Most people associate pie and ice cream with summer, and so do I. But I also associate summer with my dad's strawberry drink and tray-fulls of homemade Egyptian baklava that my mom made, always in the summer. My family is from Egypt and this is how I learned from them to make pistachio baklava, including my aunt's secret for ensuring a crispy phyllo top!

Baklava isn't difficult to make, but it does take time, patience, and care. It's a delicate exercise of layering thin sheets of phyllo and brushing them with melted butter. It's very calming once you get into the rhythm. It should never be rushed or thrown together. It's a sweet treat that is best served with tart, summer-fresh berries and a good cup of coffee (preferably Turkish coffee).

Substitutions and variations

Nuts

My mom used to make baklava with hazelnuts, but since I've developed an allergy to them, now we make replace baklava with pistachios. It's also quite common to make baklava with cashews, so feel free to replace the pistachios with the same weight of hazelnuts or cashews.

If you want to make baklava without nuts, one baking substitution to consider would be to use ground pumpkin seeds or ground sunflower seeds. The flavour will be different but this should work quite well! Replace the pistachios with the same weight of either.

Rose water and orange blossom water

Many countries add rose water or orange blossom to the syrup after cooking it, and sometimes even the nut filling, but we usually don't. A little goes a long way, though some home cooks and pastry professionals will use a lot to give the dessert a very floral flavour.

Sugar or honey

Greeks tend to use honey in their baklava syrup, but we use sugar and a splash of lemon juice. Both the lemon juice and the honey (an invert sugar) help prevent crystallization of the syrup, just like with caramel. So don't skip those ingredients.

Spices

Some countries add spices to the filling, like cardamom and cinnamon, and other use citrus zest. It all depends on the family and the country of origin. I've even seen chocolate nut fillings for baklava, but I'm a bit of a purist and I prefer all nut fillings.

Ensuring pistachio filling is green

When baking with pistachios, you'll notice that sometimes the pistachios don't seem very green. To fix that, you can peel the pistachios to remove the skin from the nuts so that the filling of your pistachio baklava will be extra green (a labour of love in itself), but you really don't have to.

As pistachio nuts mature, the vibrant green becomes more and more golden yellow. Buy young green pistachios before they have matured to ensure your pistachio filling is a vibrant green. You may find these at Middle Eastern grocery stores.

Decorative cutting patterns for baklava

How you cut the baklava is a matter of personal preference: squares, diamonds, bars, or even something a little more elaborate. It's very important to slice through the top layers of phyllo before baking to ensure you can get clean and neat cuts. This step is crucial and if you don't score the top layers before baking, the top layer will shatter when you cut it and your baklava will look messy.

Special equipment

When you take the time to make baklava, you might as well make a big tray of it. We often bake baklava in a 9x13 glass baking dish, but metal also works, like this OXO 9x13 pan.

Storage

This recipe yields a lot of baklava, but don't worry: baklava can be made ahead, because of the syrup, it's slow to go bad (in fact, I've never seen it happen!), and you can store it for days at room temperature or in the fridge for even longer. Just make sure to keep it covered. You can also freeze baklava, if you prefer, and it will keep for months.

Pistachio recipes to try

Pistachios are my favourite nut and so fun to bake with because of their colour. Here are a few pistachio dessert recipes to try:

• pistachio financiers
• pistachio tart, plain or topped with fruit like raspberries and peaches

Other recipes to bake with phyllo

Phyllo is easy to use and so versatile. If you prefer something savoury to bake with phyllo, try my asparagus phyllo tart, which is a real treat with spring asparagus.

📖 Recipe

Print

Pistachio Baklava

This pistachio baklava is made with blanched pistachios, so that the pistachio filling is more green, and a simple syrup for Egyptian baklava.

Course Dessert

Cuisine Mediterranean

Prep Time 45 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour

Total Time 1 hour hour 45 minutes minutes

Servings 36

Calories 197kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Ingredients

Syrup

• 375 mL water
• 400 grams granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

Pistachio filling

• 390 grams shelled unsalted pistachios approximately 3 cups
• 2 tablespoon granulated sugar

Assembly

• 454 grams phyllo thawed overnight in the fridge
• 230 grams unsalted butter melted

Metric - US

Instructions

For the syrup

• Bring the ingredients to a boil in a small saucepan and continue to boil for about 15 minutes, until the syrup is thick and has reached a temperature of about 230 ºF (110 °C). Transfer to a container and cool completely (can be made the day before and stored on the counter, or chill it in the fridge for a few hours to speed up the process).

