Puff the Magic Pastry

So in my foods classes at work, we cover a pastry unit. We had previously done 3 different labs- beef empanadas where they made their own pastry dough from scratch, mile high peanut butter pie where they make a crumb crust for a crème pie, and apple turnovers using a store-bought puff pastry product (with filling from scratch of course).

Well those store bought puff pastries are not cheap and the budget has been very tight this year. We always pride ourselves in giving our kids high-quality labs. This is the basic culinary arts class after all. We're going to be as healthy as we can, as tasty as we can, and we avoid "cooking from a box." So it made sense for us to drop those store-bough pastries and make our own.

Because the pastry dough has to chill overnight, we had a 2-day lab. Kids already have to peel and slice their apples the day before so we weren't adding time onto the calendar or anything. Overall things seemed to go OK today but the true test will be tomorrow when the pastry dough bakes! I'll let you know how it goes. In the meantime, here's the recipe:

Simple Puff Pastry:
2 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
3 1/4 sticks cold butter (that's 1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons)
3/4 cup ice cold water

Mix the flour and salt then cut in the butter. Work quickly so the butter doesn't get too warm, you want it to stay in solid clumps when working the dough. Stir in the water with a fork until everything is moistened. The dough will be very sticky.

Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface. Pat it into a loaf then roll out into a rough rectangle. Fold it in thirds like you were folding a brochure. This creates the layers. Pick up the folded dough and rotate it, making sure to re-flour underneath so it doesn't stick to the counter. Roll it out again into the rectangle shape. Then fold again. Repeat this roll and fold process about 5 times before finally folding it into a tidy little brick. Wrap in saran wrap and let chill a minimum of 2 hours. Bring the dough out again and repeat the roll and fold another 3 times. Then you can roll the dough out to use as needed. It should bake at 425 degrees.