Desi Fiesta

Home made puff pastry (Eggless)

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Puffs are one of the scrumptious snack i crave for .. I remember in school days we friends used have veggie puff aft we left school in the evening at least once in a week .. I used to love those flaky wafer’s stuffed with a spicy vegetable curry .. yummmm … I wanted to try home made veggie puff , so  I was looking  for puff pastry sheets while grocery shopping but i found tat all the pastry sheet contained egg in them..So i prepared tried the eggless version of puff pastry @home .. they where very very tasty and flaky too.. I have learned this recipe in my home science studies. There’s no reason to fear puff pastry. It only contains 5 ingredients (including the water) and the major effort is waiting for it to chill several times before you can make it into flaky croissants, crisp palmier stuffed veggies puff or delicious fruit turnovers, to name a few.

 

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups maida
2 sticks  unsalted butter
25 gm unsalted butter ( to be added in the dough)
1 cup maida (for dusting)
1 tsp salt
Water as needed
1 lemon

Method
Place the two cold sticks of butter, straight out of the fridge, on a chopping board or the kitchen platform. Sprinkle some flour over it and, using a rolling pin or something heavy, beat the butter until it flattens out quite a bit but is still quite solid.
Pat the edges of the butter to form a square. Place in a container and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
In a bowl, place the 2 1/2 cups of flour, butter,salt, squeeze lemon  and, using enough water, knead into a smooth and pliable dough.(lemon is added for the gluten formation)

 

 

Allow the dough to rest for a 15 mins, then roll it out into a square large enough so you can wrap the square of butter in it.

Once you have wrapped the butter, making sure it is well-sealed, then roll out the dough into a rectangle about 7 inches wide and 10 inches long. Do this preferably on a metal baking sheet so you have a cool surface and also so you can easily transfer the dough to the fridge. The rolling might take a little work because the dough can be resistant, but be patient.


Now lift the edges of the rectangle along the long side and fold over one another so you have three layers. Place the sheet with the puff pastry in the fridge (cover it with a cling wrap ) and let it stand for at least 20 minutes. Then remove and roll out again and fold again to make three more layers. Repeat four more times.

 


After you’ve let the dough stand in the fridge for the last time, divide the puff pastry  and roll them to rectangular sheets and Use them as  required..Freeze the leftover pastry sheets and use them when needed ..

 

Puff Pastry Tips:
  • When preparing the dough for baking, make sure all edges you want to puff up are cut cleanly with a sharp knife or the layers may stick together and have a tough time rising.
  • Using unsalted butter is preferred because it is the moisture in the butter, turned to steam, which helps the dough to puff. Apparently salt inhibits this somewhat by making the water take longer to convert to steam. Don’t substitute margarine or whipped butter spread.
  • It is best to make puff pastry in a cool room. Heat and humidity will make the dough more difficult to roll out because the butter will try to melt on you and make a mess, fast.
This is one basic and classic recipe, but there are a variety of puff pastry versions. For example, you can substitute cake flour or cornstarch for a portion of the all-purpose flour for extra tenderness. There is also a variation for croissants which includes a yeast dough. One method incorporates part of the flour into the butter pat to help stabilize the dough while rolling out. Experiment and find the one that works best for you.

Vegetable puff and plain puffs for tea time .. They where yumm and you can see the flaky texture they where scumptious .. Do try this n  drop me your valuable comments 🙂 ..

 

 

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