Puff Pastry

My it's been an embarrassingly long time since my last post!  I have no excuse... just that I have been relaxing a bit more lately.  Last week Nick and I went to Florida to celebrate Nick's Grandpa's 80th birthday.  We had an expertly planned surprise party followed by a perfectly executed dinner party followed by some fantastic family time spent lazing by the pool and carefree paddle-boarding in the Gulf.  Not too shabby... not too shabby at all.  But back to reality for this girl!

This post is a bit past due as it has now been weeks (yes that's plural!) since I made this.  Don't worry though - my current haphazard posting makes it no less droolworthy.  In class a few weeks ago we made our very own puff pastry.  Yes, that stuff you usually buy in the freezer section at the grocery.  That's right, I personally made my very own.  And let me be the first to tell you it is definitely worth the time investment!  This particular puff pastry I made into one of my favorite treats... palmiers!

Palmiers are French treats made from puff pastry that has been rolled in sugar and then baked.  They are crispy, buttery, and sweet.  Rolling them in sugar before baking them allows the sugar to slightly caramelize for the perfect flavor and crunch.

The puff pastry is the fun part of the recipe, turning it into palmiers takes a mere few minutes but the puff can be a half day affair.  Puff pastry is made from two layers, one of butter, one of flour.  You wrap the butter layer with the flour layer and roll the dough out and begin to fold it over itself.  Each time you fold the dough you create additional layers of dough, butter, dough.

Ingredients
yields on batch large sheet of puff pastry good for about 30-40 palmiers
Butter Block (or Beurrage)
1 lbs butter
3/4 cup all-purpose flour


Flour Block (or Détrempe)
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 t. salt
2 T. shortening
1 cup very cold water

Directions
1) Cut the cold butter into 1-inch cubes and place in a mixing bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment.  Add in the 4 oz of flour and mix until no visible chunks of butter remain.  Be careful not to over mix the butter as you want it to remain cold throughout this process.

2) Form the butter into a large rectangle on a piece of parchment paper or a silicone baking mat and place in the refrigerator while you make the flour block.

3) Place the flour, salt, and shortening in the mixer with the paddle attachment.  Mix together slowly adding the water until it just starts to come together.

4) After the dough is just combined turn it out on a lightly floured surface and gently press together.  Do not knead the dough.  Rather just press it together much like you would for a pie crust.  You do not want to activate the gluten here or you will end up with chewy puff.

5) When the dough is combined use a knife to cut a cross-hatch into it, cover it with plastic wrap, and allow it to rest on the counter for 10-15 minutes.

Double Turn Completed

6) After the dough has rested take the butter out of the refrigerator and set aside.  Roll out the dough into a long rectangle that is about 1 inch wider than the butter block and about twice the length.

7) Place the butter block onto the flour block and fold the flour block over to wrap the butter block like the most delicious present anyone has ever wrapped.

8) Gently, ever so gently, roll the dough with the butter in the middle out to again create a long rectangle (flouring the surface helps reduce sticking).  This will begin your first "turn".  There are two types of turns you can do: a double turn or a single turn.**  You should start with a single turn, refrigerate the dough for an hour, then do a double turn and refrigerate the dough for an hour.  Then repeat that entire process (one more single, refrigerate, one more double, refrigerate).  And ta-da... you have puff pastry!!

Single Turn Completed

**Notes on Turns**
Single Turn: To accomplish this turn you fold the dough like an old school letter, into thirds, one piece on top of the other (see graphic).

Double Turn: To accomplish this turn you fold the each side of the dough over to meet in the middle.  Then fold the one side of the dough over to meet the other side (see graphic).

9) Allow your newly created puff pastry to rest in the refrigerator for an hour or up to 3 days.  You can also freeze the puff for up to 6 months.

For Palmiers
Ingredients
1 sheet puff pastry, all turns completed, thawed
3/4 cup sugar

Folded up to make the palmiers

Directions
1) Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

2) Remove puff pastry from refrigerator and and roll out into a large rectangle using sugar on both sides instead of flour.  When you have a large rectangle (rolling the dough to about 1/8 - 1/4 inch thick) fold each side of the dough toward the center in thirds and finally on top of itself.

3) Cut the dough much like you would cinnamon rolls and dip each end into a bowl of sugar to add sweetness.  Then place on a greased cookie sheet with about 2 inches on either side to allow it to puff!

4) Bake at 400 for about 8-10 minutes or until it has puffed and begun to brown.  Remove from oven and turn each cookie over so the other side by crisp.  Bake an additional 8-10 minutes.

5) Remove from oven and crunch away! :)