Thursday 10 April 2008

Russir la pte feuillete, pas pas - Mastering puff pastry, step by step
If you know how to use a rolling pin, then you know how to make pte feuillete. This could be the tagline of this pte
feuillete 101 post. But since it sounds like a clich from the 80s (yeah its that bad), Ill have to choose another tagline
with a slightly sexier tang in it; which is something I quite cant come up with right now, so I guess well have to get on
with the recipe.

For those of you who dont know it yet, pte feuillete [literally, layered dough] pat fe-yeah-teh is the French for puff
pastry, a fine and versatile pastry used in many ptisseries and baked good: from mille-feuilles to flans. It consists in a
basic dough, the dtrempe deh-tramp spread with a good share of beurre mani bear man-yeah , then
successively folded and rolled out; hence the layer part of its French name.
There are many ways of making pte feuillete.
Some encase the dtrempe into the beurre mani, just like Pierre Herm does with his delicious pte feuillete inverse.
Others make it old-school-style by encasing the butter into the dtrempe.
Oh and obviously, there are many discussions on how to properly enfold the beurre mani (or dtrempe, if using Pierres
method). Should the dtrempe fully encase the beurre or just be folded over it?
Here, I will show you my own method. Im not saying its the best, but since its the one I used when I first made pte
feuillete and that it proved to be excellent and most importantly, reliable, Ive never given others methods a chance.
Sure, I did make pte feuillete inverse when I was an intern at Pierre Herm, but didnt try this at home and probably
will when Ill have some time on my hands.
However, those differing approaches all converge towards the same purpose: a flaky and puffy pastry.
If its commonsense that the flaky effect comes from the successive folds/rolls, where does the puffy factor comes from?
Its all very simple. Picture the dtrempe. Made with flour, a little butter, and water, it is a moderately hydrated dough,
which undergoes a basic modification during the baking process: water evaporation. So far, its old news. But whats
interesting here is that instead of leaking out of the dough, the steam gets trapped in between the hydrophobic layers of
beurre mani, lifting them and forming water-rich air pockets. This phenomenon takes place until the starch seizes, which
causes the end of the expansion and the beginning of the dehydration and colouration through Maillard reaction.
Because I suspect that; at this point, some of you are remotely bored, I suggest we start making pte feuillete. As usual,
I like to start with weighed and prepared ingredients; and needless to say, a sink full of hot soapy water. I know many of
those who personally know the more-than-you-could-ever-think-messy person I am will laugh at the following, but I like
things to be pretty clean and tidy in the kitchen.

Because I suspect that; at this point, some of you are remotely bored, I suggest we start making pte feuillete. As usual,
I like to start with weighed and prepared ingredients; and needless to say, a sink full of hot soapy water. I know many of
those who personally know the more-than-you-could-ever-think-messy person I am will laugh at the following, but I like
things to be pretty clean and tidy in the kitchen.

To make enough puff pastry for three 23cm tarts or two 6-servings mille-feuilles or more accurately 900g, youll need:
150ml water
5g fleur de sel (one heaped teaspoon)
350g flour
110g butter, melted and cooled
for the dtrempe, and:
375g butter
150g flour for the beurre mani.

Dissolve the fleur de sel into the water.

Dissolve the fleur de sel into the water.

In the bowl of a stand-mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the flour and melted butter until just blended. If
youre making this by hand, use a wooden spoon or a fork.

Reduce the speed of the mixer and slowly pour in the salted water. You might not need it all, depending how the
absorption coefficient of the flour youre using flours from different brands may not need the same amount of water, so
act accordingly. Stop adding water when the dough feels soft, but not overly so. It shouldnt, by any mean, be sticky.
And will still be wet or dry at some spots.

Place the dough onto cling film and working quickly with the palm of your hands, form a rectangle approximately 20cm
long, 15cm wide and 1cm thick. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate.

Once the dtrempe is made, its time to start making the beurre mani. Simply cream the butter for a couple of minutes.

Then scrape the sides of the bowl, and tip in the flour and mix very briefly, until just combined.

Transfer onto cling film and working very quickly the last thing to want is the butter to melt form a rectangle as large
as the one you just made with the dtrempe. Wrap and chill for two hours.

After the two-hour chilling time, dust your workplan with flour and roll out the dtrempe into a rectangle almost twice as
long as its width (it should be around 40cm long, 15cm wide and 0.5cm thick).

Place the rectangle of beurre mani onto the lower part of the rolled dtrempe and fold the upper part over it.

You should now have something that sort of looks like a book.

Place its spine on your left, and roll out until you get a 40cm long and 20 cm wide rectangle. The next step is called a
tour double [literally, a double turn read fold]. Brush the excess flour away and trim the ends so you have a neat
rectangle*.
Visualise the middle axis of the rectangle, grab the lower end of the dough and fold it over so it meets the middle axis.
Do the same with the upper end. Ill call this an open book.
Finally, close the book and wrap it in cling film.
* this is totally what I use to make the presque-palmiers below.

You see those two holes; theyre here to remind you that youve done two tours. This might not be helpful when you only
make one batch, but trust me, when you have more than 50kg of puff pastry to roll, they come quite handy. Refrigerate
for 1 hour.

Now, youre going to make the second tour double.

Place the book look-alike dough in front of you, spine on the left and proceed as above.

At this point, the dough can be kept, well-wrapped, in the fridge for up to a week. However, once you give the dough its
last final tour simple [simple fold], it should get used within 72 hours.

To give the dough its final tour, place the book in front of you, spine on the left and roll it into a rectangle slightly larger
than a sheet of A4 paper. Brush the excess flour away and fold in three, just like you would do with a business letter.

Divide into three 300g ptons and use as you wish.