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Quick Puff Paste
1 cup bread flour 1 tablespoon lard Cold water 7/8 cup butter Work lard into flour, first using knife then tips of fingers. Moisten to a dough with cold water, pat, and roll out same as Puff Paste. Dot paste with small pieces of butter, using one-third the quantity. Dredge with flour, fold from ends toward centre, then double, making four layers. Pat, and roll out. Repeat until butter is used. Roll, shape, chill, and bake in a hot oven.
This is what modern bakers call rough puff: the butter goes in as visible lumps and is laminated by folding rather than enclosed in a single block. Keeping everything cold is the whole technique.
- The hinge: temperatureThe butter must stay in distinct pieces, never smeared into the dough. If it begins to soften or the dough resists, refrigerate the whole thing 20-30 minutes before the next fold. In a warm kitchen expect to chill after every turn.
- 7/8 cup butterThat is 14 tablespoons, about 1 3/4 sticks or 200 g. It is added in three instalments of roughly 4 2/3 tablespoons each, corresponding to the three rounds of folding.
- Cold water, unmeasuredThe original gives no quantity. For 1 cup of flour, plan on about 1/4 cup ice water, added a tablespoon at a time until the dough just holds together. It should look slightly shaggy rather than smooth.
- Bread flourThe recipe specifies it rather than pastry flour, and the stronger gluten helps the sheets trap steam. Modern bread flour is a reasonable stand-in, though it runs higher in protein than the period product. All-purpose will still puff, just less dramatically.
- LardThe single tablespoon rubbed in at the start tenderises the base dough. Leaf lard or shortening both work; butter is the least effective substitute here, since you want a fat that stays soft and coats the flour.
- Dredge with flourThis means a light dusting over the butter dots and the work surface, not a coating. Excess flour between the layers makes the baked pastry dry and grey.
- A hot ovenThe book gives no number; 'hot oven' in this period is usually taken as roughly 425-450F. High heat flashes the water in the butter to steam before the layers can set, which is what lifts the pastry. A cooler oven leaks butter and gives a flat, greasy result.
- Chill before bakingNot optional, and not the same as the chilling between turns. Shaped pastry should go into the refrigerator at least 30 minutes so it enters the oven cold and holds its edges.
- YieldRoughly 13 to 14 ounces of pastry, enough for a batch of small patty shells, a single covering crust with trimmings left over, or similar.