How To: Make Puff Pastry

One of Caleb's favorite dinners is "Star Pot Pie" - that's what he calls it. It's a chicken pot pie and instead of topping it with biscuits I cut stars in puff pastry and top it with them. Puff Pastry isn't super expensive, but it isn't super cheap either. I wanted to make it myself, but felt discouraged when I read:

...keep in mind first and foremost that this most delicate and challenging of pastries must be made the way porcupines make love - that is, very, very carefully. Then shut off the telephone for an hour or two, cut yourself some paper pattern guides...and get to work."

in Joy of Cooking (page 643). I didn't even bother to try their way! I did, however, find a recipe online that admits to not being exactly orthodox puff pastry, but you could've fooled me, the result is a very puffy pastry that looks and tastes like puff pastry. It is not hard and not time consuming. Here is a picture to prove it:

This was a scrap piece after making pot pie - I bake the scraps and dust them with powdered sugar for dessert. You can see in the picture the layers of flaky goodness. And I can assure you it is 100% homemade with two small children underfoot.

Puff Pastry

1 cup flour
1/4 cup cold water
1/2 cup cold butter
1/4 rounded tsp salt - that is 1/4 + 1/16 or just a smidge more than 1/4 tsp

Mix flour and salt well. Cut butter into 1/2 inch slices and mix lightly in the butter and salt. Stir in water. Get out a big piece parchment paper or flour your work surface and pour out the dough. Obviously the butter will still be in huge chunks. Knead it 10 times and make a ball, then shape it into roughly a square shape. Roll it out into a big rectangle about 15x12 inches, I don't bother to measure it. (And ignore the big chunks of butter, they will work themselves out.) Then, fold the long sides in like you'd fold a letter. Think of the remaining rectangle as being in 3 squares stacked on top of each other. Then fold the top square down and the bottom square up over each other to make one square - there will be 4 folds, resulting in 9 layers. Wrap the dough in parchment or wax paper and store in the fridge for 20 minutes. Re-roll, re-fold - now you have 81 layers. Back to the fridge for 20 minutes. Again re-roll, re-fold - now there are 729 layers!!! This is basically a stopping place. I usually put it back in the fridge and leave it there until I am about ready to use it, then I take it out for about 10 minutes, then roll it and cut it.

Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes if you are just baking the pastry. For the pot pie, I bake at 400 for 25 minutes.