Re: Why is puff pastry sensitive to tiny differences in method?

at Sun, 30 Nov 2003 22:57:55 GMT in
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (H. W. Hans
Kuntze) wrote : 

>Alex Rast wrote:
>
>>This baffles me. I've been experimenting with puff pastry. It's easy
>>enough to get perfect puff pastry with classic French technique : 2
>>cups flour, 1 cup butter, enough water to make a rather moist, smooth
>>dough. Pat the butter into a flat square, roll the dough into a mound
>>with 4 "wings", set butter on the mound, fold wings into the center,
>>roll, fold in thirds, turn 90 degrees, roll again, fold in thirds,
>>chill, repeat folding rolling and chilling procedure 2 times. Presto!
>>Foolproof results. 
>>
>>But when I made what seems like a trivial modification (folding the
>>dough in 4 parts, by folding in half one way and then in half the
>>other, before rolling), the results were completely different. Since
>>the 4-fold method will increase the layer count, I only figured I'd
>>need to do the last repeat for 1 folding instead of 2, ending up with
>>1024 theoretical layers (instead of 1458. Big deal). But instead of
>>flaky, the results are consistently a firmer, more pie-crust like
>>texture - no layers to speak of, no puffing! Can somebody explain how
>>the difference in folding method can have such a drastic effect on the
>>final result? 
>>  
>>
>Because, there are only so many distinctively separate layers you can 
>can create, before the layers meld into each other.

Agreed, and certainly I can see how if you went too far, you'd end up 
trying to create too many layers. But the method that works (starting with 
2 layers, use 6*tri-fold, if I understand your terminology), would yield 
1458 layers. For me that produces outstanding results. The method that 
doesn't work (start with 2 layers, use 5*bookfold), would be 1024. This 
would appear to be fewer layers and thus less risk of layer combining, not 
more.

>Especially if the gluten is too much developed and rolling in becomes a 
>bear, or the butter gets too warm.
>Plus, the first roll-in layers, that are usually not counted, could 
>influence the result dramatically.
>
>Start with 4 layers or more
>End up with 1024 (or more) with 4 bookfolds, also called double turns.
>That is the max IMHO that the dough can handle, even with a very strong 
>bread flour.

It's worth noting that the my working method, ending at 1480 layers, uses 
low-gluten pastry flour. I did try it once with super-high protein bread 
flour, but the result was too tough and chewy (I'd have expected that 
anyway)

Your thoughts sound correct in principle, but nonetheless don't seem to be 
what's happening in my case.
-- 
Alex Rast
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(remove d., .7, not, and .NOSPAM to reply)