Puff pastry
A laminated pastry leavened by steam from butter layers.
Puff pastry, also known as pâte feuilletée, is a light, flaky pastry made from a base dough of wheat flour and water (détrempe) into which butter or other solid fat (beurrage) is layered. The dough is repeatedly rolled, folded, rested, and re-rolled, encasing solid butter between each resulting layer to produce a laminated dough. During baking, gaps form between layers as the fat melts, and the pastry is leavened by steam from the water content of the fat, puffing the separate layers.
Lore & Background
While modern puff pastry was developed in France in the 17th century, related laminated and air-leavened pastry has a long history. However, that book does not describe the laminated puff pastry technique.
Reader's Guide
Modern French puff pastry was then developed and improved by the chef M. Feuillet and Antonin Carême. The production of puff pastry dough can be time-consuming, requiring a temperature of approximately 16 °C (60 °F) to keep the shortening from melting, and resting between folds to allow gluten strands to link up. The number of layers is calculated with a formula: ℓ = (f + 1)^n, where f is the number of folds in a single move and n is how many times the move is repeated. Commercially made puff pastry is available in grocery stores, using fats such as butter, vegetable shortenings, lard, and margarine. Faster recipes known as 'blitz', 'rough puff', or 'flaky pastry' combine butter into the détrempe or reduce the number of turns.
Did You Know?
- The number of layers in puff pastry is calculated with the formula ℓ = (f + 1)^n, but this is an oversimplification that requires specifying initial conditions and the number of folds per turn.
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