For the filling

• Peeling the pistachios is optional, but whether you do or you don't, grind the pistachios with 2 tablespoon sugar in the food processor by pulsing, until the mixture forms a medium-fine grind.
• Set aside

To make the baklava

• Preheat the oven to 325ºF (165 °C). Be sure there is a rack in the middle of the oven, and one above.
• Butter a 9x13 Pyrex glass dish (find it on Amazon).
• Prepare the phyllo dough by unwrapping it and unrolling it. Cut the stack in half, width-wise so that you have two stacks of ~9x13" sheets. Set them aside, being sure to keep them covered with a slightly damp kitchen towel to prevent the sheets from drying and becoming brittle and flakey.
• Begin layering the phyllo by placing 2 sheets in the bottom of the prepared pan, then brushing them with melted butter. Repeat this until you've used up half the package of phyllo, ending with melted butter.
• Sprinkle the ground nut filling over top, then 2 tablespoon melted butter, and press everything down evenly in the pan.
• Continue layering the phyllo on top, this time buttering every single sheet as you go.
• End with butter.
• Cut the baklava into squares, diamonds, or a more elaborate pattern. Drizzle the leftover melted butter over top, letting it run down in the cuts and grooves (if you've got more than a few tablespoons, drizzle a couple over top and store the leftovers in the fridge). Sprinkle water over top.
• Bake the baklava for 30 minutes on the middle rack, then move it up and bake for another 30 minutes, until the top is nice and golden.
• Remove the baklava from the oven and immediately pour over all of the syrup. The syrup will sizzle as it hits the hot pan.
• Let the baklava cool completely, then recut it before serving.

Notes

• When my mom would make baklava, she would go through the step of clarifying the butter to remove the milk solids. This will allow you to store the baklava for longer without the risk of the butter going rancid. It also leads to a cleaner flavour. I'm lazy, so I use straight melted butter.
• This is a recipe for Egyptian baklava made with pistachios. If you want to use rose water or orange blossom water, remember to use them sparingly. Too much rose water will make the dessert bitter.
• Note that the Greeks make the syrup for baklava with honey. 

Nutrition

Calories: 197kcal | Carbohydrates: 22g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 12g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Cholesterol: 14mg | Sodium: 28mg | Potassium: 111mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 13g | Vitamin A: 188IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 13mg | Iron: 1mg

Some will use melted clarified butter instead of regular melted butter for longer storage, but I don't bother since I usually make baklava and serve it within a few days.

The post How to Make Pistachio Baklava appeared first on The Bake School.

The dough to make cream puffs is called pâte à choux in French. It's an eggy dough that relies on steam to puff in the oven. The moisture in the recipe acts as the leavening agent. They are easy, but there are a few tricks you need to know before embarking on this recipe.

Tricks for making pâte à choux and baking it into éclairs or cream puffs

1. The quantity of eggs you use can vary for this type of recipe, but you'll need between 4 and 5 eggs. I usually use four and a half large eggs, so not 4 eggs and not 5 eggs, but something in the middle. Use too little egg, and they won't rise properly, and too much egg, they will rise and fall. For this batch, I unfortunately had a mix of large and extra-large eggs, and my choux ended up a tad on the eggy side if you ask me.
2. Do not, I repeat DO NOT, open the oven door as these bake until they have fully puffed and are starting to brown or you risk them collapsing into eggy pancakes.
3. You can make them by hand, which is a serious arm workout, or you can test using the stand mixer to save. I highly recommend using the mixer to beat the dough and incorporate the eggs.
4. Practice makes perfect and the more you make this recipe, the better you'll get at it!

What to make with pâte à choux

This is a very versatile base recipe that you can expand upon. Once you've mastered pâte à choux to make cream puffs, you can also make:

• gougères, which is the French baking term for pâte à choux mixed with cheese. So if you 'd like savoury puffs, omit the whipped cream and add cheese to the pâte à choux before piping and baking it.
• éclairs, which are piped into longer shapes and filled with vanilla pastry cream and dipped in chocolate for the classic éclair, or filled with a coffee flavoured pastry cream and dipped in a coffee glaze for an "éclair au café"
• profitéroles, which are puffs of pâte à choux filled with a scoop of ice cream instead of the whipped cream, and then they are served with chocolate sauce. For profitéroles, you can use store-bought ice cream or homemade, like vanilla bean ice cream or even cardamom ice cream.
• croquembouche, which are pastry cream-filled puffs of pâte à choux dipped in caramel and stacked to create a tower of them.

