Puff Instructions

If you've purchased our Puff Pastry Dry Mix... here are your instructions on how to make it! 

Please read through the instructions before you start making it so you have a full understanding on what's happening. I also give you options on how to make it so you can decide which way you're going to tackle this once you've read it, but before you start.

What you'll need;

For the Pastry

• 150g cold, diced unsalted butter
• 150g ice cold water
• Casein Protein Powder - this is not substitutable for something else like WPI. Trust me. 

For the Butter Packet

• 500g cold, unsalted butter 
• Casein Protein Powder - this is not substitutable for something else like WPI. Trust me. 

Let's make the pastry first...

Empty the contents of your pack into a bowl and add the cold diced butter. 

Mix it together with your hands while pressing the cold butter between your fingers and the flour until it resembles bread crumbs. - If you've ever made scones as a kid... you'll know exactly what I mean. 

Create a well in the middle and pour in your water. 

Stick your hand in the middle of the 'full of water well' and start moving it around in a circular motion to start incorporating the flour. 

Once it has all come together in the bowl, pop some dusting casein on your bench and get kneading! 

You'll need to knead (HA HA!) this for at least 5 minutes, adding dusting casein to your bench as you need it, to prevent it from sticking. 

Bring it together in to a ball and cling wrap it and pop it in the fridge while we get your butter packet ready. 

Alternatively- (if you have a food processor)

Pop the flour and cold butter into a food processor and pulse it until it resembles bread crumbs. (about 5-10 pulses)

Dump all your water into the food processor with the (now bread crumb resembling) flour and butter and pulse the food processor until the dough comes together.

Dump this onto your Casein dusted bench and get kneading!

You'll need to knead this for at least 5 minutes, adding dusting casein to your bench as you need it to prevent it from sticking. 

Bring it together in to a ball and cling wrap it and pop it in the fridge while we get your butter packet ready. 

 

Alternatively- (if you have a food processor AND a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment)

Pop the flour and cold butter into a food processor and pulse it until it resembles bread crumbs. (about 5-10 pulses)

Dump all of this breadcrumb mixture into your stand mixer with the dough hook attachment. 

Pop the stand mixer on a low speed and slowly add all of the cold water in 1 smooth stream until you're out of water.

Let the machine mix the dough until it creates a ball in the middle and comes away from the side of the bowl - about 5 minutes.

Cling wrap your bowl and pop it in the fridge while we get your butter packet ready. 

 

Now let's get to your Butter Packet!

You're going to have either 1 x 500g Butter rectangle or 2 x 250g rectangles.

If you have 1 x 500g, cut it in half long ways until you have 2 x 250g rectangles. 

Get your self something long and strong (HA HA!) kinda like a wooden rolling pin. (I'm gonna take a wild guess and assume you have one of these considering you've bought a puff pastry 'make at home' mix)

Now, what we are wanting to do with this butter packet is soften it, while also keep its temp cold. The reason we need to do this, is because when we start rolling out the cold butter and pastry to create the layers, we want to be able to allow the butter to roll out with the pastry, without it being too solid and it breaking through the pastry. So we want you to work strongly and quickly here. strongly because we're about to beat the shizzzz out of this butter but quickly because we want to keep the butter cold. 

So!

Put a good sprinkle of Casein on your bench (please do this on a solid bench, not a glass table) and put your 2 x 250g butter rectangles next to each other and touching. They'll now look like a bigger, flatter recangle-y square. 

Put a good sprinkle of Casein over the top of the butter and start bashing out the butter with your rolling pin. 

If any of the butter starts sticking to the rolling pin, add more Casein. Keep beating until it flattens out and starts to get thin. 

Fold over your butter onto its self twice, like folding a 3 page pamphlet. 

If you're still nice and cold... add more casein and repeat this step until the butter is pliable but not melting. Shape it into a neat rectangle, about 10cm long, 5 cm wide and 2cm high- put it aside.

Now, take your dough out of the fridge and pop it onto your casein dusted bench.

