5 Mistakes to Avoid with Puff Pastry (2024)

FAQs

5 Mistakes to Avoid with Puff Pastry? ›

Heat is the enemy of Puff Pastry—it handles best when cold. So avoid working with it on hot, humid days, in a stifling hot kitchen or next to your oven.

Heat is the enemy of Puff Pastry—it handles best when cold. So avoid working with it on hot, humid days, in a stifling hot kitchen or next to your oven.

The trick is to work large pieces of cold butter into dry ingredients and hydrate it all with ice cold water (as if you were making pie crust). Sometimes bakers grate butter into the mix or use a food processor. There's lots of ways to make rough puff pastry.

Always cut Puff Pastry straight down, never on an angle, to prevent layers from sticking together and inhibiting the rise. Cut up and down, and don't drag the knife. You can brush an egg-wash glaze (1 egg plus 1 tsp. water) over the Puff Pastry to create a rich, golden sheen when baked.

About a third of puff and shortcrust pastry is fat, and if it's made with butter or palm oil, it contains more saturated fat than if it's made with unsaturated fats such as sunflower spread. These are our most commonly used pastries, but it's worth trying to keep them for a treat. Not all pastry is high in fat.

Egg wash is the most reliable but it can be very thick and sticky. Milk wash will go on more evenly but it can soak into pastry and make it weaker. Melted butter works nicely after the crust has set but it can make the crust greasy and weaker.

Your puff pastry may fail to puff for several reasons. Warm pastry: Your pastry should be cold, cold, cold going into the oven. It's worth reiterating: Cold butter equals flaky layers. If your pastry is warm, the butter can easily leech right out during baking.

Pastry should be at room temperature for rolling (to make it more pliable), but chilled before baking (so the buttery layers remain separate). A hot oven allows the layers to rise, but needs to be monitored to prevent burning. When handling, a floured worktop is essential, as is a sharp knife for cutting to shape.

The first golden rule of making pastry; keep the ingredients, the bowl and the hands as cool as possible.

How to stop puff pastry from going soggy? ›

Pastry being soggy in the middle is a result of the pastry being undercooked. Don't place the pastry on too high a shelf in the oven. One way to prevent soggy bottom pastry is to blind bake the pastry – This means partially or completely bake the pastry before adding the filling. Also, avoid over-filling your pastry.

Partially cooking your pastry before adding moist fillings will seal the surface and result in a crisp pastry case – it's necessary, because it means your precious pastry won't turn soggy when it's filled and baked.

Leaving the puff pastry at room temperature too long.

When left at room temperature too long, puff pastry's main ingredient, butter, starts to soften and melt. This leaves the dough sticky and really hard to work with, and may result in the pastry not holding its shape while baking.

If the dough is overworked, it can become tough and difficult to roll out. This can happen if the dough is kneaded too much or if too much flour is added during the rolling process. Shortcrust pastry can shrink during baking if it's not properly chilled beforehand or if it's rolled too thin.

If bubbles appear on the surface while baking Puff Pastry, prick with a fork to deflate them. Always flip and place the cut side of the Puff Pastry down on the baking sheet.

Pastry is high in fat and therefore calories and if it's made with fats like butter, lard, suet, or pork fat which is traditionally used to make South American empanadas, then it will also be high in saturated fat.

Use it as a pie crust

Create a delicious and flaky pastry crust with puff pastry for any type of pie. Whether you're making a savory pot pie like this Mushroom Pot Pie or ​​French Onion Chicken Pot Pie, or something sweet like this Puff Pastry Apple Pie, puff pastry is an easy stand-in as a crust.

Plus, these puff pastries possess processed, refined carbohydrates, which we already know can increase blood sugar levels and promote an inflammatory response.