Classic Puff Pastry

Ingredients

• 2½ lbs bread flour
• ½ oz salt
• 1½ lbs cold water
• 2½ lbs room temp butter

Steps

1. Mix the salt in with the larger portion of flour.
2. Add the cold water to the flour and salt.
3. Work it into a dough.
4. Knead about 80 times to make a soft dough and build some gluten.
5. Flatten out the dough (allows quicker cooling).
6. Refrigerate the dough.
7. Combine the room temperature butter and the smaller portion of flour and mix well.
8. It will form a soft paste that is easy to spread.
9. Take the chilled dough and roll it into a rectangle about ¼–½ inch thick.
10. Leaving a 1-inch margin around the edge, spread the butter out over ⅔ of the dough.
11. Fold the dough into thirds like you were folding a letter, starting with the portion of dough with no butter.
12. Refrigerate for 20–30 minutes to allow the dough to relax, and so the butter does not get displaced when rolling out again.
13. Roll out the dough again to a large rectangle the same size as the first.
14. Fold the dough so that the two short edges meet in the center.
15. Then fold the dough in half.
16. This should give the dough four layers and is called a four-fold.
17. Refrigerate the dough again.
18. Then roll out and do another four-fold.
19. Repeat this step two more times.
20. You now have classical puff pastry dough to use as you see fit.