This was such a delicious recipe for puff pastry. I just had to ask Benny to please write it down so I could post it.
Enjoy!
Marco Flavio
From Benny:
As I promised, here is the puff pastry dough recipe. I did my best to explain it. The next time I make it, I will take pictures of the folding to help those visual learners! There is another version of it up at my father's site: It's soo good with some pictures of the burekas.
This is the recipe for the puff pastry dough that I used to make the shitake-feta burekas. It’s not for the faint of heart or dieters. Puff pastry is really an English euphemism; the German word “butterteig” gives you a better idea of its main ingredient! The recipe here, which you can use to make desserts as well, is based on my Hungarian grandmother’s recipe but is supplemented by some measurements from Rick Rodgers’ excellent Kaffeehaus book. It’s better than most recipes I’ve seen because the added rum gives the dough more flakiness, and it cuts a lot of preparation time by using both single-turn and a double-turn folding.
Three tips to keep in mind:
- If you can use European-style butter, it will come out better because there is less water content.
- You have to keep the dough and butter cold at all times, around 60ºF is supposedly ideal—that’s warmer than the refrigerator, but less than room temperature. If it’s too warm, the butter melts into the dough and if it’s too cold, it breaks the dough apart.
- The dough’s shape is very important because you need to keep folding it evenly, so keep the edges at right angles throughout as best you can. Remember that puff pastry “puffs” because you are creating tens of layers of dough and butter by folding. In the oven the butter boils, creating steam and raising the successive layers.
Ingredients:
200 grams of unbleached flour
½ teaspoon salt
150 mL (2/3 cup) of cold water
1 tablespoon of rum or vinegar
200 grams of butter + 50 g more flour
Instructions:
In a large bowl mix the flour and salt together, and make a well in the center. In a cup, mix the rum and cold water. Now incorporate this liquid mix into the well, a little at a time, to make the dough. You can add a little more water if necessary to incorporate all the flour. Knead the dough briefly to make it even, but realize that the dough will still be a bit sticky and rough-looking. Roll it out into a 15cm (6 in) square and cover well with plastic wrap. Place it in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.
For the butter mixture, cut the butter into little ½-inch cubes. Combine it well with an extra 50g of flour. Then place the mixture in plastic wrap and, using a rolling pin, shape it into a square a bit smaller than the dough (about 12cm or 5.5in). Stick this in the refrigerator if necessary. Remember, we want the dough and butter to be about the same temperature (60ºF) when we work with them.
With your dough cool and rested, roll it out onto a flour-dusted surface, making a 20cm (8 in) square. Place the unwrapped butter-square in the center, as a diamond inscribed in the dough square. Mark the perimeter of the butter-square on the dough and remove the butter square. Now roll out the dough from each mark using a rolling pin, making “petals”. Replace the butter-square in the center of the dough and fold the petals over, covering it completely. If some butter seems to be peeking out, throw on some flour to cover it up.
Rolling & Folding
Read these instructions a couple of times until you can visualize it in your head:
Single turn: Roll out the dough into a tall rectangle, twice as long as it is wide (about 36x18cm or 14x7in). Brush off any extra flour (extra flour hardens the dough) and keep a proper shape with nice right-angled corners. Now fold the dough like a business letter: fold the top third down and the bottom third up, making a three-layer rectangle about 12x18cm (4.5x7in).
Turn the dough to the left, so that the long side is now top to bottom.
Double turn: Dust the dough with flour and roll it out again into the long rectangle (36x18cm or 14x7in). Brush off the extra flour and fix the right angles. Now fold the dough in this manner: fold the top quarter down, and then the bottom quarter up. You’ll have a crease in the center where they meet. Fold the dough one more time at this crease creating a 4-layer rectangle 9x18cm (3.5x7in). Flatten the dough a bit with your hands and make it even. Then wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Once your dough is rested and cooled, dust it again with flour and perform another single turn and another double turn. Finally, wrap it in plastic wrap and let it sit overnight in the refrigerator (or at least 4 hours).
Using your puff pastry dough
When you’re ready to use the dough (within 3 days), pull it out of the refrigerator and let it thaw a little bit so that you can roll it out easily. Your dough is still in its folded brick form, so you’ll need to roll it out into a giant rectangle, making the dough as thin as your recipe calls for (usually 1/8” thick).
Shitake-feta burekas
You can use your puff pastry to make desserts and savory appetizers, but a common one in the Middle East is the bureka. Usually it’s filled with cheese and spinach or potatoes and is a cousin to Greek spanakopita.
For the cooking event, I sautéed half an onion, a handful of chives, a handful of cilantro, and a half-pound of shitake mushrooms in a heaping spoon of butter. I threw in a bit of flour and a bit of salt to remove some of the mushrooms extra water. Once this was cooled, I mixed in half a pound of French feta cheese and one egg—the egg helps hold it all together.
Using my rolled out pastry dough, I cut out approximately 20 squares. I placed a heaping spoonful of the shitake-feta mixtures in the center and folded the square over into a triangle to seal it. Then I brushed the top with egg wash and sprinkled some sesame seeds on top. The burekas were then placed on a baking sheet in a 350ºF oven for about 30 minutes.