Frequently asked questions

📖 Recipe

Print

Cream Puffs

Cream puffs, also known as choux à la crème are made from pâte à choux and filled with lightly sweetened whipped cream

Course Dessert

Cuisine French

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes minutes

Total Time 55 minutes minutes

Servings 28

Calories 128kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Ingredients

For the pâte à choux

• 125 mL water
• 125 mL whole milk (3.25 % fat)
• 115 grams unsalted butter
• 3.75 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
• 10 grams granulated sugar
• 167 grams bleached all-purpose flour
• 4–5 large egg(s)

For the whipped cream

• 500 mL whipping cream (35 % fat)
• 50 grams icing sugar plus more for sprinkling on the finished cream puffs
• 5 mL pure vanilla extract
• 15 mL raspberry jam optional

Metric - US

Instructions

To make the pâte à choux

• Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Line a baking sheet with parchment.
• In a saucepan, heat together the water, milk butter, salt and sugar. Bring the mixture to a rolling boil.
• Remove the pan from the heat and dump in all the flour. Quickly mix it in with a wooden spoon, then place the saucepan back on the heat to dry the dough. The dough will form a uniform, slightly shiny mass when it's cooked enough.
• Transfer the dough to the bowl of the stand mixer and beat with the paddle attachment til it's cool.
• Add 3 eggs at once, and beat them in until they have completely disappeared.
• Add the 4th egg and beat it in. If the pâte à choux doesn't have a pipeable consistency (soft but firm) and doesn't form a "bec d'oiseau" (a curved beak shape on the end of a spoon), then add another half egg.
• Scoop the pâte à choux with a ¾ oz scoop (find it on Amazon) onto the prepared baking sheet, spacing an inch apart. Brush with the remaining half egg, and then bake for a good 15 min at 400ºF until the choux have puffed and are starting to brown, quickly open the door just a crack to release steam, then shut it and lower the temperature to 375ºF for another 10 minutes to finish the baking.
• Transfer to a rack to cool.

To make the whipping cream and assemble

• Whip the cream to soft peaks with the whisk attachment of a stand mixer.
• Add the icing sugar and vanilla, and finish whipping.
• To a pipping bag fitted with the Wilton 1M piping tip (from Amazon), streak a little raspberry jam down the inside and then fill with whipping cream.
• Slice the cooled choux puffs to open them and pipe the cream in the hole of the base. Finish with the top half and sprinkle with icing sugar before serving.

Notes

• This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!

Nutrition

Calories: 128kcal

The post Cream puffs appeared first on The Bake School.

What are croissants and why do they taste so good?

Croissants are my favourite buttery breakfast treat, along with brioche and maple brioche. Growing up, croissants were a weekend treat, fresh from the bakery, warmed in the oven and served with orange marmalade, a winning breakfast combination if you ask me. Butter + marmalade = love. Today, I still enjoy croissants with three fruit marmalade. Croissants have a flaky, airy texture, combined with the buttery flavour of the yeasted dough. Like with brioche, homemade croissants are made with a lot of butter, and yet they are flaky and light, not heavy, because of the leavening agents in the recipe: yeast works to aerate the dough and while baking, the butter melts and the steam rises, opening up the layers of dough. The buttery, flaky layers make croissants different than brioche, which is a pillowy bread. Those layers make croissants highly addictive.

Croissants are different from puff pastry and brioche

Both puff pastry and croissants are made from laminated doughs, meaning that they are made up of flaky layers that are made distinct by working fine long sheets of butter into the dough. Puff pastry and croissants are made by a very similar process, but they are different. Croissants are a yeasted dough, while puff pastry is not. Puff pastry depends entirely on butter and steam for leavening, while croissants get a little help from yeast, which also adds a distinct flavour to croissants. Both croissants and puff pastry are even more different than brioche. When you make brioche dough, the goal is to work the butter into the dough until it disappears. In the case of croissants and puff pastry, the flakiness depends on fine layers of butter. The layers of butter are what make croissants and puff pastry different from brioche.

How do you make croissants from scratch?

Croissants are made with a basic yeasted dough. The dough is wrapped around a flat block of butter to seal the butter inside the dough. At which point, the lamination process begins, where you roll out the butter-filled dough, fold it over, and roll it again. The goal of the rolling and the folding is to create very long, fine layers of butter:a very thin sheet of butter nestled within the dough is where the flakiness of croissants comes from.

How many times do you fold croissant dough to make croissants?

