Reverse Puff Pastry

Recipe in video

Hello foodies!

Here we go, I'm diving into this famous puff pastry! I hesitated for a long time before presenting a tutorial because puff pastry is technical, it's time-consuming if you make the real deal... anyway... I hesitated! But it's so good! So much better than store-bought puff pastry. There's no comparison!

Here is a tutorial for a puff pastry widely used by top pastry chefs for Mille-feuilles, galettes des rois and all kinds of pastries.

There are different types of puff pastry. The classic, the quick and the reverse...

I'll explain them all, but first let me define two terms so you can better understand my explanations later on.

The détrempe: a mixture of butter, flour, salt and water.

The beurre manié: a mixture of butter and flour.

Here are the different types of puff pastry:

The classic: This is the most traditional technique. A beurre manié is wrapped inside a détrempe. You then need resting times in the fridge and folding (6 single turns) to obtain a beautiful flaky pastry. It is the longest and most difficult method.

The quick: this is a pastry that requires much less resting time. The dough is mixed rather roughly in a stand mixer, leaving pieces of butter unmixed. You then do 4 single turns. In just 2h flat, this pastry can be made. It works for small things like vol-au-vents, galettes des rois or ham croissants, but it is less crispy and much less even than the other two.

The reverse: This is the opposite of the classic. That is to say, the détrempe is wrapped inside the beurre manié. You perform 2 double turns and 1 single turn (folding). This is the most melt-in-your-mouth and crumbly puff pastry and the most perfect for pastry-making! It is very much appreciated by great French chefs!

Reverse puff pastry does take time, yes, but you can freeze it. :o)

This recipe will give you 4 dough portions of approximately 250gr and you should know that you need 250gr for a sheet of approximately 26 cm. So if you're going to make puff pastry, make enough and freeze it for your tarts and other pastries.

It keeps for up to 4 months in the freezer and 4 days in the fridge.

You will need 6h to make this puff pastry. But not 6h of work, mind you! 6h because of the resting times in the fridge. ;o)

I used Christophe Felder's recipe. I slightly modified the recipe in terms of salt and vinegar, but otherwise it's perfect!

Here is the list of ingredients:

For the détrempe:

- 1 tbsp rice vinegar

- 12gr fine salt

- 350gr plain flour

- 110gr melted butter

- 150gr cold water

For the beurre manié:

- 375gr cooking butter

- 150gr plain flour

We'll start by making our détrempe.

In a bowl, pour 1 tbsp of rice vinegar, which you can find at Coop. Christophe Felder uses alcohol vinegar, but in Switzerland it's not easy to find... And rice vinegar has very little smell so it's perfect for the recipe.

Then add 12gr of fine salt. It may seem like a lot but don't worry, it is indeed the right amount.

Once the salt is well dissolved, add 350gr of plain flour (use regular flour but definitely not braided bread flour or M-Budget flour).

Then add 150gr of cold water. Leave the mixture as is, no need to mix for now.

Cut 110gr of butter into pieces and melt it in the microwave at 600Watt for about 30 seconds.

Once melted, add it to the rest and mix with the flat beater (K beater) for 30-40 seconds at minimum speed.

Be careful not to overmix!

There you have it, you've made a détrempe.

We now need to roll it out into a rectangle. To make this easier, I place two pieces of cling film in a cross on my work surface. I then place my détrempe in the center of the cross.

Once the détrempe is in place, I fold the cling film into a rectangle shape.

Here we want a rectangle of 18 x 21 cm, so fold your cling film to form a rectangle of the right size.

And here's the result! Nothing sticks to the rolling pin, your work surface is clean and you don't have flour everywhere! I love this technique! Refrigerate your détrempe for 2h.

Now let's tackle our beurre manié. You should know that pastry chefs have a ready-made beurre manié that we obviously can't find in regular shops... But don't stress! With this mixture, your puff pastry will be tip top!

Cut 375gr of cold butter and place it in a bowl. Add 150gr of plain flour and mix with the flat beater for approximately one minute.

After one minute, you will have a beurre manié. Gather the dough and form a ball using a dough scraper.

Do not add any flour! It's sticky and that's normal!

Apply the cling film technique again to roll out your dough to 18 x 21 cm. And place your beurre manié in the fridge for 2h.

You can easily leave both doughs in the fridge overnight. This way you avoid making your pastry over a full day... You'll only have 4h left the next day. :o)

Once the 2h have passed or the night is over, take out both doughs and grab a large rolling pin, one or two sheets of baking paper and some cling film.

Place your beurre manié on your baking paper, cover it with a sheet of cling film and roll the dough out to 8 mm thickness. I always use biscuit bars to get a nice smooth and even layer.

Roll it out lengthwise to obtain a nice long rectangle of 8 mm thickness.

The beurre manié will be 2x longer than the détrempe.

Then place the détrempe in the center of the beurre manié and fold the top and bottom over the détrempe. Then turn your dough by a quarter turn.

To fold my beurre manié over my détrempe, I used the baking paper underneath so as to touch the beurre manié as little as possible.

Place a sheet of cling film on top and roll out your dough lengthwise to 8 mm thickness. Always try to obtain a kind of rectangle.

Now we're going to do a double turn (a fold specific to puff pastry).

Start by folding the bottom of the puff pastry up to the halfway point. Do the same with the top part. Then fold the two parts together.

You've just completed a double turn. Woohoo!

I repeat... use the baking paper underneath, otherwise it's impossible to work with! And don't add any flour.

Place your dough in cling film, then in the fridge for 2h.

Once the 2h have passed, we start again! We do another double turn.

So roll out your dough lengthwise to 8 mm thickness.

Then fold the bottom part up to the halfway point of the dough, then the top part up to the halfway point.

And fold the two halves over each other.

Wrap it in cling film and place it in the fridge for 2h one last time! Well yes, I told you... it takes a while...!

Here we are, the home stretch!

Roll out our dough again into a rectangle of 8 mm thickness. But! This time we'll do a single turn.

So take the bottom of your dough and fold it up 2/3 of the way, then fold the top part over the folded part. Basically, we fold our dough into 3.

And there you have it, our puff pastry is ready for baking!

As mentioned above, the quantity made in the recipe gives 4 dough portions of approximately 250gr. You need 250gr to roll out a disc of 26 cm diameter to 3 mm thickness.

You can keep it for 4 days in the fridge or freeze it for up to 4 months. So it's great to have some in the freezer!

To thaw it, simply place it in the fridge for 4h or the night before.

I wish you a lovely Sunday!

Karin

P.S.: All the equipment used can be found at the bottom of the recipe.