Making Your Life A Bit Easier With These Puff Pastry Tips
Published on
March 18, 2021
A box of frozen puff pastry is something of a miracle ingredient. If you’ve ever baked with it, you know exactly what we are talking about. It puffs into delicate, buttery layers, turning even the most basic recipe into something that feels totally fancy.
It’s also super easy to use — all you need to do is pull the box out of the freezer and pop the dough in the oven, right? Well, not quite, although we promise it’s almost that simple. Just remember these tips and you’ll be on your way to light and flaky breakfast turnovers, bite-sized apps, and savory tarts.
1-Thaw your frozen puff pastry (preferably in the fridge, overnight)
Frozen puff pastry is a convenient alternative to homemade puff pastry, but it does require a little planning since it can’t be used in its frozen state. It needs to be thawed before it can be baked into something delicious, and doing so overnight in the fridge is the best approach. This allows the pastry to become pliable without softening too much.
That said, if you forgot to take your puff out of the freezer last night and need to use it ASAP, hope is not lost! You can thaw frozen puff pastry at room temperature. The key is keeping an eye on it — you want to use it when it’s just ready to be unfolded and rolled, but before it softens too much so that the dough is limp and the butter is melting.
2-Flour your work surface and your rolling pin.
Next, you’ll want to flatten out your puff pastry — but before you do so, lightly flour not just your work surface but also the rolling pin. This will help the pastry to roll out smoothly, and prevent any sticking and pulling.
3-Use restraint with your rollingpin.
Puff pastry is delicate and it requires some delicacy. If you over-roll or use too much force, you’ll roll out some of the flakiness.
4-Serve as soon as possible!
Puff pastry won’t last forever. Make only what you’ll eat and make it as close to serving as possible.