In pastry school, we learned that croissants require 4 "turns" (1 turn = roll & fold), while puff pastry takes 6. I'm a bit lazy with my rolling and folding, so sometimes I roll the dough out a little thicker than I should but, not to worry, it still works out in the end! The fold is much like how you'd fold a letter, in thirds.

For more details on the rolling process, check out David Lebovitz's post on whole wheat croissants.

How hard is it to make croissants at home?

Croissants are much, much easier to make than kouign amann (which was a little bit of a traumatic experience when I tried). I spread out the croissant-making process over 3 days so that there was no stress at any point, and so that my dough was always properly chilled. This way, you only have about 20 or so minutes of work to do every day. Twenty minutes a day is manageable. You can do it. The key is to not dawdle when you are doing the layering and to work in a cool kitchen (so perhaps this is best done in winter, when your kitchen is NOT +30ºC!).

How long does it take to make croissants at home?

It doesn't take a lot of hands on time to make croissants, but there's a lot of chilling and waiting, so though it takes about 95 minutes to make croissants, there's hours and hours of wait time, which means you could be eating croissants for dinner. Not ideal. Here's my stress-free croissant-making schedule:

• day 1: prepare dough | chill for 30 minutes while you form the butter block | chill the butter block while you roll out the dough, then wrap the butter block in the dough and seal | do 2 turns | wrap & refrigerate overnight
• day 2: do 2 turns | wrap & refrigerate overnight
• day 3: roll out & shape croissants | let rise 1.5–2 hours | bake | eat

What to serve with croissants

Croissants are a butter, flaky breakfast treat that tastes great on it's own, but why not serve it with your favourite homemade jams or spreads. Here are a few examples of what to serve with croissants:

• homemade maple butter
• three fruit marmalade
• rhubarb jam with juniper berries
• homemade plum jam

Easy homemade croissants recipe

📖 Recipe

Print

Easy Homemade Croissants

You can make buttery, flaky croissants at home from scratch with this recipe. Go through it step-by-step and split up the work over a few days to make it easier!

Course Breakfast

Cuisine French

Prep Time 1 hour hour

Cook Time 35 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 35 minutes minutes

Servings 8 croissants

Calories 245kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Ingredients

• 83 mL water
• 83 mL whole milk (3.25 % fat)
• 30 mL granulated sugar
• 8 grams active dry yeast
• 250 grams bleached all-purpose flour
• 5 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
• 125 grams European high-fat butter (82-84 % fat) cold
• 1 large egg(s) beaten

Metric - US

Instructions

• Warm the milk with the water to 100ºF, then add it to the mixer bowl with the sugar, the yeast, and half the flour. Let stand for 10 minutes.
• Add the rest of the flour and the salt, and knead for 3 or 4 minutes until a dough forms. If you notice the dough is too hard/firm/dry, sprinkle in a teaspoon or so of water.
• Place the dough in a bowl and refrigerate for 30 minutes covered with plastic wrap.
• Meanwhile, place the butter between two sheets of plastic wrap and with your rolling pin, bash/roll/work the butter into a square block (4.5-x4.5-in). Transfer to the fridge to keep chilled.
• Remove the dough from the fridge (it will have risen quite a bit in the fridge) and roll it out on a floured surface to form a 8.5-x8.5-in square. Unwrap and place the butter block overtop, "kitty corner", and then wrap & pinch the dough together to form an envelope around the block and seal in the butter.
• Roll out the dough to a 12x9 rectangle on a floured surface, brush off the excess flour, and fold (1st turn).
• Rotate the dough 90º, then roll out again to a 12x9 rectangle and fold (2nd turn). Wrap and refrigerate overnight.
• Repeat the rolling and folding process twice more to complete the 3rd and 4th turns. Wrap and refrigerate overnight.
• Roll out the dough to a 12x9 rectangle, trim the edges if they are very uneven, then cut into 8 triangles. Roll the triangles to form croissants, then place on two parchment-lined baking sheets. Carefully and evenly brush with the beaten egg. Top loosely with plastic wrap and let the croissants rise for 1.5–2 hours.
• Preheat the oven to 350 °F (175 °C). Brush the croissants again with a thin, even layer of egg wash. Bake for about 35 minutes, rotating halfway until they are a deep golden brown.
• Serve warm with marmalade.

Notes

• This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!
• For this recipe, I used a higher-fat European butter (82-84 % fat)

Nutrition

Calories: 245kcal

I do my best to bake with the finest ingredients. Stirling Creamery, a Canadian company, has provided the butter for this post.

