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Puff Pastry

 
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Puff pastry
 
 
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In baking
Baking

Baking is the technique of prolonged cooking of food by dry heat acting by Heat convection, and not by Thermal radiation, normally in an oven, but also in hot ashes, or on hot stones....
, a puff pastry (; Spanish: hojaldre; ; ) is a light, flaky, unleavened pastry
Pastry

Pastry is the name given to various kinds of baking made from ingredients such as flour, butter, shortening, baking powder or Egg s. Small cakes, tarts and other sweet baked goods are called "pastries"....
 containing several layers of fat which is in solid state at 20°C
Celsius

Celsius is a temperature scale that is named after the Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius , who developed a similar temperature scale two years before his death....
 (68°F
Fahrenheit

Fahrenheit is a temperature scale named after the physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit , who proposed it in 1724. Today, the scale has largely been replaced by the Celsius scale; it is still in use for non-scientific purposes in the United States and a few other countries such as Belize....
).

History
Puff pastry seems to be a relative of the Middle Eastern phyllo
Phyllo

Phyllo, filo, or fillo dough or pastry is paper-thin sheets of raw, unleavened flour dough used for making pastries in Turkish, Greek and Middle Eastern Cookery ....
, and is used in a similar manner to create layered pastries.






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Appleturnover
In baking
Baking

Baking is the technique of prolonged cooking of food by dry heat acting by Heat convection, and not by Thermal radiation, normally in an oven, but also in hot ashes, or on hot stones....
, a puff pastry (; Spanish: hojaldre; ; ) is a light, flaky, unleavened pastry
Pastry

Pastry is the name given to various kinds of baking made from ingredients such as flour, butter, shortening, baking powder or Egg s. Small cakes, tarts and other sweet baked goods are called "pastries"....
 containing several layers of fat which is in solid state at 20°C
Celsius

Celsius is a temperature scale that is named after the Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius , who developed a similar temperature scale two years before his death....
 (68°F
Fahrenheit

Fahrenheit is a temperature scale named after the physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit , who proposed it in 1724. Today, the scale has largely been replaced by the Celsius scale; it is still in use for non-scientific purposes in the United States and a few other countries such as Belize....
).

History


Puff pastry seems to be a relative of the Middle Eastern phyllo
Phyllo

Phyllo, filo, or fillo dough or pastry is paper-thin sheets of raw, unleavened flour dough used for making pastries in Turkish, Greek and Middle Eastern Cookery ....
, and is used in a similar manner to create layered pastries. While traditionally ascribed to the French painter and cook Claude Gelée
Claude Lorrain

Claude Lorrain was an artist of the Baroque Painting era who was active in Italy, and is admired for his achievements in landscape painting....
 who lived in the 1600s (the story goes that Gele was making a type of very buttery bread for his sick father, and the process of rolling the butter into the bread dough created a croissant-like finished product), references appear before the 1600s, indicating a history that came originally through Muslim Spain
Al-Andalus

Al-Andalus was the Arabic name given to the parts of the Iberian Peninsula governed by Arab Muslims, at various times in the period between 711 and 1492....
 and was converted from thin sheets of dough spread with olive oil
Olive oil

Olive oil is a fruit oil obtained from the olive , a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin. The wild olive tree originated in Anatolia and spread from there as far as southern Africa, Australia, Japan and China....
 to laminated dough with layers of butter, perhaps in Italy or Germany.

