found a new puff pastry I wanted to try. You may know my preferences in puff. Trader Joe’s is good but doesn’t puff as much as Pepperidge Farms. This new one is Wewalka European Bakery Style which seem to have a puff ratio about in the middle. It has good flake an layers. The only problem is they do not recommend freezing it before using.

Choux Dough. Left is to dry while the right has the “V” drip from the beater.
Assembled pastry. Chilled puff pastry disk and piped choux on Left. All piped on Right.
Upper left: Finished pastry shell. Top center: ready to fill. Upper right” Berry compote added. Bottom creme patisserie piped on pastry.
Left: Torching Demerara sugar. Center brûléed. Right: Completed pastry cut in half to show layering.

Puits d’Amour – ‘wells of love’

INGREDIENTS
Puff pastry
Compote:
• 250g strawberries, hulled and chopped
• 25g caster sugar
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 50g raspberries
Crème Pâtissière:
• ½ c sugar
• ¼ c corn starch
• Pinch salt
• 2 c whole milk
• 4 egg yolks
• 2 Tbl butter
4 ½ tsp demerara sugar, to brûlée
Choux Pastry:
• ½ c (65 grams) AP flour
• ½ tsp granulated white sugar
• ¼ tsp salt
• 4 tbsp (55 grams) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• ½ c (120 ml) water
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
Sparkling sugar

METHOD
Compote

  1. Add the strawberries to a pan with the sugar and lemon juice and cook over a medium heat for 10 minutes. Add the raspberries and cook for a further 5–10 minutes, until reduced to a thick compote (but not a jam). Remove from the heat, cool, then chill.
    Crème Pâtissière
  2. Whisk eggs and milk together and add to all other ingredients (except vanilla) to a medium saucepan.
  3. Bring to boil whisking constantly
  4. Cook until thickened (it will look lumpy, its ok)
  5. Sieve lumpy mixture into a bowl and add 1 tsp vanilla, mix thoroughly
  6. When incorporated, cover with plastic directly on the cream and cool.
  7. Remove from the heat and pass through a sieve into a clean bowl. Add the butter and stir until melted. Leave to cool, cover with cling film and chill until cold.

Cut Pastry Disks

  1. Heat the oven to 220°C/200°C fan/425°F/Gas 7. Lightly dust your worktop and roll out the rough puff to a 35cm square. Using the 10cm cutter, cut out 9 discs. Place on the baking sheets and prick each disc all over with a fork. Chill for 30 minutes.
    Choux
  2. In a bowl whisk the flour with the sugar and salt.
  3. Place the butter and water in a saucepan over medium high heat and bring to a boil.
  4. Remove from heat and, with a wooden spoon, add the flour mixture, all at once, and stir until combined. It will look like mashed potatoes. Return saucepan to the heat and stir constantly until the dough comes away from the sides of the pan and forms a thick smooth ball (about 1-2 minutes). The dough will film the bottom and sides of the saucepan and make cleaning a pain.
  5. Transfer the dough to an electric mixer and beat on low speed to release the steam from the dough (about 1 minute).
  6. Once the dough is lukewarm start adding the lightly beaten eggs (dough will separate and then come together) and continue to mix until you have a smooth thick paste (dough will fall from a spoon in a thick ribbon).
  7. Pipe the choux in a circle ½cm in from the edge of each disc. Brush each choux ring with beaten egg and sprinkle with sparkling sugar. Bake for 20–25 minutes, until puffed, crisp and golden. Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
  8. To assemble, spoon the crème pâtissière into a piping bag fitted with a 1.5cm plain nozzle. Spoon the strawberry compote into the pastry shells and pipe the crème pâtissière over the top. Sprinkle half a teaspoon of demerara sugar on top and, using a blowtorch, brûlée the sugar. Serve immediately.

Knot In My Stomach

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Actually, it is a lemon knot in my stomach. Dan and Frances gave me some lemons from a neighbor’s tree, permission granted of course. I happen to see a simple recipe for Lemon Knots and decided that would be a great place to use one of the lemons. It was.

It is a very easy recipe, especially since I do not make my own puff pastry. I tried rough puff once, but found the full puff purchased in the market is better than what I could make at home. I may make full puff one day, just for the experience. I’m thinking about it. No promises.

Now, what to do with the other 11 lemons….

I added some sparkling sugar after the egg wash. It provides a little crunch and sweetness balance to the lemon zest.

Lemon Knots with Puff Pastry


https://www.thebittersideofsweet.com/2018/05/30/puff-pastry-lemon-knots/

INGREDIENTS
• 1 sheet Puff Pastry, thawed
• 1 Egg
• 1 tablespoon Water
• 1/3 cup Powdered Sugar
• 3 teaspoons Lemon Juice
• Lemon Zest

METHOD

  1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Mix together egg and water and set aside. Line baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
  2. On floured surface unfold pastry and roll out into a rectangle. Cut 12 strips.
  3. Fold each strip in half from top to bottom. Then make a knot.
  4. Place on baking sheet and brush with egg wash.
  5. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.
  6. In the meantime, whisk together powdered sugar and lemon juice.
  7. Brush on cooled knots. Top with lemon zest.