Daring Bakers: Puff Pastry
Hi, I'm Lauren, your friendly neighborhood glutton for punishment, and I have three words for you:
it puffed, #$@%*.
The September 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Steph of A Whisk and a Spoon. She chose the French treat, Vols-au-Vent based on the Puff Pastry recipe by Michel Richard from the cookbook Baking With Julia by Dorie Greenspan.
Now, my kitchen has seen its fair share of disasters. Wedding-shower cream puffs. Shortbread that fell on the floor instead of the cooling rack. The flavorless strudel that was such a Daring Bakers disappointment. Puff pastry was far from a disaster, but it was the most physically demanding challenge to date, as I had to push so hard on my rolling pin that the heels of my hands were bruised for two days afterwards. After suffering* thusly, you can bet I would have broken a window or a least eaten some ice cream right out of the carton if the darn stuff hadn't puffed. But it did puff. #&@%*.
The basic procedure for puff pastry is thus: First, you make a very basic dough. So basic, in fact, that it is play-doh: just flour, water and salt. You make that dough into an envelope and stuff a pound of butter inside it. Then, you roll out** and fold that packet time and time again, until you have whisper-thin sheets of dough separating even thinner sheets of butter. When you bake it, the dough releases steam which causes the rise, result is flaky, airy, and intensely buttery.
But the big question: was it worth it?
On the one hand, it took most of the day. The last wisps of summer were hanging on, making it just too warm in the kitchen to do 2-3 turns at a time as the recipe suggested. While I've been hoping to get a marble slab for a while - and this would have been the perfect challenge to justify the purchase! - it just wasn't in the checking account stars, le sigh. So to keep the butter cold enough to not squish out in a most undignified fashion, I had to do one turn every 30-45 minutes, doubling the waiting time. This meant dinner was late.
That said, this recipe made more than two pounds of puff pastry. TWO POUNDS! Made with butter... and right there lies the difference.
See, the affordable kind of store-bought puff pastry is made with shortening and runs $4-$5 a package. It has the puff, but alas, it is not buttery. Of course, you can get butter-based puff pastry at fancier stores, but you can also expect to shell out $10-$12 for a 15-ounce package.
The homemade kind requires a pound of butter and about a pound of flour. So for $5 in ingredients and a day around the house,*** I can get a huge quantity of real, buttery, amazingly delicious and flaky puff pastry.
Therefore, effort to deliciousness ratio for this Daring Bakers challenge: favorable, particularly once costs are factored in. If you want to try it yourself, I suggest this Julia Child video to see how it's done.
*I'm not sure what kind of sympathy exists for bodily harm caused by one's own baking.
**I swear, really, that rolling out fridge-cold butter really does require a great deal of pressure. Right? RIGHT?!?!?
***And some bruises.
it puffed, #$@%*.
The September 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Steph of A Whisk and a Spoon. She chose the French treat, Vols-au-Vent based on the Puff Pastry recipe by Michel Richard from the cookbook Baking With Julia by Dorie Greenspan.
Now, my kitchen has seen its fair share of disasters. Wedding-shower cream puffs. Shortbread that fell on the floor instead of the cooling rack. The flavorless strudel that was such a Daring Bakers disappointment. Puff pastry was far from a disaster, but it was the most physically demanding challenge to date, as I had to push so hard on my rolling pin that the heels of my hands were bruised for two days afterwards. After suffering* thusly, you can bet I would have broken a window or a least eaten some ice cream right out of the carton if the darn stuff hadn't puffed. But it did puff. #&@%*. The basic procedure for puff pastry is thus: First, you make a very basic dough. So basic, in fact, that it is play-doh: just flour, water and salt. You make that dough into an envelope and stuff a pound of butter inside it. Then, you roll out** and fold that packet time and time again, until you have whisper-thin sheets of dough separating even thinner sheets of butter. When you bake it, the dough releases steam which causes the rise, result is flaky, airy, and intensely buttery.
But the big question: was it worth it?
On the one hand, it took most of the day. The last wisps of summer were hanging on, making it just too warm in the kitchen to do 2-3 turns at a time as the recipe suggested. While I've been hoping to get a marble slab for a while - and this would have been the perfect challenge to justify the purchase! - it just wasn't in the checking account stars, le sigh. So to keep the butter cold enough to not squish out in a most undignified fashion, I had to do one turn every 30-45 minutes, doubling the waiting time. This meant dinner was late.
Behold the flaky layers of my vols-au-vent!
That said, this recipe made more than two pounds of puff pastry. TWO POUNDS! Made with butter... and right there lies the difference.
See, the affordable kind of store-bought puff pastry is made with shortening and runs $4-$5 a package. It has the puff, but alas, it is not buttery. Of course, you can get butter-based puff pastry at fancier stores, but you can also expect to shell out $10-$12 for a 15-ounce package.
The homemade kind requires a pound of butter and about a pound of flour. So for $5 in ingredients and a day around the house,*** I can get a huge quantity of real, buttery, amazingly delicious and flaky puff pastry.
Therefore, effort to deliciousness ratio for this Daring Bakers challenge: favorable, particularly once costs are factored in. If you want to try it yourself, I suggest this Julia Child video to see how it's done.
*I'm not sure what kind of sympathy exists for bodily harm caused by one's own baking.
**I swear, really, that rolling out fridge-cold butter really does require a great deal of pressure. Right? RIGHT?!?!?
***And some bruises.
If it makes you feel any better, I was watching a food network show where the cook advised that the time it takes to make pastry makes buying it very worth while.
September 29, 2009, at 11:02 AMOh, man. I'd occasionally flirted with the idea of making my own puff pastry. I think I'll stick with the ridiculously expensive frozen stuff from WF. Dang. Bruises!
September 29, 2009, at 2:31 PMIn mid to late December Trader Joe's sells all butter artisan puff pastry for a song.... last year I stuffed my freezer to the gills with it. But I will have to try this recipe to hold me over in the meantime.
October 13, 2009, at 12:26 PMKathryn, this is about the best news ever. Thanks for posting! Now... I better buy a chest freezer.
October 19, 2009, at 9:23 PM