Pastry & Baking Arts Chef-Instructor Penny Stankiewicz shares professional puff pastry guidance and the recipe for a picture-perfect kale clover and pineapple tart to treat your mother to — or make for yourself.
There are four key guidelines for making professional-grade puff pastry.
They are:
- Keep it cold. The beautiful layers will only stay layers if you work with very cold dough and keep it cold throughout the preparating process. This includes putting it in the freezer for a bit before it goes in the oven. Don't even try to make puff pastry in a super-hot kitchen. If it's too hot, the butter will melt into the dough, and you won't achieve layers. If it's warm out or your kitchen runs hot, purchase one of the many great puff pastry products in the freezer section at your local grocery.
- The less you touch it, the better. Dough warms up fast, so work quickly and try to touch it as little as possible.
- Don't stress when the dough looks like a total mess. It will come together as you create the folds.
- Use the right amount of force. You do have to exert some effort to roll and fold puff pastry, but you don't want to be too aggressive with it. Too much force can cause your dough to build up too much gluten and become tough. It can also force the butter into the dough, which degrades the integrity of the layers.
Make puff pastry in the Pastry & Baking Arts program at ICE.
Ingredients
- 170 grams all-purpose flour
- 60 grams cake flour
- 260 grams unsalted European style butter, very cold
- 10 grams lemon juice or vinegar
- 80 grams ice water (or enough to combine with lemon juice and vinegar to make 4 oz or ½ cup)
- 3 grams kosher salt
Directions
- Place both flours in the bowl of an electric mixer. Add 29 grams of cold butter and work it into the flour with the paddle attachment. (This can also be done by hand.)
- Cut the remaining butter into ½-inch pieces and add to the flour. Toss to combine.
- Mix acid, water and salt together.
- Drizzle the liquid over the flour and butter. Toss by hand to combine lightly, then work a bit to bring it together. (Dough should be very rough and some dry spots should still exist.)
- Flour your counter surface well with all-purpose flour. Place dough on counter and form into a rough rectangle. Tap with a rolling pin to work dough out into a larger rectangle that is approximately 12x6 inches. (No need to be exact on the first roll, you just want your rectangle long enough to be able to perform the folds.)
- Perform a double fold: Fold dough from top edge to the middle, and from bottom edge to the middle. Fold this in half and place folded spine on your left side. This is one double fold. Use as much flour as you need to keep the dough from sticking, but try not to add too much or it will alter the ratio in the final product.
- Roll dough out into a longish rectangle and repeat folding procedure. Repeat once more for a total of three (3) double folds.
- Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator at least 2 hours or overnight.
To roll the dough:
Dust the surface with all-purpose flour. Tap surface of chilled dough with rolling pin to get it started. Roll dough into a rectangle that is about ¼-inch thick and a minimum of 8x8x16 inches. Return rolled dough to refrigerator or freezer until ready to use.
Kale Filling
Ingredients
- Butter or oil for sautéing (approximately 28 grams)
- 1 medium shallot, thinly sliced
- 1 bunch kale, washed, dried, deveined and sliced into 1-inch strips
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- â…“ whole nutmeg
- 60 grams ricotta cheese
Directions
- Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add oil or butter and when hot, add sliced shallot. Stir while cooking to keep it from coloring.
- When shallot is softened, add kale and sauté until tender. While it's cooking, season with salt, pepper and freshly grated nutmeg.
- Transfer cooked kale to a bowl to cool. Stir in ricotta.
Note: You can hold this filling in the refrigerator for 3 days.
Marinated Pineapple
Ingredients
- ½ pineapple
- 20 grams good quality rum
- 40 grams light brown sugar
- 14 grams freshly grated ginger
Directions
- Remove skin from pineapple. Slice down the side half, avoiding core, to get one full semicircle side of pineapple. Reserve the rest for another application.
- Dice pineapple finely and move to a bowl.
- Mix together rum, brown sugar and ginger, and drizzle this mixture over pineapple. Let them sit at room temperature 15 minutes to 1 hour.
Kale Clover Assembly
Yields 8 using all the dough, 4 using half
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
- Cut puff pastry with a pizza wheel or very sharp knife, straight down into 4-inch squares. (No sawing motions, please! It will seal the puff and prevent it from rising.)
- Take the square and with a paring knife, cut a 1 ½-inch slice into each point of the square. Keep dough cold while working. Chill it if you need. The colder the dough, the easier it is to work with.
- Place ¼ cup of cooled sautéed kale into center of the square. Take edges where you cut in, and fold them towards the center, pushing down firmly to seal. Repeat with all sections. Chill again before baking if dough has warmed up at all. Brush the top of visible dough with egg wash.
- Bake kale clover in 400°F oven 22 minutes, or until dough has puffed and is deep golden brown.
- Serve immediately.
Pineapple Tart Assembly
Yields 10 3-inch tarts using all the dough, 5 3-inch tarts using half the dough
- With remaining dough, cut 3-inch circles with a large cookie cutter, a template and paring knife, or a pizza wheel. With a smaller cookie cutter, make a delicate mark in the center of the round, about ½ inch away from the edge. Don’t cut all the way through the dough. Pile pineapple in the center of the round, using the new mark as a guide.
- Chill pastry again before baking, if necessary.
- Bake at 400°F for 18 minutes or until pastry is puffed, golden and cooked until crisp.
- Serve immediately or hold at room temperature.
More recipes by Chef Penny:
