Puff the Magic Pastry: Working with Puff Pastry

Working with puff pastry is a breeze if you know the tips and tricks to get you from freezer to oven in puffy, crispy, flaky goodness.

This week we're talking all things puff pastry, from how's it's made to techniques that insure puffy success. We'll even talk about how to make the most of frozen puff to turn it into a delightful dinner or delectable dessert, in a flash!

YouTube Video: https://bit.ly/4alSsiY

Transcript

Christine Van Bloem: 0:00

Well, hello there and happy day. I wanted to talk to you about one of my very favorite ingredients that I think is really intimidating to a lot of folks. And if you can keep this stuff handy, I promise you can have a quick dinner or dessert available if you just know the basics of what you're doing. So, what am I talking about? A puff pastry, of course. Everybody loves puff pastry. And is it the most heart-healthy thing you're going to find. Well, no. Of course not. So I like to use this sparingly, even though I love anything that's flaky and crispy and delicious. I like to have it on hand. So that I can whip out something to eat with very little notice. So let's talk puff.

1:00

Welcome to the Empty Nest Kitchen, where we're finding fun in the kitchen now that the kids have flown the coop. I'm Christine Van Bloem, a cooking teacher with over 25 years of experience, here to show you tips, tricks, and joy in your kitchen, all while trying something new. Let's get cooking! There are so many really decent. Commercial puff pastries that for us at our level, this stuff is going to work great. So you do not have to go to the trouble of making it on your own, but it is a pretty set process. So before I really dig into this, I just wanted to say a gigantic humongous. Amazing. Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to listen. And it is just, it is such a thrill for me. I am not even going to try to play it. Cool. Like. You know, just I'm nonchalant because what's that? What are people saying? I am as chalant, as it gets baby. And I am just so utterly thrilled that y'all are taking the time to tune in. And I so appreciate the reviews that I've gotten and the ratings that I've gotten. And it's just been fantastic. I'm I'm I could not be more giddy about the entire thing I promise you. And I will tell you, you can get super obsessed with, the ratings and the stats and how many people are downloading and so on and so on and so forth. And I know that it won't always be this way, but my very favorite thing to do. Is to look at the cities where people are listening, because I can't tell who you are, but I can look at the cities and see the percentage and, and all of that. And I have had listeners from as far away, no joke as far away as Israel. Iceland, the UK and Germany. And you know, I'm just, that is giddy to me. But even more so of course, you know, my hometown is where the bulk of the listeners are coming from in Frederick, Maryland. And there are a lot of. Maryland towns in there, And I am so incredibly grateful. I also have San Francisco and Las Vegas and Ohio and Texas. And, uh, the villages shout out to the villages. So I am thrilled and I'm just super grateful. So I wanted to take a couple of minutes just to say, thank you for making this so much fun, and I really appreciate you listening. So let's start talking puff pastry. Shall we? So everybody's familiar with puff pastry, right? Everybody has had something made out of puff pastry or, you've even worked with it yourself. Way back in the day. When I was in culinary school, we used to make our own puff pastry all the time. It was like a big thing for us. If you wanted to use it, you had to do it right. You had to make it. And making it wasn't hard. We didn't have all the tools that are available commercially now, but we had, you know, a rollingpin. And our hands and we would make puff pastry. So what exactly is puff pastry? Why does it get so puffy and gorgeous and lovely? Well, it's pretty simple, actually puff pastry is a mixture of where you make a really basic dough, little flour, water, and butter. And then you make something. We always called it the package. And it was basically butter that had just a touch of flour in it and we would take it and I kid you not, it was a great way to work out some aggression. We would beat the butter with our rolling pin and can't see me doing it now, but in my, you know, I'm whacking it in my head here with the rolling pin to kind of soften it up. And we would form it into a rectangle. And then pop that into the fridge. So it would get nice and cold. Then you would take your dough, you would roll it out into a rectangle. You would take your cold butter block, the package, put it in the center, fold the dough over carefully, not overlapping, just kind of matching the edges as it folds over, and then you would roll it out. You would turn