The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Puff Pastry

nbicomputers's picture
nbicomputers

Puff Pastry

the thread was getting a little largs and since i was adding pictures i started this one 

LETS START WITH THE FLOUR

AP DOES NOT HAVE ENOUGH GLUTEN to make a good pastry a brean flour with a good proten is required

the last puff dough i make was with king aurthr special patent NOT AVAILIBLE IN STORES but you can buy a 50 lb bag from a baker supply house

nex the roll in fat must be ether a good butter 85 percent butterfat which has more fat then your reg hotel bar of land of lakes.  in bakery we use a fat called flakmor it is a special fat with hi water count and hi melting poing (higher than body temp which is why when you buy a pastry in a bakery you can sometimes feel the grease on the roof of your mouth while you eat it)

now for the dough

bread flour 4 lb

cream of tarter 1oz---or 4 oz of table vinegar or lemon juice (works as a dough relaxer)

salt 1/2-oz

shortening (not butter or margeren) 4oz

eggs 4 oz

water 2lb 4oz ( leave out the 4 oz if you use the vinegar or lemon juice since that counts as part or the water)

simple so far right!!!

now the dough must be well delevoped (which is why for the bread flour) you should be able to pull it thin with out tearing and comes out clean and not sticky from the mixer.

once done let it rest about 30 minutes

roll in fat 3lb-8oz

all buter or part flakmor anf buter or all flakmor (any fat will work but quality and volume will varie)

the roll fat should be plastic-meaning smoth and spreadable without being melty  and not hard if you are blending fats then blend them in your mixer till they look like one fat and put them in the freg and let them get hard and mixthem in the mixer again to get them plastic

some bakers add about 4oz of flour to the fat to make them easer to roll out.

NOW STARTS THE WORK--- but ITS NOT THAT HARD IF YOU FOLOW THIS METHOD

roll the dough into a rectangle shape and using pieces of the fat about the size of a ping pong ball dot the fat over 2/3 of the dough (THIS ROLL DOES NNOT COUNT -this is the part tha most are not sure about) and fold the 1/3 of the dough ofer the part with the fat and then fold the other 1/3 that has fat ofer that creating a dough that has 3 layers of dough and 2 layers of fat

dough--fat--dough--fat--dough---5 layers

now roll it out to a rectangle again and folt it in three layers  5x3-15 layers

let it rest about 5 to 10 minutes and roll it again this time in FOUR layers  4x15-60 layers

brusk it lightly with oil and cover it with plastic and put it in the frdg for an hour but dont leave it in to much longer than that cause the fat will get to hard and break when you roll it out again

now roll it again and fold it into 3 parts 60x3-180 layers

let it rest about 15 minutes and roll it again into 4 parts 4x180= 720 layers

YOUR DONE

brush it with oil and cover with plastic put it in the frdg for at least 1 day before you want to use it

the finished dough will be ok in the fridg for about a week BUT IF YOU frezz it --it will last for 6-9 months  just take it out and thaw in the frdg over night and the dough will be fine. in fact it will be much easer to roll out and makeup after it is frozzen.

In my home i make this whole mix cut the dough part in half and mix two times in my KA when the rolling is finished i cut the dough into 4 parts and frezz

i still have some frozzen that i made before christmas and it is still fine i will post some pic when i bake some off which should be in a few days.

bakeing temp should be about 350 too hot and a crust will form and prevent the dough from puffing to cold and the fat will melt out ether way and you will get small greasey patries.

when making up the finished dough sheet shoult be 1/4 to 1/8 thick DO NOT ROLL OUT TO THIN 

pS there are some very good butter flavors on the market i allways add a little to enhance the tast of the butter

don't use something like Butter Buds due to the other ing in it such as salt and other chem it in that have a toughening affect on the flour

this dough was frozen since about 3 weeks befor christmass

The dough and filling

turnovers

turnovers being made up

turnovers ready for oven

ouff pastry pieces (note hight before baking

ready for oven

done and ready to be finished

finished

finished turnover

qahtan's picture
qahtan

 Your puff pastry maybe a good, but most of us are home bakers, so your quantity's are way way out for us to use, plus the fat that you are using is one that  we the home baker cannot purchase, though it obviously does a good job. And is not like the cheap bought puff pastry that as you say sticks to the roof of your mouth when being eaten.

 I would very much like to try your flakmore to my recipe. Also I can't see many/any home bakers buying 50 pound of patent flour in one go..  

Many of us use Julia Child's recipe that is more suited to us in size and ingredients I have no doubt your apple turnovers are very good but then so are Julia's.. ;-)))

                                    qahtan

Paddyscake's picture
Paddyscake

They look absolutely scrumptious! I'm not ready for that level of pastry. I'm still working on pie crusts. I've got the recipe down, but I can't flute for beans! Thanks for sharing though! Maybe someday I'll tackle puff pastry.

nbicomputers's picture
nbicomputers

there are a lot of people on this board that buy a lot of flour and since flour can be stored for about a year as well as not costing a lot (price is going up though one 50 pound bag of bread flour is very usable.  even costco and sam's club sells 25 and 50 pound bags of flour.

