Patty Cases

A bare set of directions that assumes you already have puff paste made and know what a patty cutter looks like. The critical points are all about temperature and handling.

• "Rolled 5 times"This most likely means five turns — roll, fold, rest, repeat — not five passes of the pin. Any standard puff pastry (pâte feuilletée) with five or six turns behaves the same, and good all-butter frozen puff pastry is a reasonable stand-in.
• The oven550F is at or above the ceiling of most domestic ovens; 500F is the usual maximum and works. Give it a full 30-minute preheat, then drop to 425F after 5 to 8 minutes as written and finish for another 15 to 20 minutes until the sides are dry and rigid.
• "Turning often"Rotate the pan, not the pastry. Old ranges heated unevenly and lopsided rise was the result. In a convection oven a single turn halfway through is plenty; opening the door repeatedly in the first five minutes will cost you height.
• Cutting the lidCut halfway through with a noticeably smaller cutter. That inner round becomes the cap, lifted off after baking so the soft interior can be scooped out to leave a hollow case.
• Cut, do not twistPress the cutter straight down and lift it straight up. Twisting seals and drags the laminated edge, and the case rises crooked or not at all. Flour the cutter, or dip it in hot water and shake it dry.
• The chillingBoth chills matter, and the second one most. The rounds should go into the oven cold and firm — 30 minutes in the refrigerator or 10 in the freezer — so the water in the butter layers flashes to steam rather than the butter melting out at the base.
• Thickness and yieldHalf an inch is thick for puff paste and deliberately so: these are meant to rise into deep cases. A pound of paste rolled this thick gives roughly eight to ten 2 1/2-inch cases.
• ServingFill only at the last moment, with something hot and thick — creamed chicken, sweetbreads, mushrooms, lobster. Anything loose will soften the walls within minutes.