Puff Pastry - Ciasto Francuskie - Ania's Polish Food Recipe #48

Ingredients:

3 and 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour (450 grams)
1 tsp salt
2 tbs of oil, cold
1 egg, cold
Around 1 cup  of water, ice cold (250 ml)
2 and 1/2 cup of unsalted butter, softened  a little (575 grams)
1 cup of all-purpose flour (130 grams)

Add your butter and 1 cup of flour into your food processor. Process it for around one minute. Transfer on plastic wrap, fold one side and then form lest than one inch thick rectangle. Wrap it and place in the fridge for around an hour.

Combine the flour, salt egg and oil in a food processor bowl fitted with the metal blade. Process until a coarse meal is formed. With the processor running, slowly add the water. Turn it off as soon as the dough comes together to form a ball.

Transfer the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Knead the dough a few times by hand, rounding it into a ball. Wrap the dough tightly in plastic and chill for around an hour.  We want the butter and the dough to be of almost equal consistency. If necessary, allow the dough to sit at room temperature to soften or chill the butter briefly to harden or the other way around.

On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a rectangle approximately 1/2 inch thick. Lift and rotate the dough as necessary to prevent sticking. Leave the middle a little bit thicker.

Use a dry pastry brush to brush away any flour from the dough's surface.

Peel one piece of plastic wrap from the butter. Position the butter in the center of the rectangle and remove the remaining plastic. Fold the four edges of the dough over the butter enclosing it completely, like an envelope. Stretch the dough gently if necessary; it is important that all the butter is covered with the dough.

Slowly and gently roll your dough to 1/2 inch thick, long rectangle and fold in four. Both sides to the middle and then fold it in half.  Rotate the block of dough 90 degrees. Roll again and fold again in four.
Use a dry pastry brush all the time to remove any loose flour from the dough's surface.


Cover the dough with plastic wrap and chill for 2 hours. 

Repeat the rolling and folding technique twice again. Cover the dough completely and chill at least half an hour  before shaping and baking (I always leave it for 2 hours again).

You can find video demonstration of this recipe on YouTube here: Puff Pastry

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