Traditional Puff Pastry

Pastry Dough

Puff pastry is one of the most used and exciting pastry dough. It is excellent for making classic cakes (such as millefeuille), or small tea pastries.

The magic of puff pastry consists of its capacity to develop in many thin and crispy layers. For this reason, its preparation must be followed very carefully, respecting the time of rest in the fridge.

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Preparation: 40

Rest in the Fridge: 1 8

Total Time: 1 8 40

Servings: 1200 gr of Puff Pastry

Equipments

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Stand Mixer

Ingredients

For the Dough

350 gr Flour (W280 or 10%-11% of proteins)
150 gr Butter
10 gr Salt
200 gr Water

For the Fat Dough

350 gr Flour (W280 or 10%-11% of proteins)
150 gr Butter

Directions

For the Dough

Knead all ingredients and let the dough rest for 24 hours in the refrigerator at +4°C (39°F) well covered with a plastic sheet

For the Fat Dough

Take the butter out of the fridge and soften it by hitting it with a rolling pin on the table to preserve its plasticity.
Mix butter and flour in a stand mixer with the leaf, shape the mixture into a rectangular loaf between 2 sheets of grease paper, roll out to a thickness of ½ cm and refrigerate for 90 minutes.

How to Make Folds

roll out the dough, giving it a rectangular shape with a height double that of the width and 1/2cm thick.
Do the same with the fat dough, trying to roll it out with the exact proportions and dimensions.
Place the fat dough on top of the dough, and close the 2 top and bottom edges in the center, sealing them carefully. Turn the dough to 90 degrees (so that the lateral sides are closed)
Roll out the dough in a vertical direction until it is 1cm thick
Give the first Single Fold: With the dough rolled out in front of us (in a vertical direction), fold the dough’s top edge to about 2/3 of the dough’s height and then overlap it with the lower edge. In this way, we will obtain a rectangle of dough composed of 3 layers.
Cover with plastic wrap, and chill in the fridge at +4 °C (39°F) for 1 hour
With the dough in front of you and the lateral sides closed, start to roll it to form a rectangle about 1cm thick, whose height will be twice the width.
Let's make the Double Fold (or 4-Fold). To do this, bring the upper and lower flaps towards the center and fold them in half, thus obtaining a rectangle with 4 layers of dough.
As before, turn 90 degrees, wrap everything in plastic wrap, and chill in the fridge at +4 °C (39°F) for 1 hour.
Repeat the 2 folds seen above. Give the dough 2 single fold (3-fold) and 2 double fold (4-fold), always letting chill in the fridge for 1 hour between one step and the next.
Once the puff pastry is done, I recommend that you let it rest 1 night in the fridge before rolling it out and cutting out the shapes to be baked.