it and you would fold it again. Now because butter warms up when you're working with it. You have to do this in a series of what are known as turns and you would do basically two rounds of those. Take it, put the entire thing into the fridge for a couple of hours. Then once it's firmed up again, you pull it out, you roll it again. You fold it again. Two more times back into the fridge and so on and so forth. I don't remember exactly how many turns we would do on it. But you would do a set number of turns. And what you're doing is creating these microscopic layers. Basically of dough butter dough. Dough butter, DOH, DOH butter dough, and so on and so forth. Now. I seriously, go ahead and give it a try if that is your jam, but I'll be totally honest with you. Unless you're going to a very high-end restaurant. You're getting Pepperidge farm because it is just known in the industry. You don't have to go to the trouble of making your own. I promise. So many restaurants are using commercially prepared puff. Now, if you're going to Alinea or the French laundry or something like that, trust me, they're making everything, but most restaurants they're going with the Pepperidge farm. Let's say we're going to use a commercial puff pastry. You can go two different ways with this. You can go with an all butter puff pastry and just think about how butter tastes right. You're going to get that richness from it. There's a brand I've used, before called do for D U F O U R. And you're going to find that in really like your specialty stores, your. Your co-ops your whole foods. Uh, we have our store around here called moms organic market. They will have this and it's going to run you about 10 bucks. For a sheet, but again, all butter, right? So you gain all that yummy buttery stuff in there. The big kahuna though of this is not a butter based puff pastry, even though lots of folks think that it is. Pepperidge farm is known. They are the puff pastry, masters and mistresses around here because they make. Are really good product and believe it or not. Their product is actually vegan and kosher per their website. But they're using a different type of fat in there. Something along those lines. So there's no butter. But it's very reliable stuff. You're going to find puff pastry in the freezer section of your grocery store. Okay. And here is the trick. You are going to have to thaw it I always thaw mine on the countertop. Okay. And for purposes of my podcast today, we're going to say that we're working with the Pepperidge farm. Because it's, like I said, It is the big guy.. We know this one it's readily available and you're going to find it in two ways. You can find it in sheets or in shells. All right. Now, when you buy it in the sheets, you are going to get two sheets of puff pastry they're squares that are folded. Each sheet is folded into thirds and they're in a single paper wrapper in the box. When you use one wrap the. The other one up pretty well, pop it back in. You're good to go. The shells are circle with a little fluted edge and you will get six of those in a box. They should be about the same price about now because everything's gotten a little more expensive. I'd say you're looking at about six bucks, a box, maybe seven. But you'll get a lot of play out of that. Okay. So when you get the shells, you'll see that they have kind of a perforated center almost. That is because we're going to bake those and then that center, because they put the perforation in it, it's easy to pull out and then you fill it with all sorts of good stuff. So you could make a little chicken pot pie and fill it in that. Um, I always snack on the centers. I know it's terrible habit. But I, uh, I love those. I think they're really good. The sheets though, are what I use the most often. Because you get those two sheets. And you have options when you're working with it. Whenever I thaw this and you always want to bake it from thawed you don't want to go From the freezer to the, oven, it's just not going to work quite as well. Even with those shells. I know the temptation is there. Don't do it. Okay. So we are going to put it on the counter and let it thaw on the counter. Do not try to open it up. I know, I know that you are impatient. I am too. But you cannot try to open it up until. It has thawed a bit. All right. Trust me on this one. It has to thaw. And it'll take a little while. I mean, it might take half an hour. It might even take a little bit longer. You can test it. You can try to open it a little. If it gives you big resistance, just stop. Let it go a little bit longer. Okay. But once it's thawed, you will unfold. The thirds. So now you're greeted with a square piece of puff pastry. I don't know, it might be 10 inches square, something like that. It might even be 12. I, you know, general idea here, but you're going to have two seams that are readily dividing it