The post Homemade croissants appeared first on The Bake School.

Galette des rois is a traditional French pastry made from disks of puff pastry baked with an almond cream filling. A penny, a bean, or even a heat-proof tiny toy is usually hidden within the almond cream and the person who gets the slice with the penny is crowned king (le roi), which is where the name comes from. This dessert is served during epiphany in January, after the Christmas holiday is over.

Tips to stop the filling from leaking

A common problem with puff pastry desserts and hand pies is that the filling can leak out the edges. If you don't take the time to do this step properly, the filling of your galette may seep out between the layers of pastry as it bakes. The filling that leaks out will burn on the sheet pan, leading to so much smoke that it may set off your smoke detector. Here's how to stop this from happening:

• Brush on an egg wash on the surface of the edges (about a 1 inch border all the way around the bottom disk), which will act as a glue when the pastry is in the oven
• Press the edges together of the top and bottom pastry further glue them together.

Another step where things can go wrong is baking the galette properly. There are two layers of pastry to bake through plus an almond cream (or pistachio cream) filling. That's quite thick and it takes a long time to bake properly. You want to bake your pastry until it is a deep, even golden-brown colour on top and underneath. This will lead to a crisp flaky galette that is perfect! A galette des rois can take an hour to bake. Bake it until it's a deep golden brown.

For the pastry, you can either use homemade puff pastry (if you have time) or store-bought puff pastry. When you buy puff pastry, be sure to check the ingredients: invest in a puff pastry that is made with only butter, flour, water, and salt. Some store brands will use alternative fats, sometimes hydrogenated fats, to cut costs. I prefer to buy all-butter puff pastry from my local bakery.

📖 Recipe

Print

Galette des Rois

A galette des rois is a tart made with two layers of puff pastry, stuffed with almond cream (or pistachio cream) flavoured with rum. This dessert is served in January during Epiphany.

Course Dessert

Cuisine French

Prep Time 45 minutes minutes

Cook Time 50 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 35 minutes minutes

Servings 8

Calories 554kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• Mini processor
• Braun mixer
• Sheet pan
• Pastry brush

Ingredients

• 58 grams unsalted butter room temperature
• 60 grams icing sugar
• 55 grams shelled unsalted pistachios ground in the food processor
• 1.25 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
• 1 large egg(s)
• 5 mL pure vanilla extract
• 10 mL spiced or dark rum
• 600 grams all-butter puff pastry
• 1 dried black-eyed pea or any other dried bean (optional if celebrating Epiphany)
• 1 large egg(s) whisked with a little water for egg wash
• 1 paper crown optional

Metric - US

Instructions

• Line a large sheet pan with parchment paper. Set aside
• In the bowl, using an electric hand mixer, cream the butter and the sugar.
• Grind the pistachios finely in a mini food processor.
• Add the ground nuts, then add the egg.
• Add the vanilla and rum. Mix well
• Transfer to a small container, and refrigerate overnight (or until cold).
• Divide the puff pastry in 2.
• Roll one half to a 12-inch circle (or a little bigger, and trim to a 12-inch circle). Place on the prepared sheet pan.
• Spoon the filling into the center of the disc, leaving the outer edge free for egg wash.
• Place the black-eyed pea in the filling, close to the edge, and in the direction that you would cut the galette (to avoid slicing it in half).
• Prepare the egg wash by mixing the egg with a little water and a pinch of salt to thin it out.
• Brush the edges with a thin layer of egg wash.
• Roll the other half to a slightly larger disc. And place on top.
• Press down the edges really, really well!
• Trim the edges to make them pretty, if you’d like.
• Brush the top pastry lightly and evenly with egg wash. Let stand 1 minute to dry a little, then coat it again.
• Draw pretty patterns with a knife (don’t pierce the pastry!) on the top pastry..
• Pierce the pastry to allow for venting.
• Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
• Preheat the oven to 375 ºF.
• Bake the galette at 375°F for 45 to 50 minutes.
• Let cool completely before serving.
• The person that gets the slice with the bean gets to wear the crown!

Notes

• This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!
• For a greener filling, you can peel pistachios to remove the brown skins before making the filling. 

Nutrition

Calories: 554kcal | Carbohydrates: 43g | Protein: 8g | Fat: 39g | Saturated Fat: 12g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 5g | Monounsaturated Fat: 20g | Trans Fat: 0.2g | Cholesterol: 57mg | Sodium: 279mg | Potassium: 133mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 9g | Vitamin A: 259IU | Vitamin C: 0.2mg | Calcium: 23mg | Iron: 2mg

The post How to make a galette des rois appeared first on The Bake School.

