Puff and Flaky Pastry Problem Solving | Mason Cash (2024)

FAQs

How do you get the best results with puff pastry? ›

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.

If you want to keep the inside from rising as much as the edges, just use a paring knife to score a border. Don't cut the dough all the way though! Use a fork to prick the dough. The pastry will still be light and flaky with the edges puffed up and the center will stay down.

Puff pastry is a non-yeasted dough. It's made with flour, water, sometimes a little butter, and salt. It gets all its rise from the layers of butter, which release steam as the pastry bakes.

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.

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 in a preheated oven of at least 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) to get the maximum puff from your pastry.

You'll need two sheets of puff pastry—one for the base and one for the top. Yes, store-bought dough arrives in sheets, but rolling it out gets rid of any indentations from packaging and makes the puff a little thinner, which will lead to a crispier pithivier later.

That is because the water in the butter is turning to steam and forcing each layer apart. Once forced apart, the fat in the butter or lard cooks each layer of pastry giving the flake.

The most flaky, tender crust comes down to a simple 3:2:1 ratio of ingredients—flour, fat, water— no actual recipe needed. Once I understood 3:2:1 pastry crust (which isn't hard, I promise) I had the foundation for not only pies, but also tarts, galettes, pot pies, hand pies and more. The “3” in this ratio is flour.

What is the difference between puff pastry and flaky pastry? ›

Flaky pastry relies on large lumps of butter (approximately 1 in or 2.5 cm across) mixed into the dough, as opposed to the large rectangle of butter in puff pastry. Flaky pastry dough is then rolled and folded in a manner similar to puff pastry.

The larger pieces of butter create steam when they melt in the oven, which then puffs up the layers making the puff pastry flaky.

Can you refreeze puff pastry? Yes, but it may affect the quality. You can refreeze both cooked and uncooked puff pastry, but not more than once. Refrozen raw puff pastry may have less rise, crispness and colour.

Once the fat is placed on the dough during lamination, the layers are folded and rolled a number of times until you have the number of layers you want. This can range from 100 to about 700. If there are more than 700 layers the dough layers are too thin and break during baking, so the pastry does not rise evenly.

Puff pastry should be rolled out to approx. 4-5 mm depth. To re- roll puff pastry once you have cut something out from the main piece, layer up all the trimmings, folding to achieve approximately an even stack.

Puff pastry can deflate if you introduce cold air into the oven too soon. If you're baking plain puff, place in the middle of your oven and bake for about 6 minutes and then feel free to turn down to about 400 degrees until fully baked and golden, about 15-18 minutes total.

Keep Everything Cool

Run your hands under cold water before starting to mix pastry. If the butter or lard warms up too much (like on a hot day, for example), pop it in the refrigerator from time to time. Roll pastry on a cool surface (a marble slab is perfect) dusted with flour.

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.