Puff pastry
A laminated pastry leavened by steam from butter layers.
Puff pastry, known as *pâte feuilletée*, is a light, flaky pastry whose base dough, called *détrempe*, consists simply of wheat flour and water. Solid fat, typically butter, known as *beurrage*, is then layered into this dough. The production process involves repeatedly rolling and folding the dough, resting it, and then re-rolling and folding again, encasing the solid butter between each resulting layer to create a laminated structure. During baking, the fat melts, leaving gaps between the layers, while steam generated from the water content within the fat expands, puffing the separate layers apart. The pastry layers then crisp as the heated fat contacts their surfaces.
While modern puff pastry was developed in France during the 17th century, the technique of laminating dough and leavening it with air has a much longer history. In Spain, building on Arab or Moorish culinary traditions, the first known recipe for a pastry using butter or lard, following the Arab method of making each layer separately, appears in a 1607 Spanish cookbook by Domingo Hernández de Maceras, head cook at a college of the University of Salamanca. His work already distinguished between filled puff pastry recipes and puff pastry tarts, and even mentioned leavened preparations. Francisco Martínez Motiño, head chef to King Philip II of Spain, also gave several puff pastry recipes in a 1611 publication, where it was used abundantly, especially for savory game pies. The oldest known documented French recipe for flaky pastry dates to a 1311 charter by the bishop of Amiens. The first recipe to explicitly use the technique of encasing solid butter within dough layers by folding several times was published in 1651 by François Pierre La Varenne. Modern French puff pastry was later developed and improved by the chefs M. Feuillet and Antonin Carême. A culinary legend, lacking historical evidence, attributes the idea to the painter Claude Gellée, who supposedly created a buttery bread for his sick father in 1612, producing a croissant-like result.
The production of puff pastry is time-consuming, as the dough must be kept at about 16°C (60°F) to prevent the fat from melting and the layers from merging. It must rest between folds to allow gluten strands to link, preserving the layering. Before each re-rolling, the dough is rotated ninety degrees. Chef Julia Child’s method produces 72 layers for r
Lore & Background
Puff pastry is a light, flaky, laminated dough. Its base is a simple mixture of wheat flour and water, into which a solid fat, most commonly butter, is layered. The defining characteristic of puff pastry is its structure: the dough is repeatedly rolled, folded, rested, and re-rolled, encasing the solid butter between each resulting layer. During baking, the fat melts, creating gaps between the layers. The water content in the fat turns to steam, which expands and puffs the separate layers apart. The pastry layers then crisp as the heated fat contacts their surfaces. The number of layers can be calculated based on the number of folds and repetitions; for instance, a method attributed to Julia Child produces 729 layers. The dough must be kept cool, around 16 °C (60 °F), to prevent the fat from melting and the layers from melding, and it must rest between folds to allow gluten to link up and retain the layering. Common fats include butter, vegetable shortenings, lard, and margarine. Butter provides a richer taste and superior mouthfeel, while shortenings and lard have a higher melting point, allowing the pastry to rise more but often resulting in a waxy mouthfeel and blander flavor. Faster variations, known as “rough puff” or “flaky pastry,” combine the fat into the initial dough or reduce the number of folding steps. Puff pastry differs from filo, which is brushed with melted fat between separate sheets and does not expand as much, and from strudel dough, which is stretched very thin and rolled around a filling.
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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