Instant puff pastry: step by step recipe

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Instant puff pastry ideal for home baking. It can be used to make pies and pies (savory and sweet) and even cakes with pastries.

After heat treatment, a properly mixed base has a very delicate taste and crumbly structure. Thanks to these properties, instant puff pastry is very popular among housewives.

For those who do not like to knead and roll out the base for a long time, experienced chefs recommend visiting the nearest store and purchasing a ready-made semi-finished product for baking. But not always such a product has the proper quality. In this regard, we propose to do it yourself. Moreover, instant puff pastry does not require the purchase of hard-to-find ingredients. It is impossible not to say that the base made at home always turns out to be tastier and he althier than the one that is kneaded in production conditions.

Instant puff pastry: recipe

Due to the fact that puff pastry is sold in almost every store, modern housewives make it less and lesson one's own. Some chefs have completely forgotten how such a base is prepared. To revive the tradition of self-kneading this product, we decided to describe its recipe.

What ingredients do you need to make real homemade instant puff pastry? For this we need:

• wheat flour (it is advisable to buy only the highest grade) - about 1 kg (a little more or less);
• good quality margarine or natural butter - 4 packs of 175g;
• table s alt - full dessert spoon;
• large eggs - 2 pcs.;
• natural table vinegar (6%) - 2 large spoons;
• filtered water - about 350 ml.

Important to know

To make delicious and tender instant yeast-free puff pastry, all ingredients must be very cold. To do this, it is advisable to keep wheat flour, eggs and water in the refrigerator for several hours. As for cooking oil, it is recommended to remove it from the freezer only before directly kneading the base.

Making the loose part of the dough

The quick way to make puff pastry is especially popular with those housewives who do not like to knead and roll out the base for a long time, but prefer to make delicious pastries in the shortest possible time. We recommend such representatives to take 4 packs of frozen cooking oil and grate it on a large grater. Next, to the margarine crumbs, you need to pourwheat flour. At the same time, kneading the ingredients is highly discouraged. They should only be rubbed with the palms of your hands. As a result, you should have a loose and fragrant mass in the form of small pieces of margarine, rolled in flour.

Preparing the second half of the base

Instant puff pastry consists of two parts. We talked about how the first one is done. As for the second, it is necessary to use a measuring cup for it. It requires you to mix chicken eggs, table s alt and natural vinegar. In the future, it is necessary to add cold water to the mug to the mark of 500 ml. In this case, all ingredients should be mixed until a homogeneous mass is obtained.

Connecting components

To knead the puff pastry (instant), the liquid part of the base should be gradually poured into margarine crumbs. After mixing all the ingredients, you should get a dense mass of a heterogeneous structure. The finished dough must be collected in a briquette, and then divided into 3 equal parts. Each of them should be placed in a separate bag and put in the refrigerator for 2 hours.

If all requirements of the recipe are met, homemade instant puff pastry should have a heterogeneous cross-sectional pattern with visible inclusions of margarine crumbs. The cooking oil will melt during the cooking process, making the baked goods fluffy and fluffy.

When can I use?

Now you know how puff pastry is made. The fastest recipe will take you about 30 minutes of free time. However, you can bake pies, pies or other products from such dough only after it has been kept in the refrigerator for two hours.

If the base was mixed for the future, then it is better to place it in the freezer. In this state, the dough can be stored for several months. Let it thaw a little before baking.

Instant yeast puff pastry

There are two types of puff pastry: yeast-free and yeast-free. How the first option is done, we described above. As for the second, the recipe for its preparation will be presented to your attention a little further.

It should be noted that, unlike yeast-free, yeast puff pastry takes a little longer. But after baking, such a base turns out to be much more magnificent and high-calorie. It is good to cook various buns, croissants, pies and so on from it.

So what ingredients do we need to make puff yeast dough? For such a basis, you need:

• flour, sifted several times, wheat - from 3 cups;
• butter or good quality margarine - 200g;
• dry yeast - 5g;
• table s alt - a small full spoon;
• medium-sized egg - 1 pc.;
• warm milk + water - add at your discretion;
• granulated sugar - 3 dessert spoons.

Preparing the liquid part of the base

Instant yeast puff pastry, the recipe of which we are considering, should be done in stages. First you need to prepare the liquid partbasics.

