Adventures in Puff Pastry

 Inauguration Day seemed like a good day to try something new (and tasty)! So I decided to make some puff pastry. It is actually surprisingly easy! You need cold butter. I used butter straight out of the fridge (not freezer) and that worked very well. 

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 1/4 cup of cold butter (2.5 sticks)
• 1/2-3/4 cup of cold water

Whisk together the flour and salt in a large bowl. Cut the cold butter into 1/4-in chunks. Add to the flour and toss to coat. 

 

Stir in the water (start with 1/2 cup) until a thick dough like the picture below forms. I found that I actually needed to add a bit more water (so I added closer to 3/4 cup in total) to get a dough ball that I could work with. 

Gather the dough into a ball, flatten it into a disk, and wrap it in plastic wrap (or beeswax if you are eco-conscious like me!). Chill the dough for one hour in the fridge. 

                                 

Dust your work surface with flour. Unwrap the dough and roll into a rectangle (as best you can...mine was more an oval). Fold the dough in thirds, like an envelope. Then turn 90 degrees, roll it into a rectangle again, and fold in thirds again. I repeated this two more times. 

Wrap the dough again and chill in the fridge for 2 hours before using.