It is one of the basics of pastry.
In ancient times, the Romans made a similar preparation with oil and called it puffpastry.
The modern recipe with the butter tour, the famous “tournage,” is instead an invention of French Chef Pierre de la Varenne.
It has a very long procedure, but it deserves inclusion here. On the market, there are many bases already ready from various brands; they can be used to make some of the desserts that have the basic puff pastry as the bundles of apples, but for a real cake homemade puff pastry should be used.
The recipe of the puff pastry that I have reproduced has been reworked by that of a Master pastry chef from Prato who I greatly admire: Paolo Sacchetti.
Puff pastry dough
- Preparation time: 210 minutes + 12 hours resting time
- Ingredients for 1 kg or 2 lbs 3 oz of puff pastry
- Difficulty: Difficult recipe
- Ingredients
- For the tournage dough:
- 120 gr or 4 oz of pastry flour
- 400 gr or 14 oz of butter
- For dough:
- 320 gr or 11 oz of pastry flour
- 20 gr or ¾ oz of butter
- 8 gr or 1 teaspoon of salt
- 20 gr or 1 tablespoon of dry white wine
- 150 gr or 5 oz of cold water
- Instructions
- Knead in all the ingredients of the dough quickly until you get a raw dough. Give the shape of a rectangle with a rolling pin. Sprinkle the dough with a little flour, cover with cellophane, and place in the fridge for at least an hour.
- For the tournagedough, mix the flour well with the butter, possibly in the mixer. Wrap it with bakingpaper and give it the shape of a rectangle with a rolling pin. Place it in the refrigerator for at least an hour.
- When the two doughs have reached the same temperature, proceed to assembly. Spread the dough with a bit of the butter inside the baking paper. Roll out the dough with a rolling pin until it is as wide as the stick of butter and along the double. Insert the butter dough inside the dough (as shown in the photo on the top left). Now pull the dough with a rolling pin very gently so as not to break the butter dough and give the first fold to 4 layers (see photo above right). Cover with cellophane and leave in the refrigerator for at least thirty minutes.
- Pick up the dough and stretch it with a rolling pin to give the second fold to 4 layers. Cover it again with the cellophane and leave it in the fridge for another thirty minutes.
- Pick up the dough and stretch it with a rolling pin to give the third fold to 4 layers. Cover it again with the cellophane and leave it in the refrigerator at least 12 hours before using it.
Tips to ensure the success of the dish:
- The dough should be worked very little to not have a mass that is difficult to extend. For the same reason,it is preferable to use a flour that is suitable for croissants. If you have the simple pastry flour in the pan, it would be preferable to increase the time of rest in the fridge to ensure that the dough is not “stressed” and is spreadable with a rolling pin easily.
- Puff pastry is a laborious process. Rest times in the refrigerator, especially the last one, cannot be eliminated.
