Puff Paste
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Chop the lard into the flour until fine.
Add water and flour, then fold well.
Roll out the dough.
Laminate
Divide the butter into three equal parts.
Sprinkle one third of the butter over the paste in tiny pieces.
Fold up and pound the dough.
Roll out again.
Repeat the same process three times.
Shape and chill
Roll out thin.
Cut in pieces as desired.
Chill thoroughly before using.
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
- Butter (in the method)
- Forms separate fat layers that separate the dough sheets, helping create a flaky texture.
- Lard (in the method)
- Works into the flour as a fat that shortens the dough and keeps it tender.
- Flour (in the method)
- Provides the structure that holds the dough sheets and layers together.
- Ice water
- Binds the flour and fat into a dough while keeping the fat cold and firm.
The step that matters
Sprinkle one third of the butter over the paste in tiny pieces. Small, cold pieces of butter spread through the dough and stay separate as layers. In the oven they melt and release steam that lifts the layers, so the pastry becomes flaky. If the butter softens or is clumped, the layers blend and the texture turns dense.
“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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