Taking a deep bowl, pour 1/3 cup of warm water into it, add a small spoonful of sugar and add dry yeast. Leaving the ingredients warm for ¼ hours, you must wait for them to dissolve. After that, a beaten egg should be added to the resulting mass. Next, you need to add so much warm milk to the liquid mixture so that its volume becomes equal to one glass.

Making butter crumbs

Having prepared the liquid part of the base, you should start preparing the loose part. To do this, it is necessary to sift the wheat flour several times, and then add the rest of the granulated sugar and table s alt to it. Next, you need to remove the cooking oil from the freezer and grate it on a large grater. After mixing all the ingredients, you should get a loose mass in the form of lumps of margarine, rolled in flour.

Knead dough

After both parts of the base are prepared, they must be combined in one bowl and mixed well. As a result, you should get a smooth and fairly thick dough. If necessary, warm milk or wheat flour can be added to it.

How to use?

Having formed a briquette from the base, it should be placed in a plastic bag and sent to the refrigerator for 1.5 hours. If in the near future you do not plan to cook pastries, then puff yeast dough can be removed in the freezer. Before use, it should be removed, thawed a little, formed into pies or pies, brushed with a beaten chicken egg and baked attemperature of 200 degrees for a whole hour.

Cooking classic puff pastry

Yeast and yeast-free instant puff pastry, the recipe of which was described above, are designed for lazy housewives. If you are not one of those, then we suggest making a classic base. You will need much more time to knead and roll it out. However, the result will surprise you. Indeed, after baking, such a dough will become very lush, tender and tasty.

So, for a traditional puff base we need:

• sifted white flour - about 3.5 cups (0.5 of them for grinding butter);
• good butter - exactly 400 g (it is highly recommended not to use margarine or spread);
• drinking water - ¾ cup;
• medium-sized eggs - 2 pcs.;
• citric acid or natural table vinegar - 5-6 drops;
• table s alt - 1/3 dessert spoon.

Knead dough

Before you prepare a real puff base, you need to sift the wheat flour so that you have a high hill on the board. A small depression should be made in it, and then chicken eggs should be broken into it, s alt, drinking water and natural vinegar should be added. After you gently mix all the ingredients with your hands, you should have a thick, but very soft and pliable dough (about the same as for dumplings).

After obtaining the base of the desired consistency, it should be covered with a towel andleave to rest for ¼ hour.

Processing cooking oil

While the dough is resting under the napkin, you can start preparing the butter. It must be put in a bowl, add ½ cup of flour and carefully grind into small crumbs. If you forgot to remove the cooking oil from the refrigerator or freezer in advance, then there is nothing to worry about. In this case, it should be grated on a large grater.

Forming puff pastry

Having processed all the ingredients, you can safely proceed to the formation of the base. To do this, the rested egg dough must be rolled out into a layer 1 centimeter thick, and then put all the butter crumbs in its central part. Next, the sheet must be folded into an envelope. To do this, it is necessary to bend to the middle line, first the two side parts (can be linked to each other), and then the top and bottom, which also need to be pinched.

After receiving the envelope, carefully roll it along one side. In this case, too much pressure on the rolling pin is not recommended. Having received an elongated rectangular layer, it must be folded again. To do this, you need to mentally divide it into 4 parts. First, the first and last should be folded to the middle (see photo). In the future, the base must simply be folded in half.

After carrying out the described actions, the dough needs to be rolled out again along the same side. Having folded the product in a similar way, it should be placed in a bag and sent to the refrigerator. After 40 minutes the doughit is necessary to take it out and roll it out like this (not forgetting to fold it) as described above 4 more times. Thus, you will get a real homemade puff base that can be used for making any pastry.

How long to heat treat?

If in the process of forming products you decide to roll out puff yeast-free dough with a thickness of 2-3 mm, then it is recommended to bake it for 15-20 minutes. In this case, the temperature in the oven should be about 220 degrees.

If you decide to make thick cakes (for example, 1.5 centimeters), then their cooking time will be 34-39 minutes. The baking temperature must be done more (about 240-260 degrees). As for the yeast dough, it will take almost an hour to bake it (at a temperature of 200 degrees).

Helpful tips

As mentioned above, you can cook any pastry from homemade puff pastry. The Napoleon cake is especially delicious. If for dessert you need to get a delicate and thin sheet, then you should not roll out the base on a table or cutting board, but directly on floured cooking paper. After that, the base can be immediately transferred to a baking sheet along with parchment.