This pastry requires the butter and water to be cold. This would require keeping the butter and water chilled in the fridge. Keep the dough cool by putting it in the freezer for 10 minutes to chill. Its a lot of work but the end result is worth all the effort. This pastry can be used for recipes that call for the use of puff pastry. Great for pie toppings and sausage rolls.
150 g (5 oz) butter,chilled
200 g ( 6 and 1/2 oz) plain flour
3 tablespoons lemon juice
110 ml cold ice water
1/2 teaspoon salt
beaten egg, to brush on a glaze
extra flour for rolling pastry
Cut the butter into four equal pieces. Keep one piece aside and refrigerate the rest.
Put the flour in a mixing bowl. Dissolve the salt in the ice water.
Rub one part of the butter into the flour until the mixture becomes crumbly. Add the water and lemon juice and mix to a dough.
Lightly dust a working surface with flour. Roll out the dough to a thin rectangle, three times as long as it is wide.
Take a second piece of butter out of the fridge. Cut into small cubes and place on 2/3 of the rectangle dough leaving 1/3 of it free of any butter. Fold this free 1/3 bit of dough onto the next 1/3 buttered section of dough and fold over again. Flatten the dough with rolling pin on top, middle and bottom sections of dough and then attempt to roll it out to a rectangle again.
(If the butter is getting melted, wrap the dough in cling plastic and refrigerate in the freezer for 10 minutes). After rolling out the dough again into a rectangle as before, remove the third portion of butter from the fridge. Work quickly and cut into tiny pea like cubes.Place on 2/3 of the rolled out pastry. Fold the 1/3 of pastry dough that is not buttered over the other buttered 1/3 and then fold again.
Press down. Wrap in cling plastic and refrigerate for 20 minutes or 10 minutes in freezer.
Take the dough out of the fridge, unwrap the plastic and roll out on floured board to a rectangle.
Take the fourth and last portion of butter out of the fridge and cut into pieces. Dot 2/3 of the pastry with the chilled butter. Quickly fold as before. Use rolling pin to press down on top of rolled pastry, middle and bottom. Roll the pastry into a rectangle and fold again. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 10 minutes.
Note: This pastry can be wrapped and chilled in the freezer to be used at a later date.
The following is the sausage roll recipe using this pastry:
Take pastry out and roll it out to a thickness of half centimeter or so. Cut out strips to fit length of sausages. Roll around sausages. Brush the edges with egg and seal. Put on a baking tray.
Brush the pastry with egg. Bake in a 200 C / 400 F hot oven for about 15 minutes.
Note: Make sure the pastry is not too thick or it will require a longer time for cooking. The sausages might get overdone then and not look so nice.
Comments