Puff pastry

You can, of course, buy ready-made puff pastry, but the pride and satisfaction of having made a successful puff pastry — watching it rising to a golden crispy crust in the oven — is worth a million dollars. Needless to say, the flavor of the all butter pastry is phenomenal.   See Puff pastry apple and sultana parcels with Calvados butter sauce or Stuffed beef fillet rolled in pastry

500 g/17.6 lbs flour, sifted
500 g/17.6 lbs butter, chilled and cut into small dice
1 teaspoon/5 ml white wine vinegar
1¾ cup/425 ml ice water
pinch of salt

In a food processor, measure 25 g/0.8 oz of the flour and 450 g/15.8 oz of the butter and mix well.  Spoon the mixture out onto a large piece of plastic film and shape into a neat rectangle of approximately 14 x 20 cm/5.5 x 7.8 in.  Put in the refrigerator.

Mix the rest of the flour (450 g/15.8 oz), the balance of the butter (25 g/0.8 oz), the vinegar and salt and process, adding the iced water little by little until the dough comes together nicely.  Lift it out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth.  Roll out and shape into a neat rectangle of about 25 x 35 cm/9.8  x 13.7 in with the edges as straight as possible.  Wrap in plastic film and place in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.    Unwrap the dough and place the butter mixture diagonally over the center of the pastry.  Pull up the far ends of the dough to cover the butter mixture and press the seams down gently to seal them. Press down the sides to seal in the butter.

Roll out the dough carefully (the butter must not break out) in one direction only until it is about three times as long as it is wide and the corners square – gently easing them out with your fingertips if necessary.

Fold the top part a third of the way down, then fold the bottom part over that to make 3 layers.  With the rolling pin, press the seams gently together.  Turn the dough 90° to the right and roll out once more in a rectangle 3 times as long as it is wide.  Repeat the folds and press the edges with the rolling pin.  Turn 90° again.  Wrap in plastic film and store in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Repeat the rolling and folding and turning of 90° four times (every time in the same direction), placing the pastry in the refrigerator after each time.

The pastry is now ready to be used.  If you are not going to use all of it immediately, divide up in size portions you will require and wrap each one individually in plastic film.  It will freeze very well and should be taken out of the freezer about 1 hour to defrost at room temperature.  It is better to defrost it in the refrigerator overnight.