Blitz Puff Pastry

Outlander Kitchen

I've never made my own puff pastry before. Until now! This is a quicker version of the standard puff pastry, also called a "rough puff", but it was a great place to start.

The key is keeping the dough cold so the butter doesn't melt while you roll it out and fold it, over and over again, to form all of the layers. It starts out a bit shaggy, but I was impressed with how it became a smooth, supple dough with all of the rolling and folding. The best part is, most of the recipes in the book only use half a recipe, and you can store whatever you don't use in the freezer for another time!

This recipe takes time, and some muscle, but I think it's easy enough that just about anyone can do it, as long as you're patient.

Captions

[00:00]: [Music]
[00:04]: hello and welcome to cooking the books
[00:06]: with heather on this episode we're going
[00:08]: to be working once again from teresa
[00:10]: carl sanders outlander kitchen cookbook
[00:13]: and we're going to be making sort of a
[00:15]: base recipe so
[00:17]: uh it's it's not something that you
[00:19]: usually use by itself but it's a part of
[00:22]: another recipe that we'll be making next
[00:25]: so we're going to be making a blitz puff
[00:28]: pastry that's what she calls it i've
[00:30]: also heard it called a rough puff
[00:33]: you don't start with the butter in one
[00:35]: big block and you fold the dough around
[00:38]: it and all that
[00:39]: it seems to be easier
[00:41]: i've never made puff pastry of any sort
[00:44]: ever in my life i've bought it and used
[00:46]: it but i've never made it from scratch
[00:48]: so that's what i'm going to be doing
[00:49]: today and
[00:51]: it's one of those things that's going to
[00:52]: take a little while but then it will
[00:55]: keep in your freezer for a while so you
[00:58]: don't have to make you have to use it
[00:59]: immediately so
[01:01]: um
[01:02]: and i think most of the recipes in here
[01:04]: use half of it so
[01:06]: um
[01:08]: at least definitely the next recipe only
[01:09]: uses half of it so i'll have another
[01:11]: half to do something with later
[01:13]: so you can do this by hand
[01:15]: i'm not gonna do that because
[01:19]: yeah i don't do that as well i've done
[01:21]: it before
[01:22]: but i'm gonna use my standing mixer for
[01:24]: this
[01:26]: so i've already measured
[01:28]: the flour this is just all-purpose flour
[01:30]: in here
[01:32]: and i'm going to add um
[01:35]: just some kosher salt which i've
[01:36]: pre-measured as well and we're going to
[01:38]: mix it on low speed just to get it all
[01:41]: mixed together
[01:47]: i think that's good
[01:49]: and now i have to go get
[01:51]: something from the refrigerator
[01:53]: so
[01:53]: this is quite a bit of unsalted butter
[01:57]: cold and cut up into approximately one
[01:60]: half inch cubes so you sort of have that
[02:03]: have the
[02:05]: uh breaking it up part started um
[02:09]: and i did that just now but i put it
[02:11]: back in the refrigerator just so it
[02:13]: didn't start to um
[02:16]: warm up on me because you do want this
[02:19]: very very cold
[02:21]: all right so now i'm going to mix it on
[02:24]: medium-low
[02:25]: i'm going to start low because otherwise
[02:27]: the flour will go crazy uh
[02:29]: until the butter just begins to break up
[02:33]: we don't want this too small of pieces
[02:44]: i think that's good i don't know if that
[02:46]: was a minute or less but
[02:48]: i think my butter is starting to break
[02:49]: up and i don't want some of it's getting
[02:51]: into pretty small pieces and i don't
[02:52]: think we want that so
[02:55]: now we're going to add the liquid
[02:56]: components so i have more water than i
[02:59]: need with ice well more water than i
[03:01]: hope i need
[03:02]: more water than we start with and i'm
[03:04]: gonna measure
[03:07]: that into here and try not to get my ice
[03:10]: cubes
[03:14]: there we go
[03:15]: we're gonna be adding more maybe if we
[03:18]: need it
