Homemade puff pastry

How to make homemade puff pastry . In terms of dough, many of you have already trusted the blog, homemade pizza dough is one of our best-known recipes, so you will surely trust the dough that I present below.

We all know the puff pastry , which we have enjoyed its texture and flavor in many preparations, both sweet and salty. But what is not so sure that many of us have started preparing it at home. I am not going to say that it is a quick dough to prepare or that it is not laborious, not at all, I think it takes a significant dose of patience to get a perfect homemade puff pastry. But what it can tell you is that it is not as difficult to do as it might seem, following a series of specific guidelines the result is surprising.

There are two types of puff pastry, the puff pastry itself and the fermented puff pastry . The first is the one that is usually used in preparations such as the classic cream strudel , miguelitos de la Roda , fruit tartlets or puff pastry . Today we are going to prepare the other type of dough, the puff pastry for pastries , sourdough, the one indicated for croissants , Neapolitan and other buns that need to grow in their preparation.

Preparation of the puff pastry base

1. In a bowl we mix the two flours, the salt, the sugar, the 25 gr. butter and 200 ml. cold water.
2. We begin by mixing the ingredients in the bowl and transfer them to the kitchen counter. Knead for 10 minutes and add the yeast dissolved in 50 ml. cold water.
3. We continue kneading until we get a firm, smooth and soft to the touch dough. We will need 10 or 15 minutes.
4. We form a ball with the dough. We cover it with a cloth and let it ferment for 30 minutes at room temperature.
5. This kneading must not be too long, we do not want an excessively elastic dough.

Prepared the puff pastry for pastries

1. We put the dough in a bowl, cover it with transparent paper. Let it rest for 2 hours in a warm place. The oven preheated for 2 minutes and turned off will be a perfect place.
2. While the dough rests we prepare the butter. We will always use very cold butter, never at room temperature. We need a butter plate about 20 x 15 cm.
3. To do this, and with the cold butter, cut into two halves, longitudinally, a block of butter and place both halves, one next to the other, on a piece of transparent film.
4. We cover with transparent film and with a roller we flatten its surface so that it is smooth and of the same thickness.
5. We wrap in the transparent paper and keep in the fridge until the moment of using it.

Puff pastry

1. Sprinkle the work table with a little flour and roll out the dough with a rolling pin giving it the shape of a rectangle.
2. The dimensions of this rectangle must correspond to twice the size of the butter plate.
3. Thus, when placing the cold butter plate in the middle of the rectangle of dough, we can cover it on its entire surface with the remaining dough from the two sides.
4. In the photos of the step by step we can see how the dimensions of the dough are twice that of the butter sheet in the longitudinal direction.
5. From this point we start with the folds. With a rolling pin we stretch the dough. Always in the same direction, from top to bottom, until you get a plate of about 40 x 20 cm.
6. I insist on the sense of stretching since it is not advisable to stretch it in multiple directions.
7. If we need one or two passes to form the rectangle from right to left. We can give them, but always in a timely manner and trying to avoid them.
8. For fermented puff pastry, those used for pastries such as croissant , Neapolitan or other cakes, only three folds are necessary.
9. We make the first fold by taking the bottom tip, the one closest to us, and bringing it up.
10. Then we take the top and bring it to us. It is about mentally dividing the dough into three parts, bringing the lower part towards the middle and then the upper part back to the middle.

Final kneading, folds and ready to prepare your favorite desserts with puff pastry

1. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and leave it in the fridge for 30 minutes.
2. We remove the dough from the transparent paper and place it on the counter. We put it back as we had it before, that is, with the top plagued towards us.
3. At this point we turn the dough half a turn leaving the fold to the left, and we stretch with the rolling pin until we get a 40 x 20 cm sheet again. initials.
4. We repeat the simple folding operation by first folding the lower part towards the center of the dough and then the upper part towards us.
5. This will be the second fold we make. We wrap the plate in transparent paper again and store again in the fridge for 30 minutes.
6. We remove the dough from the fridge and repeat the folding operation. Turn the dough half a turn, stretch it again in a rectangle.
7. We fold it again starting at the bottom towards the center and ending with the top towards us.
8. We wrap again with transparent paper and this time. Being the last of the 3 necessary folds we leave the dough in the fridge for 1 hour instead of the previous 30 minutes.

With this process we already have the puff pastry ready for any preparation we want to make. It will try to stretch the dough to a thickness of ½ cm. and give it the shape we need to prepare our puff pastry cakes.

Be sure to enjoy all the yummy sweets in our dessert recipes . You can see all the photos of the step by step in the next album .

Tips for a yummy puff pastry

• In reality the only difference between the two is that the fermented puff pastry has yeast among its ingredients and the simple puff pastry does not need it.
• This mass grows and increases its volume for two reasons. On the one hand, there is a biological growth on the part of the yeast bugs and the gases it creates. On the other hand, the growth is caused by the evaporation of the butter water, which pushes up the layers of dough, separating the laminate.
• I advise you when you decide to prepare this dough. Choose a day when you plan to spend it at home. For example, one of those rainy days when you just want to stay at home and curl up on the sofa with a blanket and TV.
• The recipe requires time and attention, so it is best that you plan it calmly. I know the work can seem a lot and difficult, but the only thing we need to enjoy some classy puff pastry is time and patience, you will get a yummy result.