Puff Paste
1 pound butter 1 pound pastry flour or 14 ozs. bread flour Cold water Wash the butter, pat and fold until no water flies. Reserve two tablespoons of butter, and shape remainder into a circular piece one-half inch thick, and put on floured board. Work two tablespoons of butter into flour with the tips of fingers of the right hand. Moisten to a dough with cold water, turn on slightly floured board, and knead five minutes. Cover with towel, and let stand five minutes.
Pat and roll one-fourth inch thick, keeping paste a little wider than long, and corners square. If this cannot be accomplished with rolling-pin, draw into shape with fingers. Place butter on centre of lower half of paste. Cover butter by folding upper half of paste over it. Press edges firmly, to enclose as much air as possible.
Fold right side of paste over enclosed butter, the left side under enclosed butter. Turn paste half-way round, cover, and let stand five minutes. Pat, and roll one-fourth inch thick, having paste longer than wide, lifting often to prevent paste from sticking, and dredging board slightly with flour when necessary. Fold from ends towards centre, making three layers. Cover, and let stand five minutes. Repeat twice, turning paste half-way round each time before rolling. After fourth rolling, fold from ends to centre, and double, making four layers. Put in cold place to chill; if outside temperature is not sufficiently cold, fold paste in a towel, put in a dripping-pan, and place between dripping pans of crushed ice. If paste is to be kept for several days, wrap in a napkin, put in tin pail and cover tightly, then put in cold place; if in ice box, do not allow pail to come in direct contact with ice.
A classic full puff paste in the Fannie Farmer school style: equal weights of butter and flour, four turns, and long rests. The instructions are sound; only the equipment and the cooling notes need translating.
- Scale and yieldA pound of butter to a pound of flour makes well over 2 lb of finished paste, a large batch by modern standards. Halve it if you have no use for that much; the method is identical.
- Washing the butterWorking the butter under cold water in a bowl removes buttermilk and surface water so the block does not tear the dough or steam it apart. With modern packaged butter a brief knead under cold running water until no droplets spatter is enough. Keep it cold throughout.
- Flour choice"Pastry flour" here is a soft, low-protein flour; the 14 oz of bread flour is offered as a substitute because stronger flour absorbs more water. Modern all-purpose sits between the two \a use a full pound of it, or 14 oz bread flour as directed.
- The hinge: temperature, not techniqueEverything depends on butter and dough staying at the same firm, pliable coolness. If butter breaks through, stop, chill 20 minutes, and carry on. The five-minute rests in the original assume a cold room; in a warm kitchen use 20–30 minutes in the refrigerator between turns.
- Dripping-pans and iceA dripping-pan is a shallow roasting pan. The sandwich of pans and crushed ice is a period substitute for refrigeration — the refrigerator shelf does the same job.
- Counting the turnsThree single folds in three (letter folds) plus a final fold-and-double (book fold) gives the four rollings the recipe counts. Mark the count with fingertip dents in the dough if you lose track.
- StorageWrapped in plastic rather than a napkin, the paste keeps three or four days refrigerated and freezes well for a month or two. Thaw in the refrigerator so the butter never softens unevenly.
- Baking, which the recipe omitsPuff paste needs a hot oven so its water turns to steam before the butter melts out. The recipe gives no temperature; modern practice is a hot oven, around 425F, reduced somewhat once the layers have set and risen. Bake on an unbuttered sheet and cut edges cleanly so the layers can rise.
Full puff paste of this kind -- equal weights of butter and flour, several turns, rests between each -- was a standard of American cookery-school pastry at the turn of the twentieth century, taught in Boston and reprinted in household manuals for years afterwards. The instruction to wash the butter belongs to an era when butter came from a dairy or a grocer's tub with unpredictable water and salt content, and when a cook could not assume a chilled workroom, hence the business of dripping-pans and crushed ice. Puff paste was a display item: vol-au-vents, patty shells, tarts and the tops of ambitious pies.