Home Made Puff Pastry

Home made puff pastry takes time and trouble, but it can be made in large quantity and frozen for later use. It can also keep wrapped in foil in the refrigerator for a few days. The rise of puff pastry is better than flaky pastry, and after the first rolling used for vol-au-vents (patty shells), cream slices etc the trimmings can be rerolled and used for recipes such as Cream Horms, Palmiers and Sacristans. It is the richest of all pastries.

Plain Flour  - 450gm
Salt            - 1 teaspoon
Butter         - 450gm (firm but not hard)
Iced water  - 300 ml

Sift the flour and salt into a bowl. Add 100gm of butter (cut into small pieces) and rub into the flour until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add sufficient iced water to mix to a soft dough and knead lightly into a ball. Form the rest of the butter into an oblong. Roll out the dough into a square. Place the block of butter on one half of the dough and fold the other over to enclose it completely. Seal the edges with the rolling pin. Turn the dough so that the fold is on the right hand side, then roll out into a strip three times as long as it is wide. Mark the dough into three and fold the lower third up and the top third down. Seal the edges with the rolling pin, wrap in lightly oiled polythene (plastic wrap) and chill it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Repeat this rolling, folding and chilling process five times more. If time allows give three rollings on one day, chill overnight and complete the process on the following day. Leave for at least 30 minutes before rolling out for use after the last folding process.

Always glaze with beaten egg before baking to give the characteristic shine to the pastry.The usual baking temperature is a hot oven (230°C/ 450° F) makes 450 gm (4 cups).