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Dessert

Very Good Puff-paste

A pastry dough made from flour, butter, and water, rolled and folded to create layers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Isabella Beeton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 1 ingredients
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Very Good Puff-paste

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Weigh flour and butter in exact proportion (1 lb flour to 1 lb butter, about 1/2 pint water). Squeeze butter to extract water, wring in cloth to remove moisture.

  2. Sift flour to ensure it is perfectly dry.

Make the paste

  1. Using a clean paste-board and rolling-pin, work the flour, butter, and water into a smooth paste.

  2. Roll the paste to an equal thickness of about an inch.

Laminate

  1. Break 4 oz butter into small pieces, place on the paste, sift a little flour over it, fold, roll out again, and add another 4 oz butter.

  2. Repeat rolling and buttering until the paste has been rolled out 4 times, or equal quantities of flour and butter have been used.

  3. Each time the paste is rolled out, dredge a little flour over the paste and rolling-pin to prevent sticking.

  4. Handle the paste lightly, avoiding heavy pressure with the rolling-pin.

  5. Preheat the oven until it is sufficiently hot to raise the paste.

  6. Brush the paste and butter pieces with egg white to assist rise in leaves or flakes.

By Isabella Beeton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Flour (in the method)
Forms the structure that holds the layers of paste together.
Butter (in the method)
Creates separate layers that steam and lift the paste, producing flakiness.
Water
Combines with flour to form the gluten network that gives the paste its elasticity.
Egg white (in the method)
Helps the paste rise and set into flaky leaves when brushed on.

The step that matters

Handle the paste lightly, avoiding heavy pressure with the rolling-pin.. Heavy pressure squeezes out the butter layers and overworks the gluten, so the pastry turns dense instead of separating into flaky layers.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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