Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Homemade Puff Pastry



Over New Year's weekend I did lots of cooking.  In addition to Homemade Lambert's Throwed Rolls, I tried a recipe for Homemade Puff Pastry.  I love anything made with puff pastry from brie with raspberry sauce to guava turnovers (a Florida favorite) but puff pastry can be a little hard to come by in our small town.  I ran across this recipe on the King Arthur Flour blog (which always has wonderful recipes).  It worked like a charm.  I have to confess that it was a little "buttery" for my tastes.  I may try to trade out some of the butter for shortening next time, but it worked beautifully and I will definitely be making this again.  I had some guava paste in the fridge (which my mom brings back from Florida) and also some frozen blackberries and blueberries, so I tucked some of each into these turnovers and they were really something special!


Here's how I made Homemade Puff Pastry AT HOME MY WAY:


Homemade Puff Pastry


2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup cold butter, cut into pats
1/2 cup sour cream


Directions:


1.  Whisk together the flour, salt, and baking powder.


2.   Add the pats of butter (slices), working it in with fingers to form a coarse/crumbly mixture.  Leave most of the butter in large pea-sized pieces.


3.  Stir in the sour cream (the dough will be crumbly).  Turn onto a lightly floured surface and work to form a blob.


4.  Pat the dough into a rough log and roll into a 8 x 10 rectangle.


5.  Dust both sides with flour and starting with a shorter end, fold like a business letter (in thirds).


6.  Flip the dough over.  Turn 90 degrees.  Roll into an 8 x 10 rectangle.  Fold into thirds again.


7.  Chill the dough for at least 30 minutes.


8.  I divided mine in half.  Rolled like pie crust, but a rectangle.  Cut into squares and filled with guava paste or berries.  Sealed.  Brushed with water, sprinkled with sugar, and baked.


9.  The directions say to freeze dough for up to two months.  Thaw in the fridge.


**  I didn't read my instructions completely.  I only formed into a blob, wrapped in plastic, and refrigerated for a couple of hours.  After a couple of hours, rolled and formed the turnovers.  I'm sure if I had double rolled/folded the dough, I would have had more layers.  Next time!  There's always next time!  They were completely delicious anyway!

Here are some more pictures (as pitiful as they are).