Generality
Puff pastry is a basic pastry preparation, used for many sweet or savory recipes; the most well-known puff pastry-based foods are: pretzels, savory pies, sweet cakes, "salty bar pasta" (amberjack type), "sweet bar pasta" (stuffed or not, "cannoncino" type, "trecce", etc.) .) etc.
Puff pastry is considered a typically French food, although its origins strongly recall the central-Mediterranean diet. Obviously, the ancient recipe was different from the contemporary one: while the modern puff pastry is prepared with water, flour, salt and butter, the first recipe (probably Egyptian and then Greek) involved the use of olive oil. However, both the archaic and the modern formula require a high use of seasoning fats which, combined with the complex carbohydrates of the flour, structure the calorific value of the puff pastry.
Characteristics of the ingredients and precautions
The ingredients of the puff pastry are essentially 4: wheat flour, butter, water and salt.
Puff pastry should be considered an "instant" leavening dough, then by means of cooking. This is NOT due to the presence of microbiological starters (such as brewer's yeast, sourdough, etc.), nor to sodium bicarbonate, ammonium bicarbonate or chemical yeast, but to the chemical-physical modification of water, proteins and gases present in the dough. It is also essential to remember that the instant leavening of the puff pastry depends essentially on the kneading process ( folding ); an error in handling inexorably compromises the success of the final product. For the same reason, the puff pastry clippings should NOT be re-kneaded as could be done with bread or pasta.
INGREDIENTS
- Wheat flour: must be type 00 and have an "average" strength, about 230 W. It is the same used for "soft dough" (bread making of Pugliese, Ciabatta, French), "for hard pasta" (Ferrarese pair) or for the refreshment of the sourdough / sourdough.
Decreasing the strength of flour for puff pastry results in greater friability, less flaking and less heaviness in the finished product; on the contrary, with a stronger flour you get a very peeled product, light but with poor friability due to the greater absorption of water by gluten.
- For water there are no particular indications, other than to use it as a salt thinner. It has the function of softening the pastel (later we will see what it is), favor the layering of the puff pastry and homogenize the salty taste.
- The butter is generally white and cow's milk. Variants such as Norman butter or other types are not excluded, as long as one bears in mind that some of them possess a very different flavor and taste. Better to avoid margarine, it has a less prized taste and a metabolic impact almost identical to butter (there are no reasons to prefer it, if not a lower cost).
- As for butter, even salt does not require special care. The fine and common one is fine; obviously, using an integral sea salt and / or fortified in iodine would give greater nutritional value to the puff pastry. The recommended portion of salt is about 20g / kg of flour.
- Some supplement the water with a little lemon juice to reduce the sense of fatness of the puff pastry.
Method
The process for the production of puff pastry requires, first of all, the formation of two doughs: one of water, salt and flour, called pastel ; the other of only butter and flour, to form a loaf. WARNING! For an optimal result it is necessary that: the ingredients (above all the water and the butter), the tools and possibly also the working environment are absolutely COLD.
Pastel can be produced in three different ways:
- mixing it little, speeding up the time and increasing the pulping capacity (however irregular) of the pasta;
- mixing it a lot, obtaining greater regularity and less flaking (this is due to the fact that when gluten enters cooking, it is already under tension and resists vapor pressure);
- fat pastel, more solid than lean and that does not require the subsequent incorporation of the other ingredients.
The butter and flour dough must be made from very cold butter, then just taken out of the refrigerator. This is then beaten with a rolling pin, to make it more manipulable, and integrated with the flour (the latter, in a proportion of 30% compared to butter). Then the modeling takes place, to form a parallelepiped about 1 cm high, which will then rest in the refrigerator for at least an hour. NB . A type of butter already integrated with flour called platte is also available on the market.
Let's now turn to the kneading of the pastry, which is the essential procedure for a correct "peeling". First, spread the pastel thinly with a rolling pin until it forms a square. At the center, the butter and flour dough is then placed; then the whole thing is closed by combining the redundant pastel ears as a pack. Blend everything with a rolling pin to make a thin sheet that will rest in the fridge for about 15 '. Afterwards a series of folds (or turns) will be carried out to be carried out methodically and for a certain number of times. To better understand how to perform these folds I suggest you consult Alice's video recipe: Puff pastry -Recipe to prepare it at home; in general, folding takes place in the following ways: 4 by 4, 5 by 3 or 6 by 3. ATTENTION! For an optimal result it would be advisable to let the dough rest for 15 'after each fold.
Easy puff pastry
X Problems with video playback? Reload from YouTube Go to Video Page Go to Video Recipes Section Watch the video on youtubeI remind the kind readers that the outcome (peeling potential) of the puff pastry depends on both the number and thickness of the folds. The high folds favor the increase of the thickness of the cooked pasta, while the low ones determine an opposite result.
Cooking
As anticipated, the growth of the dough in baking is caused by the evaporation of the water contained in the butter and in the pastel which, finding a network of gluten to block the leakage and an impermeable layer of lipids, swell in a more or less uniform manner. Therefore, one of the secrets for preparing puff pastry is the care in the layering of the dough. Each fold must be well tightened and must NOT present holes or tears; otherwise, it would create an escape route for gases that would cause irregularities or large bubbles in the product. Furthermore, based on the strength of the flour used and the level of handling of the pastel, the puff pastry should be left to rest more or less long before cooking. This allows to better activate the gluten MA also to allow it to lose much of the so-called "nerve"; in practice, by letting the dough rest it is possible to "relax" the gluten and allow a greater swelling of the finished product.
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Nutritional values (per 100 g of edible portion)
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To cook the puff pastry keep in mind that, as it is rich in water, it requires longer cooking times than you might think; nevertheless, it is also a dough that burns quickly enough. Times and temperatures are not uniform; they depend above all on the thickness, on the size and on the eventual drilling of the puff pastry, in turn juggled according to the specific recipe. Generally speaking, temperatures of 220-230 ° C are used ONLY for thin bases, holes and pretzels, while for thicker mixes a heat of 160-180 ° C is required. The ideal color for the NON-brushed puff pastry is dark blond, lighter where it rests on the plate (eventually replaceable with a grill) but always crumbly.
Other variants
In principle, if the puff pastry is destined for the production of cakes and vol-au-vent, it is advisable to obtain a mixture of flour and butter in equal measure (200g + 200g), salt and 1 EGG.
For pizzas and pretzels, how not to mention the famous French puff pastry, which uses 300g of "0" flour, 200g of butter, 100g of water and salt.
Finally, because it is less known but still interesting, the English puff pastry. It is made with 250g of STRONG flour, 250g of butter, 100g of water and ½ tablespoon of lemon juice; the procedure is almost totally different from the other. This is obtained with a fat pastel, spread and enriched with the remaining butter in flakes; it is then folded in 3 twice.
Nutritional characteristics
Puff pastry is a food made from wheat flour, water and butter. The energy intake is very high, given mainly: from the complex carbohydrates of the flour and from the butter triglycerides. It can therefore be deduced that puff pastry is not a food that can be used in the low-calorie nutritional regime against overweight.
Fatty acids are predominantly monounsaturated, but the fraction of saturates is not negligible as is that of cholesterol; for these two characteristics, the puff pastry does NOT lend itself to feeding against hypercholesterolemia.
Proteins are few and of medium biological value; even the fiber content is not appreciable.
From the saline and vitamin point of view, the puff pastry does not boast concentrations worthy of note; mediocre, even if more decisive than others, is the calcium intake, while the content of retinol equivalents (vit. A) could be defined as "discrete".
Sodium intake is noticeable and undesirable, especially in the diet of those suffering from high blood pressure.
