Puff Pastry Dough

Puff Pastry is a non-yeast, laminated dough composed of hundreds of layers of butter and dough that when baked create a light, buttery-flavored pastry. There are many stories as to the dough’s origin, but the most popular is the story of the chef’s apprentice who forgot to add the butter to his dough. Fearing the chef’s wrath, but not wanting to go to the trouble of remaking the dough, he spread the butter on the dough and flattened and turned it several times to hide his mistake. The chef was so pleased with the flaky result that he insisted on knowing the method by which the apprentice created the dough.

Puff pastry is a basic mixture of water, salt, butter, and flour. The flour used can be a mixture of hard and soft wheat flours or hard flour such as bread flour. The flour must be strong to support the high percentage of roll-in fat and to withstand the repeated rolling and folding done to create the flaky layers of the dough. Salt as well as providing flavor, strengthens gluten strands. The fat used as roll-in in puff pastry is one of great importance. Butter is the most widely accepted fat used for this type of pastry due to its incomparable taste. It halso0 has a lot of moisture that creates steam when the pastry begins to bake. But because of its low melting point- 80F- some feel it best to use a combination of shortening and butter. This insures that the fat will not melt out of the pastry when it cooks.

Making the dough correctly is of great concern. If the dough has too much flour or is worked too much the dough will be rubbery and difficult to work with. The dough should always be rested for at least 30 minutes before the first fold is put into it.

A small amount of flour is added to the roll-in fat to make it easier to handle. When rolled out properly puff pastry dough will have a layer of butter between each layer of dough and, depending on the number of folds given, these layers can number 500 to 1500.

Guidelines for puff pastry

Enough dusting flour must be used to prevent the dough from sticking to the table during the roll-in process; however, it is important to brush the excess off the dough between each fold. If the flour is not removed, the dough will be tough and will not rise properly in the oven.

When rolling the dough take care not to use excess force as it will rupture the structure of the layers. The dough should be handled very gently during rolling and folding.

It is extremely important that puff-pastry dough have adequate rest periods between folds to maintain ad good finished product. After the initial dough is made it needs to rest as long as 30 min before the initial fold is done so that the gluten has time to relax. The dough should also rest for 10-15 min between each fold, and some rest period is required before the actual formation of the pastry item. When the dough is resting, cover with a damp towel or plastic wrap to prevent crusting.

Knives and other tools needed to form puff pastry must have sharp edges to cut the dough. A dull knife or cutter will press the edges together and result in lower volume and uneven baking. Hold the knife at a 90 degree angle so the edges of the dough remain straight for baking.

If egg wash is used for puff items, the wash should never drip over the sides. It could seal the dough and cause it to rise unevenly.

Puff pastry items should be rested again before being placed in the oven. Items should also be refrigerated during resting.

Puff pastry should ideally be made with all the folds during one production periods and left refrigerated overnight before makeup of the items the next day. This will prevent the butter from becoming too hard and breaking the layers folds and turns are done on separate days.

Oven temperatures

Low oven temperature leads to problems with puff pastry; if the oven is not hot enough, the butter will melt before it has a chance to create steam needed for flakiness. Opening the oven door frequently can will lead to uneven temperatures and should be avoided. Small puff pastry items should be baked at 415 f to 424 f, and slightly lower temperature can be used for larger items. The oven temperature should never go below 400f.

Storage of puff pastry

After the dough is made up, it should be kept no longer than a week. As in pie dough, the flour and water will begin to ferment and oxidize, turning the dough gray and giving it an off-taste. The dough should be keep well covered at all times. Puff pastry dough freeze very well in either dough form or as finished pieces, as long as it is well wrapped.

Scraps

Scraps of puff-pastry dough will not be as flaky as fresh. When using scraps, the pieces should never be kneaded together as it will destroy its structure. They should be laid on top of each other and gently rolled together.

Tagged as: laminated doughs, Puff Pastry Dough