So if you are like me pictures really do speak a thousand words. When learning a new technique if I have an image to guide me along the process then I am golden.

Because of this I decided to post again on Puff pastry (yes, it is that good it deserves multiple posts) In the brief but educational video above you will see the steps necessary to laminate your puff dough. If that moved a little to quickly for you then hear is a visual step-by-step instruction perfect for all you right-brainers out there.

First we start with the detrempe (the dough) and the butter block (just a little bit of butter in this recipe – speaking of recipe… you can find it here.)

Then take the slightly cooler than room temperature detrempe and start shaping it into a plus sign, or a dissected envelope. I start shaping it with my hands and then I use the rolling pin.

The butter is soft enough to bend (if it is to cold it will crack) but not to soft that it gives when you touch it.

Place the butter in the center of the detrempe.

Tightly fold the detrempe around the butter block.

Take out some aggression by pounding the dough. This way the butter is dispersed throughout and then you can use the rolling pin to even it out.

Roll the dough into a rectangle then fold like a business letter.

Rotate 90* and do the process again. That was one turn. I do two turns then let it rest for one hour until I have a total of six turns.

If you look real closely you can see the layers of butter evenly throughout. I can not ever get over how beautiful this is. When I teach this course my students think I am partially crazy because of how excited I get about the butter in the dough. I proceed to pass it around class in hopes that my excitement will be contagious.

This lucky batch of puff pastry was transformed into meat pies (a mixture of ground beef, vegetables, spices and tomato paste then stuffed into a pastry package) and apple turnovers – which I reluctantly shared with my dad… it was his birthday after all.

I hope you enjoyed and I really hope this has provided even more assistance to remove the fear that is associated with creating puff pastry.

shoutout to Gabe and my brother-in-law Garrett for putting the 20 second stop-motion video together!!

Recipe for puff pastry can be found here.

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