How to Make Puff Pastry (and What to Do with It)

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Puff pastry is one of those recipes that strikes fear into people's hearts. It's not hard to make, though. I promise. It's just repetitive. Stick with me, and I'll talk you through it.

The only specialty ingredient you may need to get is "fancy butter."

Ingredients

Puff pastry is made in two parts >1: dough (detrempe) >2: the butter (beurrage). When you bring both together, it forms a "paton."

The two Parts of Puff

Making the dough is as easy as mixing everything together until you cannot see any bits of butter and then adding water until you have a shaggy dough.

First Make the Dough

Take your butter and bash and mash it and then form it into a square about 5" on each side. Pretend you're playing with clay. Same thing.

Next Shape the Butter

Here is how you form the dough to add the butter. The next slide shows how to encase the butter into the dough.

Add the Butter to the Dough

Once you roll the dough, here's how to encase the butter. See? It's really just a craft project. Nothing scary!

Add the Butter to the Dough

Now that you have your "paton," it's time to roll and fold it to build in layers. You'll make six rolls/folds in all.

Building the Layers

This is what one roll/fold looks like. You'll do this six times, chilling the dough between each two.

Building the Layers

Make puff pastry shells and fill with anything from chicken salad to vanilla pudding. Make a couple apple turnovers with leftovers. Click below for the recipe.

What to Do with Puff Pastry (1)

Use puff pastry as the "lids" for either one big chicken pot pie or individual chicken pot pies.

What to Do with Puff Pastry (2)

Palmiers are crispy, sweet, caramelized cookies made with puff pastry. Try some with coffee or tea!

What to Do with Puff Pastry (3)

Make some cheese straws with leftover scraps, or make a full batch with a full sheet. How will you use your puff pastry? Click HERE for the full recipe and procedure.

What to Do with Puff Pastry (4)