What we're now going to do, is spread your dough ball out to have 4 wings and a puffy/thicker middle square/rectangle. We want these wings to be big enough to fold over our butter packet to cover it completely and the puffy/thick middle to be big enough to fit our butter packet on. The reason we want the puffy/thick bit is because as we fold over the wings, that's going to create a certain thickens of dough. We want the bottom of it to also have a similar thickness of dough.

So -

Sprinkle a little Casein on top of your ball of dough and flatten it out just a little with your hand. 

Make sure your bench has plenty of "lightly sprinkled" casein this entire time to stop it from sticking to the bench.

With your rolling pin, roll out the top edge of your dough ball to create the first wing. roll it out so its about 10cm long. 

Then do the same on 1 side, the bottom and the final side. You'll now have what looks like a 4 pointed star fish with a fat middle.

Pop your butter packet on top of the fat bit and bring your first wing over to its opposite sided wing, covering the butter packet. 

Repeat this step for the wing next to it. and continue this step for all 4 wings until your butter packet is completely enclosed. 

If you have worked fast enough here, your butter packet should still be cold and pliable. 

Pop some more dusting Casein on your bench and lets get rolling to create the first layer of many!

Pop a little more dusting Casein on top of your dough and pop your rolling pin in the middle of the dough to start rolling. 

Use your rolling pin as you roll upwards to feel the softness of the dough and butter. Your goal is to keep the butter inside the packet of dough you have created. We want the butter cold enough to roll out with the pastry and not be pressed into becoming the pastry if you're rolling too hard or your butter it too soft. If you can do this without butter leaking out, roll it out into 1 long rectangle of about 30cm long x 15cm wide. 

If your butter has started to melt and seep out, we need to wrap it in cling wrap and pop it in the fridge to get cold again. 

If you've managed to get out your long rectangle, you're ready for your first fold and turn. 

Have your long rectangle running away from you on your bench. 

Pick up the (short edge) of the pastry that is closest to your body and fold that into the middle of the sheet.

Then fold that over again until the new edge reaches the furthest away from you edge. (kinda like folding up a fitted sheet and shoving it in the cupboard).

Now turn the pastry (90 degrees) so one of the open ends is facing your body. 

Wrap it and pop it in the fridge for 10 minutes to allow the butter to chill, remembering you had the open end facing your body.

 Dust your bench again and roll it out again into a long rectangle. 

Fold it up again how you did last time and turn it again so the open end is facing your body and pop it back in the fridge for half an hour.

If the pastry is cracking or cold butter is popping out a little, dust that section with casein and keep going, the more you get into the fold, the more it comes together. 

Dust your bench again and roll it back out. 

Fold it up and turn it. 

Roll it out again (it should still be cold if you're working fast enough) and fold and turn, wrap and fridge for 10-15 minutes. 

At this point, the fridge times are if you're working fast enough for the butter to stay cold. If your butter is soft inside your pastry, leave it in the fridge for longer until the butter is firm again. 

Repeat the Roll, fold and turn. Then again Roll, fold and turn. (you can do a collective of 6-8 folds. These steps are for 6 folds, repeat it one more time if you have the energy for 8 folds)

Your puff has now had enough turns!

Pop your puff back in the fridge to make sure its nice and cold. Once it is, you can now roll the puff out to be used. 

Dusting your bench with casein, you can start rolling your pastry out to about 2mm thick. 

If you're a beginner at pastry, perhaps cut your unrolled pastry into 4, to make it easier for you to roll. 

Do not spoil all your hard work of making those layers by not taking care of it while rolling it out to use. You want the layers in there to make it puff. make sure the pastry is cold and make sure you're feeeeeeeeling the pastry through your rolling pin.

Once you have rolled it out and made whatever it is you wanted to make - ensure you pop it into the fridge to be super cold before cooking it. 

You will also need to glaze it with egg wash before it goes into the oven and you want to ensure you are cooking it in a pre-heated oven at 200 degrees.

The pastry will cook in about 12 minutes at 200 degrees. It will be slightly soft while its still in the oven but crisps up once being out of the oven for a minute or 2. 

If the pastry isn't quite as crisp as you would like it to be, pop it back in the oven for a couple of minutes and let it cool again to crisp up. 

OMG I'm exhausted after writing and having to think about how I'm going to word all of that in actual English haha