Laminating puff pastry

This is the third week of the class Viennoiserie and Laminated Doughs. With the danish and croissant dough (the 1st and 2nd weeks) we used English lamination. We learned French lamination by laminating puff pastry.

Puff Pastry

Bread flour 12 oz

Cake flour 4 oz

Butter 2 oz

Salt .25 oz

Water 9 oz

Butter Block

Butter 1 lb

Bread flour 2 oz

Prepare the butter block by mixing the flour and butter together. Fold a piece of parchment paper in half and place the butter mixture in between the paper. Using a bowl scraper, form into a square. Place in cooler until it hardens.

For the dough:

On work bench, mix together both flours and salt. Cut the butter into pieces. Cut the butter into the flour until the flour resembles cornmeal. Make sure there are no big pieces of butter left in the flour. Make a well in the center of flour pile. Pour water into well, and stir slowly until the flour and water become a paste. Knead the paste and the rest of the flour together until it looks like a shaggy mass. Wrap and refrigerate for thirty minutes.

1)After the dough has rested, make an "x" in the dough.

2)Roll out each hump one at a time. Do not flatten the center. Each arm should be thinner than the center.

3)Place the butter block in the center.

4) Fold each arm over the butter block one at a time. Make sure each arm of dough completely covers the block.

5)Roll out the dough. For the 1st bookfold, fold the ends in, so they meet in the middle.

6)Fold one half of the dough, over the other to complete the bookfold.

Repeat this process (of rolling and folding) 3 more times, for a total of four bookfolds. Let dough rest for 10 minutes in the cooler between each bookfold.

The dough is ready to use after four complete bookfolds.