To prepare the puff pastry serve 2 basic doughs, called pastel and dough. Starting from the same weight of flour and butter, all the butter is worked together with a small part of flour, obtaining the dough. The remaining flour mixed with water gives the pastel, which will serve to wrap the dough. Fundamental to the success of the sheet is the processing, which involves several spreads and folds (the turns), to obtain the sheet structure that makes it so characteristic. Normally 3 turns if the dough is folded in 4 or 4 turns if it is folded in 3.
Puff pastry: to know
There is also a French method which, instead of the stick of butter and flour, uses pure butter, in equal weight compared to the flour and water pastel.
The dough
Work the butter with the flour rather quickly, to avoid heating the fat too much.
The trick of the "holes"
To remind you how many laps you have done, before putting the dough in the fridge for rest you can make a small hole with your finger in the dough.
The consistency of puff pastry
Make sure that the dough and the pastel have more or less the same softness when you start working: if the dough is too hard, tear the pastel; if it is too soft, it spreads unevenly.
The vol-au-vent
In the preparation of vol-au-vent, overlap two sheets after brushing the first with water. 6. Then cut out the discs and cut the surface with a smaller cutter.
What to do with leftovers
The cuttings of the sheet must never be mixed, but simply superimposed and spread again. Do not reuse them for vol-au-vent preparation.
With the scraps you can prepare the "sacristans", to accompany the aperitif or garnish the soups: sprinkle the thin spread pasta with parmesan, salt and pepper, then fold it 3 times, cut it into strips to be twisted and bake in the oven at 190 ° C. 9. With the puff pastry and its possible trimmings you can also prepare cannoli, both savory and sweet.