Instant puff pastry is ideal for home baking. From it you can make pies and pies (unsweetened and sweet) and even cakes with pastries.
After heat treatment, a properly mixed base has a very delicate taste and crumbly structure. Due to these properties, instant puff pastry is very popular among housewives.
For those who do not like to knead and roll the base for a long time, experienced chefs recommend visiting the nearest store and buying a ready-made cake mix 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 acquisition of hard-to-reach ingredients. It is impossible not to say that the foundation made at home always turns out to be tastier and more useful than the one that is mixed in the production environment.
Instant puff pastry: a culinary recipe
Due to the fact that puff pastry is sold in almost every store, modern housewives are less and less doing it on their own. Some chefs have completely forgotten how such a basis is prepared. To renew the tradition of self-mixing this product, we decided to describe its recipe.
What ingredients are needed to get a real home-made instant puff pastry? For this we need:
- wheat flour (it is advisable to buy only the highest grade) - about 1 kg (you can slightly more or less);
- good quality margarine or natural butter - 4 packs of 175 g each;
- table salt - a full dessert spoon ;
- large eggs - 2 pcs.;
- natural table vinegar (6%) - 2 large spoons;
- filtered water - about 350 ml.
It's important to know!
In order for you to get a tasty and tender puff pastry, yeast, instant, all ingredients must be very cold. To do this, it is advisable to keep the wheat flour, eggs and water for several hours in the refrigerator. As for cooking oil, it is recommended to remove it from the freezer only before directly mixing the base.
Making the bulk of the dough
A quick way to prepare puff pastry is especially popular with those housewives who do not like to knead and roll the base for a long time, and prefer to make delicious pastries in the shortest possible time. Such representatives are advised to take 4 packs of frozen cooking oil and grate it on a large grater. Next, to margarine crumbs, pour wheat flour. At the same time, kneading the ingredients is highly not recommended. They should only be rubbed with palms. As a result, you should have a loose and aromatic mass in the form of small pieces of margarine, boned in flour.
Cooking the second half of the base
Puff pastry dough consists of two parts. We talked about how the first is done. As for the second, it is necessary for her to use a measuring cup. It requires mixing chicken eggs, salt 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 the ingredients should be mixed until a homogeneous mass.
Connect the components
To knead the puff pastry (instant cooking), in the margarine chips should gradually pour the liquid part of the base. By mixing all the ingredients, you should get a dense mass of heterogeneous structure. The finished dough must be assembled into 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.
Subject to all the requirements of the recipe, home-made instant puff pastry should have a heterogeneous cross-section with visible inclusions of margarine chips. During the heat treatment, cooking oil will melt, making the pastries lush and loose.
When can i use it?
Now you know how to make puff pastry. The fastest recipe will take you about 30 minutes of free time. However, baking pies, pies or other products from such a test is possible only after two hours of exposure in the refrigerator.
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. Thaw a little before baking.
Instant Yeast Puff Pastry
Puff pastry is of two types: yeast-free and yeast. 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 is made a little longer. But after baking, such a foundation is much more magnificent and caloric. 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, it is necessary:
- flour, sifted several times, wheat - from 3 glasses;
- butter or good quality margarine - 200 g;
- dry yeast - 5 g;
- table salt - a small full spoon;
- medium-sized egg - 1 pc.;
- warm milk + water - add at discretion;
- granulated sugar - 3 dessert spoons.
We prepare 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 part of the base.
Taking a deep bowl, you need to pour 1/3 cup of warm water into it, add a small spoonful of sugar and pour in dry yeast. Leaving the ingredients warm for ¼ hours, it is necessary to wait for their dissolution. After that, a beaten egg should be added to the resulting mass. Further, it is required to add so much warm milk to the liquid mixture so that its volume becomes equal to one glass.
Make butter crumbs
Having prepared the liquid part of the base, you should begin to prepare loose. To do this, it is necessary to sift wheat flour several times, and then pour in it the rest of granulated sugar and table salt. Next, remove the cooking oil from the freezer and grate it on a large grater. Having mixed all the components, you should get a loose mass in the form of lumps of margarine, boned in flour.
Knead the dough
After both parts of the base have been 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, you can add warm milk or wheat flour 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, form pies or pies, greased with a beaten chicken egg and bake at a temperature of 200 degrees for a whole hour.
Cooking classic puff pastry
Instant and yeast puff pastry , the recipe of which was described above, is intended for lazy housewives. If you do not belong to those, then we propose to make a classic basis. For its kneading and rolling you will need much more time. However, the result will amaze you. After all, after baking such a dough will become very magnificent, tender and tasty.
So, for a traditional puff base, we need:
- sifted white flour - about 3.5 cups (0.5 of them - for grinding oil);
- good butter - exactly 400 g (it is not recommended to use margarine or spread);
- drinking water - ¾ cup;
- medium-sized eggs - 2 pcs.;
- citric acid or natural table vinegar - 5-6 drops;
- table salt - 1/3 of a dessert spoon.
Knead the dough
Before you prepare a real puff base, you need to sift the wheat flour so that a high slide forms on the board. In it, you should make a small deepening, and then break the chicken eggs into it, add salt, drinking water and natural vinegar. After you gently mix all the ingredients with your hands, you should get a thick, but very soft and pliable dough (about the same as for dumplings).
After receiving the basis of the desired consistency, it should be covered with a towel and left to rest for ¼ hours.
Cooking Fat Processing
While the dough is resting under a napkin, you can begin to prepare the butter. It is necessary to put it in a bowl, add ½ cup flour and grind thoroughly into small crumbs. If you forgot to remove cooking oil from the refrigerator or freezer in advance, then there is nothing wrong with that. In this case, it should be grated.
We form puff pastry
Having processed all the ingredients, you can safely begin to form the basis. To do this, rested egg dough must be rolled out into a layer 1 cm thick, and then put all the crumbs of butter in its central part. Next, the sheet must be folded with an envelope. To do this, it is necessary to bend to the midline, first, two side parts (can be linked together), and then the upper and lower, which also need to be pinched.
After receiving the envelope, it should be carefully rolled out along one side. In this case, it is not recommended to put too much pressure on the rolling pin. Having received an elongated rectangular layer, it must be folded again. This requires mentally dividing it into 4 parts. First, the first and last should be bent to the middle (see photo). In the future, the foundation must simply be folded in half.
After carrying out the described actions, the dough needs to be rolled again along the same side. Having similarly folded the product, it should be placed in a bag and sent to the refrigerator. After 40 minutes, the dough needs to be removed and rolled out so that (without forgetting to fold), as described above 4 more times. Thus, you get a real home-made puff base, which can be used to make any baking.
How much is heat treated?
If during the formation of products you decide to roll puff yeast-free dough 2-3 mm thick, 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 the cooking time will be 34-39 minutes. The baking temperature needs to 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).
Useful Tips
As mentioned above, you can cook any pastries from home-made puff pastry. Especially delicious is the Napoleon cake. If for dessert you need to get a delicate and thin sheet, then roll out the base should not be on the table or cutting board, but directly on cooking paper, sprinkled with flour. After that, the base can be immediately transferred to a baking sheet with parchment.