[03:19]: so i'm just going to
[03:22]: move that around the whole thing so it's
[03:25]: not just all in one place
[03:27]: and then i have some
[03:29]: fresh lemon juice
[03:36]: and those are all
[03:37]: you can also use vinegar i would
[03:39]: probably use white vinegar because you
[03:40]: don't want that much of a flavor with
[03:42]: this if it's not just
[03:43]: lemon juice um
[03:46]: now we're going to
[03:49]: continue to mix on medium low
[03:52]: and if we need to add water we're going
[03:54]: to add it a tablespoon at a time so
[04:00]: okay i'm gonna check this just to see if
[04:03]: it's super dry she says it is much
[04:05]: better to have a
[04:07]: too dry dough than a two wet dough but
[04:11]: you do want it to be sort of shaggy
[04:13]: a soft shaggy dough that just stays
[04:15]: together we are not there i'm gonna put
[04:17]: a little more water in this
[04:19]: so that i can make sure so so it's
[04:21]: easier for me to get the tablespoon out
[04:24]: so i'm going to start i'm going to start
[04:26]: this
[04:27]: and keep it moving while i add the water
[04:30]: and hopefully i don't add too much
[04:37]: okay i've only added about two
[04:38]: tablespoons but it's certainly starting
[04:40]: to to stay together and i don't want to
[04:43]: add
[04:44]: any more than this because i think this
[04:46]: will be perfect it's pretty soft it's
[04:48]: pretty shaggy
[04:50]: and um
[04:52]: yeah i think we're good here so i'm
[04:55]: pretty happy with that because usually i
[04:56]: feel like i have to add way too much
[04:58]: water for my flower
[05:01]: so
[05:03]: let me clean up a little bit
[05:05]: because we're gonna have to use this as
[05:07]: a work surface now
[05:09]: so i've got uh my work surface lightly
[05:12]: floured and i've just dumped everything
[05:14]: out of the
[05:15]: uh bowl onto my floured surface i had a
[05:18]: little water there i should have cleared
[05:20]: up whatever it's fine because all we're
[05:22]: going to do right now is sort of make
[05:24]: this into a s need lightly into a
[05:28]: smooth ball
[05:33]: there we go
[05:34]: put a little bit more flour down
[05:37]: and now
[05:39]: we're going to pat it out into
[05:42]: a rectangle
[05:44]: about an inch
[05:46]: thick
[05:47]: roughly rectangular because i'm
[05:50]: not so good about that
[05:56]: i'd say that is about an inch thick most
[05:59]: places
[06:00]: so now all i have to do is wrap this
[06:03]: tightly in plastic wrap
[06:06]: then we're going to refrigerate it for
[06:07]: 30 minutes so we'll be back in about 30
[06:10]: minutes
[06:11]: my dough has been resting in the
[06:12]: refrigerator for about 30 minutes a
[06:15]: little bit more i think
[06:16]: um
[06:17]: so we're gonna do our first fold uh i
[06:21]: need to
[06:23]: roll this out
[06:25]: approximately
[06:27]: one foot by two feet
[06:30]: and
[06:31]: put a little
[06:32]: flour on everything
[06:35]: and we're going to try to make sure that
[06:36]: it can move the whole time and it says
[06:39]: all the way out to each corner
[06:46]: i want to get it pretty even
[06:50]: this is going to take a little while
[06:51]: because it's nice and cold
[06:53]: [Music]
[07:10]: i think that's the best i can do i had
[07:12]: to move my book
[07:15]: so
[07:17]: now we're going to make this a trifold
[07:20]: like a book fold
[07:22]: um
[07:23]: so we're going to fold
[07:26]: a third
[07:29]: of it
[07:32]: this way
[07:35]: and then the
[07:38]: excuse me i'm sure i'm going off camera
[07:40]: um
[07:42]: a third of it
[07:47]: this way
[07:49]: let me look at my book and see if
[07:50]: there's anything else we need to do
[07:52]: so
[07:52]: yes this is one
[07:55]: single fold and i'm gonna have to be
[07:57]: able to pick this up and wrap it in
[08:00]: foil but she suggests to
[08:05]: put an indent of like an x
[08:07]: on the dough
[08:09]: to help those layers adhere so what
[08:12]: we're doing is making a laminated dough
[08:14]: so
[08:15]: we'll do this
