31 Puff Puff Pastry Recipes You'll Wanna Pass Around (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to puff pastry? ›

The trick is to work large pieces of cold butter into dry ingredients and hydrate it all with ice cold water (as if you were making pie crust). Sometimes bakers grate butter into the mix or use a food processor. There's lots of ways to make rough puff pastry.

Bake the pastries at 375°F until done: Lower the oven temperature and continue baking until the pastries are dry, crisp, and deep golden-brown. Cool and serve: Let the pastries cool slightly, then serve. Or if you're filling them after baking, let them cool completely, then fill and serve.

Heat is the enemy of Puff Pastry—it handles best when cold. So avoid working with it on hot, humid days, in a stifling hot kitchen or next to your oven.

To create a tart with an extra puffy crust: take a knife and score two lines around the edge, then prick the area inside this border with a fork. Puff Pastry fillings should be at room temperature. If they're hot, they can begin to melt the pastry layers, which will affect the pastry's ability to rise and puff.

Always cut Puff Pastry straight down, never on an angle, to prevent layers from sticking together and inhibiting the rise. Cut up and down, and don't drag the knife. You can brush an egg-wash glaze (1 egg plus 1 tsp. water) over the Puff Pastry to create a rich, golden sheen when baked.

Egg wash is the most reliable but it can be very thick and sticky. Milk wash will go on more evenly but it can soak into pastry and make it weaker. Melted butter works nicely after the crust has set but it can make the crust greasy and weaker.

For medical reasons I should minimize the fat on my recipe. Puff pastry is mainly made by 3 important ingredients, flour, water, and fat (butter or oil). Unfortunately, I learned that butter and oil, consist of 100% fat. I've successfully created puff pastry using oil in a pan before.

The terms full, three-quarter and half are used when describing the amount of fat in the pastry. Full has equal weight of fat and flour, three-quarter has three-quarters of the weight of fat to flour, and half has half the weight of fat to flour. More fat makes the pastry softer to eat but reduces its height.

What's the difference between pie crust and puff pastry? Pie crust is a type of pastry dough made with flour, fat (usually butter, lard or shortening), and water. It's used as a base for pies, tarts, and quiches. Puff pastry is a type of light, flaky pastry dough made with flour, fat (usually butter), salt and water.

The main differences between puff pastry and phyllo dough are their fat content and preparation. Puff pastry is a laminated dough that gets its signature airy puff from layers of butter, while phyllo dough is comparatively low-fat. Phyllo dough is mostly flour and water and can dry out easily.

Why do you put vinegar in puff pastry? ›

Vinegar is occasionally incorporated into puff pastry dough to hinder gluten development, leading to a more delicate and flaky pastry. It also helps regulate the dough's pH, impacting its texture and rise. Typically, only a small quantity of vinegar is required in the dough recipe.

4. Handling the dough too much. Yes, the pastry usually needs to be rolled out, cut, and shaped, but when handled too much, the cooked pastry can turn out tough instead of light and crisp.

For an extra-crispy crust, trim the puff pastry lattice to fit the baking dish, but don't set it on top of the filling. Instead, bake it separately at 400° on a parchment-lined baking sheet for 20 to 25 minutes. Then, place the lattice on top of the hot filling before serving.

Puff pastry does need some gluten development but, because of the amount of rolling out that will happen during lamination, it is very easy to overwork a dough which makes it incredibly hard to use and can cause a lot of shrinkage.

Pastry being soggy in the middle is a result of the pastry being undercooked. Don't place the pastry on too high a shelf in the oven. One way to prevent soggy bottom pastry is to blind bake the pastry – This means partially or completely bake the pastry before adding the filling. Also, avoid over-filling your pastry.

Once forced apart, the fat in the butter or lard cooks each layer of pastry giving the flake. If you open the oven during this process, the puff will deflate and flatten again, so don't open the oven at all during the first 75% of the bake, and then stick to the recommended cooking time.

The first golden rule of making pastry; keep the ingredients, the bowl and the hands as cool as possible.

And remember egg wash isn't just for pie crust; use it on any dough you'd like to give high shine, including dinner rolls, hand pies, brioche buns, and puff pastry or croissants.

Your puff pastry may fail to puff for several reasons. Warm pastry: Your pastry should be cold, cold, cold going into the oven. It's worth reiterating: Cold butter equals flaky layers. If your pastry is warm, the butter can easily leech right out during baking.

Yes, but you might want to use an eggwash or water to make sure the two layers stick together. Yep, there are recipes that call for exactly that.

Should you roll out store bought puff pastry? ›

Tip #2: Roll it Out

Most puff pastry comes folded. Never try to unfold a pastry sheet unless it is thawed or it will crack. I dust my work surface very lightly with all-purpose flour, then dust my rolling pin. I run the rolling pin very lightly over the puff pastry crease to remove it.

Partially cooking your pastry before adding moist fillings will seal the surface and result in a crisp pastry case – it's necessary, because it means your precious pastry won't turn soggy when it's filled and baked.

Water, however, is absorbed much less easily into flour proteins when the temperature is colder. That's why purists recommend cold ingredients, cold equipment and marble boards. Keeping the butter cold also helps when making short crust pastry because it doesn't melt into the flour when you are working it in.