Flaky pastry

[Jackamus]

Is it possible to fold and roll flaky pastry too much? Some recipes suggest 4 times.

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Is it possible to fold and roll flaky pastry too much? Some recipes suggest 4 times.

Yes. Eventually, so many layers are formed, and the dough becomes so thine, there’s no texture.


This article addresses the issue. although it’s written for the trade rather than home bakers, the same principle applies.

Tech Talk: Laminating trends - Bakers Journal

New trends in laminating are shaking up the way layers are counted and the mouthfeel of the finished product.

www.bakersjournal.com

 

[retired baker]

Is it possible to fold and roll flaky pastry too much? Some recipes suggest 4 times.

In yeasted doughs , 4 turns is beyond optimum, way beyond.
You can get perfectly good results with a 3 fold plus a 4 fold.
This way eliminates the requirement to chill the dough between folds, it speeds the process up significantly.

In non yeasted dough such as puff dough you can easily do 6 folds in 30 minutes.

 

[Jackamus]

Thanks for your comments.
I have just made some flaky pastry with 54 butter layers (as seen on Youtube).
How thin should I roll it to make apple turnovers?

 

[retired baker]

Thanks for your comments.
I have just made some flaky pastry with 54 butter layers (as seen on Youtube).
How thin should I roll it to make apple turnovers?

Depends on how you like them, I'd roll the dough to 1/8th inch but you might like more dough to apple.

54 butter isn't much, thats closer to croissant.
Typical puff dough has 1200 layers and approx 500 are butter.
THicker dough layers make for for tough eating.

 

[Jackamus]

I'm not sure what you mean by 'Thicker dough layers'!

Regarding ration between dough and butter, I have been rolling the pastry into a 15" x 10" rectangle, spreading 250g of butter on 10" x 10" at one end and then folding over the un-buttered 5" onto half of the butters part and then folding the remaining 5" of buttered part over onto the first fold. this gives 3 layers of dough and 2 butter. After refrigerating for 30min and then continue to roll-out and fold in thirds until I have made 13 folds = 1458 layers of butter.

 

[retired baker]

I'm not sure what you mean by 'Thicker dough layers'!

Regarding ration between dough and butter, I have been rolling the pastry into a 15" x 10" rectangle, spreading 250g of butter on 10" x 10" at one end and then folding over the un-buttered 5" onto half of the butters part and then folding the remaining 5" of buttered part over onto the first fold. this gives 3 layers of dough and 2 butter. After refrigerating for 30min and then continue to roll-out and fold in thirds until I have made 13 folds = 1458 layers of butter.

13 folds is beyond excessive. At that point the dough begins to rip apart internally and the dough layers touch.
Stop at 5 or six, thats ideal for maximum flake.
Beyond 6 folds is a diminishing return.