Puff pastry with no puff lol

Joined
Feb 5, 2021
Messages
60
Reaction score
52
Hi,I tried making puff pastry sausage rolls tonight I’ve never made puff pastry before so I googled it .2cups of flour (strong bread flour) 1 and a bit cups of grated lard,pinch of salt and half a cup of water. I kneeled it into a smooth pastry,rolled it out made the sausage rolls then put them in the freezer for 10 mins. I pre heated the oven at gas mark 6 put diagonal slits in the top of them so the moisture could escape from the meat,brushed on egg yolk and water mixed and baked them for 15 mins..ish,although they are edible there’s no puff going on any help gratefully recieved. Thanks.
 
Joined
Nov 12, 2022
Messages
18
Reaction score
0
Hi,I tried making puff pastry sausage rolls tonight I’ve never made puff pastry before so I googled it .2cups of flour (strong bread flour) 1 and a bit cups of grated lard,pinch of salt and half a cup of water. I kneeled it into a smooth pastry,rolled it out made the sausage rolls then put them in the freezer for 10 mins. I pre heated the oven at gas mark 6 put diagonal slits in the top of them so the moisture could escape from the meat,brushed on egg yolk and water mixed and baked them for 15 mins..ish,although they are edible there’s no puff going on any help gratefully recieved. Thanks.
My goodness! Where on earth did you get that recipe for Puff Pastry?!?!

Firstly, lard – if used at all – should represent a small proportion of the fat which should, predominantly, be good quality (normandy-type) BUTTER;

then: you make no mention of the notorious “turns”, of which there should be at least Five, preferably Six.

If you want to see some really good explanations of the technique required, may I draw your attention to three videos made by “Retired Baker”, which can be found in a thread called “Sponge Biscuits Misbehave” on the “Deserts” Forum. He has posted three excellent demonstrations, respectively, on 3rd December 2022 – 6th December 2022 – 9th January 2023.

Admittedly, Retired Baker being a past master, is rather virtuosic and his nonchalance, encouraging though it is, can be a bit misleading; to ALL accounts and from personal experience, puff can be very tricky and should not be attempted in warm to hot conditions.

Hoping this helps – good luck – and looking forward to your results!

 
Joined
Jan 12, 2020
Messages
1,193
Reaction score
236
Hi,I tried making puff pastry sausage rolls tonight I’ve never made puff pastry before so I googled it .2cups of flour (strong bread flour) 1 and a bit cups of grated lard,pinch of salt and half a cup of water. I kneeled it into a smooth pastry,rolled it out made the sausage rolls then put them in the freezer for 10 mins. I pre heated the oven at gas mark 6 put diagonal slits in the top of them so the moisture could escape from the meat,brushed on egg yolk and water mixed and baked them for 15 mins..ish,although they are edible there’s no puff going on any help gratefully recieved. Thanks.
No good...that dough is for pigs in a blanket.... American style.

Sausage roll, the traditional British version is puff dough rolled around sausage meat, best if you blend in a panade (bread and milk or bread/water paste)....to prevent the fat from flowing out.

The easy way is buy puff dough and cumberland sausages, slit to skin to extract the meat and use as is, maybe add finely shopped onion. Cumberland bangers already contain the panade.

This aussie woman knows how its done.
 
Joined
Jul 31, 2024
Messages
692
Reaction score
8
It sounds like you put in a lot of effort, but puff pastry can be tricky! The key to getting that nice "puff" is in the lamination process, which creates those flaky layers. When making puff pastry, you want to roll out the dough, fold it over, and then roll it out again several times, chilling it in between folds. This creates the layers of fat and dough that puff up in the oven. It might also help to use cold butter instead of lard, as the steam from the butter melting is what causes the pastry to rise. Don’t be discouraged puff pastry takes practice, and you’ll get the hang of it!
 
Joined
Feb 5, 2021
Messages
60
Reaction score
52
It sounds like you put in a lot of effort, but puff pastry can be tricky! The key to getting that nice "puff" is in the lamination process, which creates those flaky layers. When making puff pastry, you want to roll out the dough, fold it over, and then roll it out again several times, chilling it in between folds. This creates the layers of fat and dough that puff up in the oven. It might also help to use cold butter instead of lard, as the steam from the butter melting is what causes the pastry to rise. Don’t be discouraged puff pastry takes practice, and you’ll get the hang of it!
Thankyou Mona, I’m going to be positive and keep going until I’m good at it.
 
Joined
Nov 12, 2022
Messages
18
Reaction score
0
@Stephen Booth

I failed at Puff pastry most of my life, until I saw the video (above – titled “reverse puff again”) where the baker performs the whole thing in one go and at room temperature (20C, he says).

