Page 46 - Pie It Forward: Pies, Tarts, Tortes, Galettes, and Other Pastries Reinvented

Traditional Puff Pastry

- . . “ ” ;
. For everyone,
a decadent butter delivery system—one that is flaky, tasty, and
unadulterated glory in pastry form. I’m sure you’ll be tempted to
replace all the other piecrust options with this one beautiful dough,
but let me just put this out there now: It’s pointless to use puff pastry
as a traditional piecrust.

Puff needs her space. She needs room to breathe, room to move,
and if you ladle heavy fillings on top of the raw dough, you’ll crush all
her potential. That’s why she’s such a great choice for things like
Apple Tarte Tatin (page 86), where the dough is set atop the filling so
she can do her puffing thing, or napoleon-inspired pastries (pages
237 and 242), where she’s left to rise all on her own before you fill ’er

up with all manner of creamy goodness.
The best thing about puff is that when you want to elevate pie,
when you have need for a showpiece that shines on the table as well
as in your mouth, puff pastryoffers a way to build desserts worthy of
serving as a centerpiece.

Makes 5 pounds (2.3 kg) of pastry

FOR THE BUTTER BLOCK
unsalted butter, at room
temperature 2 pounds 910 g
salt 1 teaspoon 6 g

lemon juice 1 teaspoon 5 ml

bread flour, cold 8 ounces (½ pound) 225 g
FOR THE DOUGH

salt 2 teaspoons 12 g
lemon juice 2 teaspoons 10 ml

unsalted butter, melted and ½ cup 115 g
cooled

all-purpose flour, cold 1½ pounds 680 g