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Puff pastry

Article index
 Production process of puff pastry
 Pastry and fat part
 Turning
 Forming
 Baking
Puff pastry is a crisp, layered and baked pastry. The puff pastry is used in for example cracknels, croissants, sausage rolls and apple turnovers. The puff pastry can be made by several methods. The method mentioned below is the French one.

Puff pastry consists of layers of pastry with butter in between. During the baking water vapor is formed from water in oil emulsion, which is the butter. This makes sure that the layers of pastry are pushed from each other. The water vapor is retained by the gluten network in the pastry.

Production process of puff pastry

Pastry and fat part

The puff pastry requires two parts.
For the pastry part 7 parts of flour, 4 parts of water and 1 part of soft fat are mixed. After that the dough is kneaded for 10 minutes in order that the gluten network is formed.
The fat part consists of a lightly salted crust butter. Crust butter is a solid butter with a flat melting curve. A flat melting curve means that the fat melts slowly by which it retains its solidity.

The quantity of the pastry has to be twice as large as the quantity of butter.

Turning

The pastry is rolled out as a square piece on which a square piece of crust butter is laid. The pastry is to be folded around the butter so that all the butter is enclosed. Subsequently the pastry with the enclosed butter is to be unrolled and stretched. It has to be unrolled until its length is thrice as long as it was. After this the pastry is folded in three so that a pastry of similar size appears. The pastry is turned a quarter of a turn and is again unrolled in its length so that it becomes thrice as long as it originally was. Again the pastry is folded in three by which it receives its original form. The process of unrolling and folding is called turning. Between every turn the dough is laid to rest for 15 minutes.
The amount of turns may vary, but the standard is three to five turns.
The turning can be executed automatically on a laminating line. By means of rollers the pastry is stretched. After the rollers the butter is put on the layer of pastry. Via a conveyor belt the pastry is exported from the rollers. After that it is brought to a lower conveyor belt. This lower belt shoots back under the conveyor belt. When the lower belt returns the pastry is folded in two. Such a system is called a sheeter (schietband). After the sheeter the product goes over a second conveyor belt, which is at right angles to the first conveyor belt. Because of this it is possible to make the puff pastry with a few sheeters.

Forming

After the turning of the pastry it can be unrolled until the desired thickness is attained. The form in which the pastry is cut is dependent upon the end product.
Often products like sausages or apple mixture are put into the pastry. After that the filling is wrapped up with the pastry.
The punching of the form of the pastry leaves some leftovers which can be used in another pastry. It cannot be used for puff pastry because the layers of pastry and butter cannot be build anew.

Baking

The puff pastry is baked at 220ºC for 20 minutes. This length of time is dependent on a possible filling. In the beginning of the baking process steam is led into the oven so that the water vapor is formed more rapidly. By the high temperature the butter melts and forms water vapor. The water vapor is the rising agent of the puff pastry; it disperses the layers of the pastry. After the rising the structure of the pastry is fixed. Finally the Maillard reaction gives the pastry a brown color. This is a chemical reaction between reducing sugars and proteins.
When there is sugar on the puff pastry, as with apple turnovers and cracknels, especially the caramelisation is responsible for the brown colour.


User comments

2008-09-21 13:45:36

Name: ESRA ONAN
Read this article with utmost interest and found it to be very useful. It would be most appreciated if you would be more specific as to what sort of pastry the leftover puff pastry could be used for,especially on low scale production of frozen products.

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