Production

Puff pastry, also called pâte feuilletée, or pâte feuilletage, is a dough, sometimes called a "water dough" or détrempe, which is spread with solid fat and repeatedly folded and rolled out. The process can be time-consuming because the dough must be kept at a cool temperature (approximately 60°F
Fahrenheit

Fahrenheit is a temperature scale named after the physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit , who proposed it in 1724. Today, the scale has largely been replaced by the Celsius scale; it is still in use for non-scientific purposes in the United States and a few other countries such as Belize....
) and must rest in between folds. Commercially made puff pastry is available in the freezer section
Frozen food

Frozen food is food preserved by the process of freezing. Freezing food is a common method of food preservation which slows both food Decomposition and, by turning water to ice, makes it unavailable for most bacteriuml growth and slows down most chemical reactions....
 of most grocery stores or supermarkets. Common types of fat used include butter
Butter

Butter is a dairy product made by churning fresh or fermentation cream or milk. It is generally used as a spread and a condiment, as well as in cooking applications such as baking, sauce making, and frying....
, vegetable shortenings
Shortening

Shortening is a semisolid fat used in food preparation, especially baked goods, and is so called because it promotes a "short" or crumbly texture ....
, and lard
Lard

Lard is Domestic pig fat in both its Rendering and unrendered forms. Lard was commonly used in many cuisines as a cooking fat or shortening, or as a Spread similar to butter....
. Butter is the most common type used because it provides a richer taste and superior mouthfeel. Since shortenings and lard have a higher melting point, puff pastry made with either will rise more than pastry made with butter if made correctly; however it will often have a waxy mouthfeel and a more bland flavor.

Puff pastry is not the same as phyllo
Phyllo

Phyllo, filo, or fillo dough or pastry is paper-thin sheets of raw, unleavened flour dough used for making pastries in Turkish, Greek and Middle Eastern Cookery ....
 (filo) pastry, although puff pastry can be substituted for phyllo in some applications. Phyllo dough is made with flour, water, and fat and is stretched to size rather than rolled. Usually when using phyllo dough, a small amount of oil or melted fat (usually butter) is brushed on one layer of phyllo dough and is topped with another layer. This process can be repeated as many times as desired. When it bakes, it becomes crispy but, since it contains somewhat less water, does not expand to the same degree as puff pastry does.

Variants


Puff pastry can also be leavened with baker's yeast
Baker's yeast

Baker's yeast is the common name for the strains of yeast commonly used as a leavening agent in baking bread and related products, where it converts the fermentation sugars present in the dough into carbon dioxide and ethanol....
 to create croissant
Croissant

A croissant is a buttery flaky pastry, named for its distinctive crescent shape. It is also sometimes called a crescent or crescent roll....
s or Danish pastry
Danish pastry

Danish pastry, or simply Danish, is a sweet pastry which has become a speciality of Denmark and the neighbouring Scandinavian countries and is popular throughout the industrialized world, although the form it takes can differ significantly from country to country....
, though such doughs are not universally known as puff pastries.

In addition, since the process of making puff pastry is generally somewhat laborious and quite time-intensive, faster recipes (known as "blitz" or "rough puff") are fairly common. Many of these recipes combine the butter into the détrempe rather than adding it in the folding process and are thus similar to a folded short crust.

Common recipes featuring puff pastry

  • Apple Turnover
    Turnover (food)

    A turnover is a kind of pastry made by placing a filling on a piece of dough, folding the dough over, and sealing it. Turnovers can be sweet or savory and are often made as a sort of portable meal or dessert, similar to a sandwich....
  • Steak and kidney pie
    Steak and kidney pie

    The steak and kidney pie is a typical British cuisine recipe with a filling of diced beef steak and beef , Domestic sheep's or pig's kidneys in a thick sauce....
     and other types of pie
    Pie

    A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough shell that covers or completely contains a filling of various sweetness or savoury ingredients....
  • Boraques
  • Sausage roll
    Sausage roll

    A sausage roll is a type of convenience food commonly served at parties and available from bakeries and milk bars as a takeaway food item. The basic formula for a sausage roll is generally a sheet of puff pastry sliced into two and wrapped into tubes around a filling based on sausage meat, blended with softer ingredients such as soaked brea...
    s
  • Beef Wellington
    Beef Wellington

    Beef Wellington is a preparation of beef tenderloin coated with p?t? and duxelles, which is then wrapped in puff pastry and baked. Some recipes include wrapping the coated meat in a cr?pe to retain the moisture and prevent it making the pastry soggy....


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