into the three sections. Here's what we want to do. If we're working with this as one big piece. We want to reinforce those seams. It's really important because that's the weak spot in your puff. And I want you to bear in mind the whole time that we're working with puff pastry. We're working with those layers, right? Dough, butter, DOH, DOH butter dough, or dough, fat DOH, DOH fat dough like that. So we don't want to take it and take the dough and put it into a ball and reroll it and won't work. It's not going to work for you because all your layers are going to be going wonky on you. Nobody wants wonky dough and it won't puff and crisp and be gorgeous. So we try to work with the dough as it is. What I like to do. I just made, um, a little tart the other night. I'm doing one in a corporate team building in a couple of days. What I like to do is show everybody on those seams. I go ahead and pinch it the way that you pinch a pie crust. It actually looks kind of cool, but you're just, again, trying to reinforce the seams so that you don't have thin spots. It's super easy to do so. A little pinch on both seams. And then if you're going to roll it out, you can start. That. Okay. A lot of times I don't roll it out at all. I let it go with the shape that it is because it's that kiss thing. Right? Keep it simple. Silly. We'll say silly, but I try to keep it as simple as I can. So once you've got that, you can do whatever you're going to do now. If you want to try something fancy, you unfolded from the thirds, right. And instead of reinforcing those seams, what, if we made a braid out of this instead. Your dough, your sheet is already easily marked into thirds. So picture it this way. That center third. That is where you can put whatever filling you want to have. I have done, a mixture of cream cheese and goat cheese, spread that on the bottom and then roasted a ton of vegetables, eggplant, peppers, zucchini, whatever vibe I'm feeling that day mushrooms. Oh my gosh. So good. Season them with some thyme, salt, pepper, keep it easy. And then pile those on the top in that center right now. You've got your other two sides instead of doing those whole and just flipping them over. That's not cute. What we're going to do is we're going to cut each side into, I don't know, one inch section, something like that. Cutting. As far as the seam kind of going horizontally. I know it sounds tricky. It's not, then we're going to take it. And we're going to alternate folding those flaps over. We're not cutting them off. We're leaving them attached at the seam. And you just alternate left, right. Left, right left. Right? The whole way down. Now you talented chef you, you just made a gorgeous puff. Pastry braid. And I'll tell you this. These babies freeze. Beautifully. So if you want, you can take both sheets. Do this make two of them. And then wrap one up and pop it in the freezer for when you're ready. I'm telling you it works so well. It works so well, especially if you ever have impromptu guests or if you're looking for a dinner that you really don't have to do anything with. I love to do one of these veggie puff pastry braids and have a gorgeous green salad. To go with it. I always like to have something kind of tart, like a tart vinegarette. To balance the richness of that pastry, just so you know, just a little helpful hint. So once you have. made your braid or you've done your tart. I just did one. I have a little video on my YouTube channel. It is the only video. You do. But I have a little video that I did, Where. I took a puff pastry sheet. I put a little oil down on the bottom. And then I just added what I had hanging around. I had some frozen spinach that I thawed I squeezed out the water. And then I sauteed it with some garlic. I had some goat cheese that I put around. I put some caramelized onions that I had made on the bottom. It was so simple. It's really good. But whenever you're working with puff, it hit wants to show off for you. It wants to be cute. It wants to be like those band de Solei models of the eighties. Right. It really wants to be golden and gorgeous, but we have to help it along. So I always like to use a little bit of egg wash to make it golden and beautiful. I call it suntan lotion for your food. And what I do is I take an egg, I just beat it with a fork. I add a splash of water, maybe a tablespoon, and then a little pinch of salt to it again, just a little fork action there, and then brush it on the edges. If you're doing that braid, this is where you want to be. Right. Brush that whole baby down. And I want you to brush it the whole way down to where it touches the baking sheet. Now I do love a sheet of parchment here. I won't lie just in case, but I will brush it because anything you can see that you brush with that will be gorgeous and the rest will be fine, but you will be able to tell the difference. So a little egg wash