[08:17]: four to six times so this is our first
[08:19]: time i'll make a little note somewhere
[08:21]: to make sure
[08:24]: that we remember how many times we've
[08:26]: done it but i'm going to wrap this up
[08:28]: back in plastic she says if
[08:30]: it doesn't get too warm you can do two
[08:33]: folds at once
[08:34]: but it's summer it's kind of warmer in
[08:36]: my kitchen and my stone is a little bit
[08:38]: warmer than it is sort of in the winter
[08:40]: so i'm gonna refrigerate it for 30 to 60
[08:43]: minutes in between each time probably a
[08:46]: little bit longer the next time because
[08:47]: i need to go to the store
[08:49]: um
[08:50]: but so this is going to go
[08:53]: wrapped up again in the refrigerator and
[08:56]: i'm going to do this
[08:59]: three
[09:00]: to five more times
[09:03]: and then i'll show you what we do
[09:05]: at that point
[09:07]: [Music]
[09:13]: on this episode of cooking the books
[09:14]: with heather you watched me make blitz
[09:17]: puff pastry from teresa carl sanders
[09:19]: outlander kitchen cookbook
[09:22]: and i've never made puff pastry before
[09:24]: in my life
[09:26]: um in any capacity and i've only really
[09:29]: used it at home a few times so
[09:31]: this was totally new to me
[09:34]: it
[09:35]: was it was a time investment but it
[09:38]: really wasn't that difficult um
[09:42]: the blitz method where you put it in a
[09:45]: a mixer a stand mixer i think is what we
[09:47]: use yeah we used a stand mixer
[09:49]: and sort of mixed everything together
[09:52]: with that and then started rolling it
[09:54]: out
[09:56]: that's okay by me i'm cool with that
[09:59]: i think i've seen it done in a
[10:02]: food processor as well but you probably
[10:04]: don't want to be careful that you don't
[10:05]: get that butter into two small pieces
[10:07]: which is
[10:08]: probably why the stand mixer is a better
[10:10]: option
[10:12]: but
[10:13]: it turned out
[10:14]: really really well i was able to
[10:17]: i so once i got it to the last
[10:20]: turn i cut it in half and i didn't
[10:23]: roll it out at that point but i i sort
[10:25]: of cut them cut them in half
[10:27]: and froze them wrapped them in plastic
[10:30]: and froze them like that and i waited
[10:33]: probably about two weeks before i used
[10:35]: it so when i was ready i took it out of
[10:37]: the freezer put it in the refrigerator
[10:39]: to thaw
[10:41]: and then
[10:42]: i was able to roll it out and
[10:45]: use it immediately from from there
[10:48]: um and it it acted pretty much exactly
[10:51]: like it did when it was fresh so that
[10:53]: was good we got
[10:55]: nice layers in in it when we baked it up
[10:58]: we used it for
[10:59]: the recipe you'll see next week
[11:01]: and
[11:02]: we got
[11:04]: great layers
[11:06]: it it turned out really really nicely it
[11:09]: puffed up nicely in the oven
[11:12]: and
[11:14]: it was not as hard as i expected it to
[11:15]: be it is a little bit of a time
[11:17]: investment however because there's a lot
[11:19]: of
[11:20]: rolling the rolling was kind of
[11:21]: difficult
[11:22]: kept feeling like i was gonna break my
[11:24]: rolling pin
[11:26]: um
[11:27]: there's a lot of rolling and turning and
[11:29]: then waiting and rolling and turning and
[11:31]: then waiting um
[11:34]: so
[11:36]: there's the time investment
[11:38]: but it does generally she you use about
[11:41]: half of a batch in the recipes in this
[11:43]: book so you can make it once and then
[11:44]: use it for two different things at
[11:46]: different times and it'll last in the
[11:48]: freezer for a while so
[11:50]: i'm looking for what i'm going to make
[11:52]: with it next we'll see
[11:54]: but um i think if you if it's not
[11:57]: something you've done before and you
[11:59]: want to try this is a good place to
[12:00]: start
[12:01]: so
[12:02]: if you enjoyed watching me make this
[12:04]: give me a thumbs up hit the subscribe
[12:06]: button and come back and watch me make
[12:08]: something else next week
[12:09]: [Music]