Ingredients:
Dough:
480g bread flour
266g of iced cold water
7g salt
5g vinegar
Butter block (tourage):
340g butter
30g bread flour
Method:
1. In a bowl put all your dough ingredients together and knead it lightly until the dough is just coherent. In other words, you do not have to knead it until it is smooth or any elasticity has formed. This is called a lean dough.
2. Take this dough and roll it into a square that is 27cm large and wrap it up in baking paper.
3. Place this in the freezer for 15 minutes, and then flip over for another 15 minutes.
4. With 10 minutes left on your dough, you need to prepare your butter block. So cut your larger butter block into slices. Lay them down (all touching and on top of each other) in between two pieces of baking paper along with some bread flour sprinkled on top of the butter.
5. With a rolling pin smash down the butter to flatten it and to make it malleable. Fold the butter over itself from time to time with your hands or a bench scraper to try and start forming a square.
6. When the butter is malleable (but still cold!) roll it into a 22cm square in between your two baking sheets. If your butter is starting to melt, its best to pop it into the freezer or fridge for a bit to stay cold, but remember still malleable.
*When making any type of laminated dough, your butter needs to be cold but still bendy. The reason is because when you start rolling out your dough you want the butter and dough to remain separate, and you want the butter to be rolled evenly between your layers of dough. This will help you create those beautiful flaky layers in your final product.
7. Take your dough out of the freezer and roll out the points of the dough to elongate them. Now place your butter in the center of your dough but in a diamond shape so that the folds you have elongated can be folded over the butter so that you are encasing the butter in the dough. Make sure these dough folds are completely sealing the butter so when you start rolling out the dough, no butter escapes.
8. Turn your dough over so that those folded over edges are against your bench and roll your dough out (gently!). The dough should be rolled out 50cm in length and try keep 0.5cm thickness.
9. Now you are going to do your first fold. This is called a single or letter fold. Take the top third of your dough and fold it down over itself, then take the remaining two thirds of the bottom and fold that over the top. Turn your dough 90 degrees so that the opened seam is now facing left or right. You don't want to roll the dough the same direction that you just did. Repeat a single fold again and then wrap in clingfilm and rest it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes- if its incredibly hot in your house, I suggest longer. If at any time when you are rolling your dough and the dough resists you (in other words it is difficult to roll as the dough keeps shrinking) stop immediately. The gluten in the dough needs to relax, so place it in the fridge for 30 mins to an hour, and then continue rolling.
Here is a single fold:
10. Now you are going to repeat step 9 another two times bringing the number of folds you have completed SIX. Puff pastry needs to be rolled a minimum of six times for it to be classified as puff pastry.
11. Now wrap up your puff pastry in clingfilm and rest it in your fridge for 8 hours. You have built up a lot of gluten in your dough after all those folds, so it is important to rest it over night.
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