there, so good. So-so good. And it helps everything look so pretty. So now you're ready to bake, but there's a trick here. Puff pastry likes a hot oven. I mean, it likes a hot oven. 350 degrees is not hot enough. I always cook puff pastry at at least 400 degrees, usually 4 25 B. Cause when that dough hits the oven, that burst of heat is what melts. The fat. Create steam and gives it lift. Okay. So never mess around with a medium oven here. And I want you to turn on your oven as soon as you start working with that puff. The second you pull it out of the freezer to thaw. That is when I want you to. Turn on your oven because you know that little due to duty that tells you it's ready. You know, let's not rely on that. Let's make sure that it hasn't just hit that temperature, but it is staying at that temperature and it is good to go. So puff loves a hot oven, right? So we're always going to preheat our oven and you can look at any recipes that you find here. I'm going to put one on the website, Empty Nest, Kitchen dot com. Yeah. Follow your recipe for sure. But always think you're going to go into a hot oven. And instead of opening the oven to check it, I just use the light and take a peek in. I find that rather than opening the oven, letting all that hot air out, and then it has to readjust. Right. And really pour the heat on to get back up to temp. For this, I try not to open the oven. It's not going to like crash your cake. Or, you know, something like that. It's just, I'd like to keep the consistency of the heat going there. You could do any number of veggies. I have done a taco bake using puff pastry, where I've made a seasoned ground beef and then layered it with cheese. And if I'm feeling some veggies, I'll lay the veggies in there too. I've done roast beef turnovers. Where I use deli roast beef, and I saw taste some shallots and I put some Swiss or some cheddar in there and people go bananas for it. it. was always one of the most favorite dishes we would knock out in a summer camp. Everybody loves the roast beef turnovers. Let your imagination go crazy. Don't be pegged in that. It has to be for something really fancy. Make it the way you want to make it just take, you could take chicken pot, pie, filling. If your filling. is a bit sturdier and it's not super liquidy and laid that down the center. Right. How cool would that be? Now there's one more little puff pastry trick that I want to tell you about that you can do. If you are looking for something that doesn't puff. But is super crazy crispy. One of the things that you can do. Is when you bake your puff pastry and you can cut it into whatever shape you like. When you bake your puff pastry, you're going to bake it with another baking sheet on top of it. I know it sounds so crazy, but the reason we're doing that is again, we've got that nice hot oven. But the weight of that is going to prevent it from puffing up. So it's going to keep it compact. But the layers get so crazy, crazy crispy. I mean, really? It is something to behold. It is good stuff. You do this process when you're making a Napoleon or something along those lines, but you could do it where you cut it out ahead of time and use it almost like a little cookie. What if you sprinkled it with, um, cinnamon sugar, you take a sheet of the puff. You have reinforced your seams. I guess you brush it with your egg wash. You sprinkle it with a bit of cinnamon sugar. I mean go hard that stuff's delicious. And then cut it into a shape. Maybe you cut into a little circle or a little moon or something like that. And then spread them out, put a baking sheet on top of it, bake them. And this one, you are going to have two. In the oven to check. But bake them. And then you could put that on like a little scoop of ice cream and it looks super fancy, but was it hard? No. Do you get a lot of credit? Yes. And that is what we love. So, If you have puff pastry questions, please send them my way. I love this stuff. It's fun to work with. It makes great, um, treats and all, you know, dinners and all of that stuff. Again, is this the healthiest thing? No. Am I going to eat it every night? Absolutely not, but it is good stuff. And it's good stuff to have stored away in your freezer so that you can knock something out with little effort when the time has come. And that's it for this week. I am again, so thrilled that you've joined me. I have got some really fun. Live cooking classes coming up. Plus as always, I have a free class going with AAR, P, Maryland, and it's for anyone, you don't have to be a member, but it's for anyone who wants to take a class as the first Saturday of every month, except July. And it said 11:00 AM Eastern time. That's really fun because we get people from all over the country. Uh, visiting that class. It's, it's just the best time. So take a look for upcoming classes and as always, I'll see you in the kitchen.