 

What makes puff pastry rise and puff to become flaky?

You'll notice that unlike homemade croissants, which are made with yeast as a leavening agent, as well as lots of butter, homemade puff pastry has no leaveners, whether yeast or a chemical leavener, like baking soda or baking powder. The rise of puff pastry comes entirely from steam, which comes from butter. After all, butter is roughly 80 % fat, and about 15 to 20 % water.

Puff pastry is made from a very simple list of ingredients and it's mostly butter, flour, and water. You add a little salt for flavour and a little vinegar to delay gluten development when you mix the dough. This way, your dough will not be elastic, so that you can roll and fold, and manipulate the dough without it retracting back as you stretch it out. 

Of course, the vinegar is optional, and you could probably get away without it. However, given how many times you have to roll out the dough to create the layers, you are better off adding a splash of an acidic ingredient, just in case. You can use white vinegar or cider vinegar. Stick to a vinegar that is light in colour and not flavoured.

When you bake puff pastry, the butter melts, and the water vaporizes, transforming to steam, which rises and pushes the layers up. The layering of the butter within the dough is key and this is why puff pastry requires more rolling and folding than croissant dough does. Since there's no yeast to contribute to the puff, you need more layers to achieve a good rise in the oven and to create that crispy flakiness we all expect.

Remember that homemade croissants have 4 turns, while you'll notice in the recipe below that homemade puff pastry has 6 turns, which means even more layers. The thinner you can roll out the dough before folding, the thinner and finer your pastry layers will be.

What to make with puff pastry

Once you've mastered puff pastry, you can use it to make tarts, cookies, and even savoury recipes (like cheese straws!). The recipes you can make include:

• galette des rois: a thick layer of frangipane (the French baking term for almond cream) is baked between two disks of puff pastry
• apple tarte tatin: this is an upside-down apple tart that is baked with puff pastry (or pie crust) on top and the apples on the bottom, and then it's flipped onto a plate to serve it!

📖 Recipe

Print

Homemade Puff Pastry

Follow this recipe for homemade puff pastry so that you can then make apple turnovers, galettes, and other baked goods.

Course Pastry

Cuisine French

Prep Time 1 hour hour

Total Time 1 hour hour

Servings 16

Calories 319kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• Rolling pin

Ingredients

• 500 grams bleached all-purpose flour
• 300 mL water
• 58 grams unsalted butter melted
• 10 grams Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
• 10 mL vinegar
• 400 grams unsalted butter

Metric - US

Instructions

• Sift the flour onto your work surface. Mix in the salt with your fingertips, then make a well in the center of the mound of flour.
• Mix the water and vinegar together and set aside.
• Make a well in the flour and pour the melted butter in the well. Work it into the flour mixture, slowly adding a little of the water at a time until a dough forms (you may not need to use all the water as you don’t want the dough to be too wet!).
• Form the dough into a square, cut a slit in the middle of one side, wrap and refrigerate the dough for 20 minutes.
• Meanwhile, shape the 400 grams of dough into a perfect flat square with the help of a rolling pin. Wrap it and refrigerate until it is cold.
• Take the chilled dough and roll it into a square (using just a little flour on the work surface and rolling pin to prevent sticking).
• Place the square of butter in the middle (with the points of the square of the dough pointing towards the middle of the sides of the square of dough). Bring up the corners of the dough toward the center and pinch all the edges together. Basically you want to wrap the butter with the dough and seal it in tightly.
• Roll the square into a rectangle for which the length is three times the width. Do a simple turn (folding in thirds like a letter). Flip the dough over, turn it 90 degrees, and repeat the rolling and simple turn. You’ve now made two simple turns.
• Chill the dough for at least 1 hour (or overnight). Then roll it out and repeat the simple turn two more times. That makes four turns so far.
• Chill the dough for at least 1 hour (or overnight). Then roll it out and repeat the simple turn two more times. Now you have done six simple turns overall and the dough is ready to use once you have chilled it again for at least 1 hour.

Notes

• This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!
• For more information on how to make puff pastry, watch this Julia Child video and read this Q & A.

Nutrition

Calories: 319kcal | Carbohydrates: 24g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 24g | Saturated Fat: 15g | Cholesterol: 62mg | Sodium: 247mg | Potassium: 39mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 715IU | Calcium: 12mg | Iron: 1mg

The post Homemade puff pastry appeared first on The Bake School.