Now i know flakmor is not to be found in the local stop an shop a good sweet butter will work just as well

the mixes i have are all production mixes that were used in bakeries accross new York These are mixes that have been passed down from baker to baker and have not been in anything other than small handwritten note pads.  Being that i am no longer working and found this board by chance i just wanted to shair.

you can easly make smaller amounts such as 1/4 of the dough which is one pound of flour.
If you feel ok in making the whole thing do it since the frezzer live of the unbaked dough is 6-9 months.  the pictures are of a dough that is about 10 weeks old. make it once and it lasts and you can have fresh pastry in minutes.  But only do what you feel good about doing.

if you want to try flakmor i would be glad to send you a pound or two since it does not need to be in the fridg thats no problem

just use it half and half with butter like i did

As for fluting the crust---I may be a pro but mine breaks every time also

perfict i'm not

Pro Baker for over 25 years-----Ret

RFMonaco's picture
RFMonaco

Not much info on the web for this item and may have to be in the business to buy?Allfresh Food Products, Inc
 2156 Green Bay Rd Evanston, IL , 60201-3046
Phone: 847-869-3100
FAX: 847-869-3103
Year Started:1988

Est. Annual Sales:$1,685,000

Est. Employees:10

Est. Employees at Location:8

Contact Name:Gulshan Wadhwa

Contact Title:Chairman Of The Board & President

-------------------or here:

Sold by

http://www.icbakers.com/products.asp?CatID=1&offset=880

------------------------A wealth of baking info here:http://www.bakery-net.com/fotm_archive.php
qahtan's picture
qahtan

 

  " if you want to try flakmor i would be glad to send you a pound or two since it does not need to be in the fridg thats no problem "

  I thank you for your your kind offer, but I don't some how think the customs would appreciate it, ;-((((.

But you can plainly see that it gives a far superior finish to the pastry. 

                                           qahtan

nbicomputers's picture
nbicomputers

wirth a zero value and declereing it at white greass machine lubracant (not for consumption

i think we just might get it over there.

what do you think

Pro Baker for over 25 years-----Ret

qahtan's picture
qahtan

 

I'm game if you are, but how can we package it so that it does'nt ooze out.......

 ;-))) qahtan.

                               

nbicomputers's picture
nbicomputers

its a solid white shortening like so it does not melt at room temp

email me at nberg@nbicomputers.com so i can get the address and find out how much it would cost to send

Pro Baker for over 25 years-----Ret

RFMonaco's picture
RFMonaco

..in 30 lb. minimum from Allfresh Food products or their suppliers. I would purchase a few pounds plus mailing from you if you have the overage to spare. Thanks.

nbicomputers's picture
nbicomputers

when i buy it i get the 30 lb

i would be glad to send you a few pounds see the above and email me

Pro Baker for over 25 years-----Ret

foolishpoolish's picture
foolishpoolish

<oops please delete>

nbicomputers's picture
nbicomputers

There are many mixes for puff pastry some with fat some not some with eggs some not---but to be short you are exactLY right!!

Pro Baker for over 25 years-----Ret

foolishpoolish's picture
foolishpoolish

Meant to post a shorter version of what I wrote earlier..and I deleted my earlier post.  Ungh confusing.

The long and short of it is that I've made puff using a dough with no extra shortening mixed into it - only using shortening (butter) in the layering (about 50% butter relative to flour weight).

However I think the thing I learnt most from making puff pastry in my own limited way was to be careful with cutting and rolling out the pastry.  Cutting with v. sharp knife or pizza roller.

I think there's a really good Alton Brown video on puff pastry floating around on youtube somewhere.

Oh and another interesting layered pastry to try is the one often used in asian/chinese pastries.  It uses two doughs (one barely shortened, the other very lard rich)...I've made a decent attempt at it before but flavourwise unless it's paired with some nice filling, I find the lard to be a bit much. Here's the recipe:

Chinese Layered Pastry (enough for 24 egg custard tarts)

300g AP Flour
150g Lard
1/2 tsp Salt
3 Tbsp Sugar (optional)
Few Tbsp Cold Water 

 

Cut lard into flour until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Add salt and sugar and mix water 1 tbsp at a time until mixture comes together into a ball.

Refrigerate for 1 hour.  This makes your 'lean' pastry

  

175g AP Flour
175g Lard
 

Mix and refrigerate for 1 hour.  This makes your 'fatty' pastry.

 

Roll and layer the two doughs as if making puff pastry (rolling out into a rectangle, folding over either in 3 or 4 layers)  This pastry can and should be rolled out quite thin for the final assembly unlike puff pastry. 

 

PaddyL's picture
PaddyL

I've made puff pastry classic with store bought unsalted butter and got tremendous flaky pastries with it, and the taste is pure butter.

nbicomputers's picture
nbicomputers

what brand of butter did you use?  i was never happy with what i tried you got me wondering?

Pro Baker for over 25 years-----Ret

cnlindon's picture
cnlindon

Your puff pastry looks amazing. You are a pro! I have been wanting to try it, but haven't. Has anyone seen this video of Jacques Pepin doing pufff pastry?  It is very interesting.

 

-Chad

PaddyL's picture
PaddyL

This is the brand of butter I generally buy for things like puff pastry and croissants and buttercream mousseline, unsalted.  I've seen the video of Jacques Pepin making his puff pastry and it's basically the same way I make it.  The first time I made any laminated dough I was quite nervous, but I kept at it, and now it's a breeze.  The croissants I make are from three different recipes cobbled together, and honestly, you hardly need to add extra butter to them when they come out of the oven, they're so buttery and luscious inside.

nbicomputers's picture
nbicomputers

i never saw that brand up here in new york ill google it.

Pro Baker for over 25 years-----Ret

cordel's picture
cordel

I don't think you will find it. It is a Quebec brand, made in Victoriaville, and very nice, if you can't make your own.

nbicomputers's picture
nbicomputers

make your own!!!
I can feel my back go out at the thought

Pro Baker for over 25 years-----Ret

cordel's picture
cordel

I love making butter almost as much as making bread, but getting fresh, safe raw milk is too difficult.