Saturday, March 21, 2009

Puff Pastry

I came across many recipes and studied carefully on the video instruction. Unfortunately, I couldn't complete the whole process due to the butter popping out of the flour dough in the middle of the way. What turned out later on was a very hard ( like rock), chewy, and dense texture. It's my second time experimenting this puff pastry and I admit it's such a hard work for such a tiny and weak baker like me. Honestly,you must have strong muscles in order to take the total control of the dough.But trust me, I'm not gonna give up on this ( because there are many delicious recipes based on puff pastry waiting for me). I'm going to rest my arms and grab some already-made-pastries on the grocery store.
The first half of the process is posted below.The second half will be updated later ( if I succeed*cross my finger*)

INGREDIENTS:
- 250g all purposed flour
- 100g unsalted butter( is best)/margarine/shortening
- 2-3 drops vinegar/ lime juice
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 130g water( or half melted butter and other half water)

PREPARATION:
- Mix all the dry ingredients to gether
- Gradually add in water, kneading continuously for 10-15 minutes or until it forms a smoth, soft and elastic dough ( the dough won't crack when expanding). It's much better if you have a bread machine or stand mixer so you can save some energy for the next step

- Put the butter in a seperate container, using the pestle and pinch down the butter several times.By doing this, the butter will be much easier to handle in the rolling process

- Sprinkle with some flour to prevent sticking, transfer the butter to the floured surface and form it into a small square.

- Transfer the round dough into a floured working surface

- Dividing the dough into four parts, then rolling out into the four-angle-star, leaving the middle thick

- Place the butter in the center

-Carefully and tightly wrap it up by folding over the four points

- Spread out the dough gently into a even rectangle(I should have rolled it into a more proper shape), there is now 1 layer of butter in 2 layers of flours.

- Bring two sides into the center, leave a small space in the middle ( My mistake was right here, I did not leave a small space, the dough was so stiff that butter leaked out on the next roll)

-Then fold one side over

- Wrap it with a plastic wrap and rest in the fridge for 5-10 minutes
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The videos below have very clear and detailed step-by-step instructions by expert chef I found very helpful.




5 comments:

Caythlin said...

O.O

nun will ich Kuchen!! ;-)

Einen lieben Gruß aus Deutschland :-)

Caythlin

Anonymous said...

Did you succeed?

I admire people who never stop trying. Like myself, if I don't succeed the first time, I'll try again and again until I do. My mom finds it tiresome, but I think it's a learning experiment.

Good luck with yours. :)

♥ESTEE♥ said...

Me too.I love the feeling of success =D I'm very busy these days so don't have any spare time for baking.Will update the result after the next try.BTW,have you tried this recipe yet.Let me know if it works out for ya.
P/S: do you have Facebook account? It'd be nice to chat with you =)

Anonymous said...

No, I haven't.
I have too much on my hand at the moment, maybe one day I'll start on this. i hate working with dough sometimes. i'm also very weak. haha

Sorry, I don't.
Have been meaning to start one, but I'm just too lazy XD

i'll let you know once i started one. :)

Thy Thy said...

It is so tiresome to make puff pastry, i usually buy the ready one! hehe! lazy! :)