Frequently Asked Questions - Puff Pastry (2024)

FAQs

What is an interesting fact about puff pastry? ›

The story goes that Lorrain was making a type of very buttery bread for his sick father, and the process of rolling the butter into the bread dough created a croissant-like finished product. The modern French puff pastry was then developed and improved by the chef M. Feuillet and Antonin Carême.

Puff pastry is a light and flaky pastry made from a laminated dough, or dough that is made by alternating layers of butter and dough. The only ingredients used to make puff pastry are butter, salt, water, and flour — no leavening agents are required.

Heat is the enemy of Puff Pastry—it handles best when cold. So avoid working with it on hot, humid days, in a stifling hot kitchen or next to your oven.

The trick is to work large pieces of cold butter into dry ingredients and hydrate it all with ice cold water (as if you were making pie crust). Sometimes bakers grate butter into the mix or use a food processor. There's lots of ways to make rough puff pastry.

The terms full, three-quarter and half are used when describing the amount of fat in the pastry. Full has equal weight of fat and flour, three-quarter has three-quarters of the weight of fat to flour, and half has half the weight of fat to flour. More fat makes the pastry softer to eat but reduces its height.

Puff pastry does need some gluten development but, because of the amount of rolling out that will happen during lamination, it is very easy to overwork a dough which makes it incredibly hard to use and can cause a lot of shrinkage.

When cutting Puff Pastry, the sharper the knife or pastry cutter, the better. A dull edge can cement layers together and prevent pastry from rising. Always cut Puff Pastry straight down, never on an angle, to prevent layers from sticking together and inhibiting the rise. Cut up and down, and don't drag the knife.

Puff pastry is a light, buttery, flaky dough used in both sweet and savory dishes, from appetizers to main courses to desserts. It contains only three ingredients—flour, butter, and salt—yet it rises to a great height with no added leavening agent.

Puff pastry, also known as Pâte Feuilletée or feuilletage in French, is a very delicate and rich pastry that consists of many thin alternating layers of dough and fat. This lamination is what gives puff pastry its light, crispy and flaky texture upon baking.

Once baked, plain puff pastry can be stashed in an airtight container for up to a week. Filled pastries like these puff pastry danishes are best eaten right away. If you can't finish a batch in one go, store in a sealed container and enjoy the next day.

What are the faults in puff pastry? ›

The document lists common faults that can occur when baking pastries such as lack of volume, shrinkage, fat seeping, tough pastries, and excessive flakiness. It then provides potential causes for each fault including issues with ingredients, technique, and oven temperature.

For a crisp, layered puff pastry base, I layer two sheets together and bake with another baking sheet on top to weight the pastry and keep it flat for half the cooking time. Then remove so it becomes golden.

If bubbles appear on the surface while baking Puff Pastry, prick with a fork to deflate them. Always flip and place the cut side of the Puff Pastry down on the baking sheet.

These holes help steam escape. and interrupt the formation of large bubbles. for a pastry that is still flaky.

Always preheat your oven for a minimum of 15-20 minutes before baking, because Puff Pastry depends on even heat to rise and puff. Place pastries 1 inch apart. If you want a flaky thin and crispy pastry that's not very puffy, prick the unbaked Puff Pastry all over with a fork, which lets steam escape while baking.

The high initial temperature in baking choux is what generates the steam to cause it to rise. The word choux in French means cabbage, and choux pastry gets its name from the fact that the little balls of choux paste used to make cream puffs resemble little cabbages.

- Ancient Egyptians were the first ones to come up with the idea of pastries. Called baklava and filo, they were made out of grain meal with honey, fruits and spices. - Pastries were brought to Europe during the Muslim invasion of the 7th century and picked up the imagination of Europeans.

So where does puff pastry come from. Well it comes from France, where it is called pâte feuilletée. It was invented in 1645 by Claudius Gele, a pastry cook apprentice. He wanted to bake an improved bread for his father who was sick and was on a diet of flour, butter and water.

Phyllo pastry became an integral part of Turkish high society, and until the First World War upper class households would employ two filo makers, one to make extra-thin sheets for baklava, and one to make slightly thicker sheets, for börek.