Admittedly, he is a virtuoso baker and I would not suggest working on that kind of high wire … BUT, there is one excellent clue in there which makes the whole process much easier: he keeps the ingredients and the gradually developing dough, turn upon turns, AT THE SAME TEMPERATURE ALL THE TIME!

So, forget about putting the dough in the fridge between turns, it makes the ‘packet’ much stiffer and more difficult to work.

Find yourself as cold a room as possible, make the ‘trempe’, and the ‘butter sheet’, and allow them to reach the SAME temperature (about an hour).

Make your first wrapping of the butter (two thirds in) and leave in the room for half an hour. Then do your first rolling -Leave for half an hour … etc. until you have done all your turns (different bakers have different preferred numbers of turns between FIVE and SEVEN).

You will find that having kept the temperature the same throughout will give the dough a much better homogeneity.

Since adopting that method, I have not failed once. Here is my latest attempt a couple of months ago:

Hope this helps ...
 

Attachments

  • Puff Pastry - 11-12-2024.jpg
    Puff Pastry - 11-12-2024.jpg
    172.6 KB · Views: 2
Last edited:
Joined
Jan 12, 2020
Messages
1,193
Reaction score
236
@Stephen Booth

I failed at Puff pastry most of my life, until I saw the video (above – titled “reverse puff again”) where the baker performs the whole thing in one go and at room temperature (20C, he says).

Admittedly, he is a virtuoso baker and I would not suggest working on that kind of high wire … BUT, there is one excellent clue in there which makes the whole process much easier: he keeps the ingredients and the gradually developing dough, turn upon turns, AT THE SAME TEMPERATURE ALL THE TIME!

So, forget about putting the dough in the fridge between turns, it makes the ‘packet’ much stiffer and more difficult to work.

Find yourself as cold a room as possible, make the ‘trempe’, and the ‘butter sheet’, and allow them to reach the SAME temperature (about an hour).

Make your first wrapping of the butter (two thirds in) and leave in the room for half an hour. Then do your first rolling -Leave for half an hour … etc. until you have done all your turns (different bakers have different preferred numbers of turns between FIVE and SEVEN).

You will find that having kept the temperature the same throughout will give the dough a much better homogeneity.

Since adopting that method, I have not failed once. Here is my latest attempt a couple of months ago:

Hope this helps ...
Wow pat yourself on the back if you can do reverse puff dough just from a video.
seriously.

Master chefs can't do it and few pastry chefs or bakers, its kinda "out there".
Gordon Ramsey can't make puff dough, let alone reverse dough.

It really helps to do these doughs at 4 am.

A good technique we used for vol au vents is after you tray them up to bake and eggwash the tops, place a second sheet of paper on them and press just slightly to make the paper stick to the eggwash.
This top paper will prevent any from tilting sideways, they will all rise vertically, the paper will pop loose when they're 3/4 baked and can be removed for final coloring.
 
Joined
Nov 12, 2022
Messages
18
Reaction score
0
Wow pat yourself on the back if you can do reverse puff dough just from a video.
seriously.

Master chefs can't do it and few pastry chefs or bakers, its kinda "out there".
Gordon Ramsey can't make puff dough, let alone reverse dough.

It really helps to do these doughs at 4 am.

A good technique we used for vol au vents is after you tray them up to bake and eggwash the tops, place a second sheet of paper on them and press just slightly to make the paper stick to the eggwash.
This top paper will prevent any from tilting sideways, they will all rise vertically, the paper will pop loose when they're 3/4 baked and can be removed for final coloring.

CORRECTION!

Actually, APOLOGIES, sadly, I do not deserve your praise. I got the wrong end of the stick! I had not watched the “reverse puff”, but the “puff dough traditional”.

Otherwise, the rest of my message stands, and the result speaks for itself!
 
Joined
Jan 12, 2020
Messages
1,193
Reaction score
236
[COLOR=%s]CORRECTION![/COLOR]

Actually, APOLOGIES, sadly, I do not deserve your praise. I got the wrong end of the stick! I had not watched the “reverse puff”, but the “puff dough traditional”.

Otherwise, the rest of my message stands, and the result speaks for itself!
if you can do one with confidence, you can definitely do the other. !

A pastry chef on cooks dot com said I was taking my ability for granted in telling newcomers how simple it is, well it beats telling them it takes 2 days and can't be done quickly.
I find its so much easier to teach a newcomer than someone entrenched in a "it can't be done that way" mentality.
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Members online

No members online now.

Forum statistics

Threads
6,706
Messages
48,811
Members
5,654
Latest member
The Ghostly Baker

Latest Threads

Top