Homemade Puff Pastry and Chicken Puffs

During my hostel days, I remember that my parents/brother/uncle/aunt whoever visited me, a package from the bakery would come along with them. In that package, puffs would be one of the things. It used to be one thing that you take with you when you are visiting family members / having a tea party / having a bride viewing at home etc. etc.

I have noticed the current generation have a different trend these days. They would rather prefer fried chicken, burgers, hot dogs, pizza... Since the demand for puffs has gone down, the bakeries tend to make only a hand full of them and only the early birds get lucky. So, it had been a while that we had them. 

It had become a routine of our weekly grocery schedule that we go hang around the frozen food section thinking whether to go ahead buying the puff pastry. Everytime I would come back thinking I can give it a try and make puffs right from the scratch and that would be fun. Overcoming your laziness is one big factor that had been stopping me.

The other day, a strong urge to make it grew in me and I started off pulling out ingredients to make it, only then did I realize that I was running short of butter.  With the hope that it would turn good if not better, I proceded and it did turn good. You may not see the puffs as flaky as you might assume but thats just because there is just half the amount of butter that should ideally go into it. The way I see it is - it turned out to be more healthier cause of the cut down of the butter but at the same time served us with puffs that kept us focused on it untill we were done eating that entire batch, at one go. I have quoted the right amount of butter in the ingredients so that you would get it right if you go ahead with these measures.

Ingredients

For the puff pastry

1. 3 1/2 cup of all purpose flour (for the dough)
2. 1/2 tsp of salt (for the dough)
3. 3 1/2 tbsp of unsalted butter (for the dough)
4. 1 - 1 1/2 cup of cold water
5. 16 oz of unsalted butter (for the butter block)
6. 4 tsp of lemon juice
7. 1/2 tsp of salt (for the butter block)
8. 1/2 cup of all purpose flour (for the butter block)

For the chicken puffs

1. Puff pastry as required
2. 1 Egg for egg wash
3. Chicken filling as required - I used chicken filling. You could use egg/vegetable filling.

Method

Making of Puff pastry

• Take a bowl and add ingredients 1 to 3. Pour in enough cold water to form a dough. If dough tends to be sticky, add all purpose flour as required. Knead it well for about 10 mins untill you get a smooth and soft ball of dough. 
• In a ziploc bag sprinkle some all purpose flour and place the dough in it. Keep it in the fridge for 20-30 mins.
• In another bowl, shred the butter(ingredient 5). Either grate it or cut into cubes and mash it with your hand. Add the lemon juice, salt(ingredient 7) and all purpose flour(ingredient 8) to it. Give it a rough mix.
• Dust your kitchen top and drop the butter mixture onto it. Add additional all purpose flour while you give the mixture a block shape. Zip it in a ziploc bag and pop it into the fridge for 30 mins.
• After 30 mins, take out the dough and the butter block from the fridge. Roll out the dough and place the butter block in the center. Wrap it inside the rolled out dough. 
• Tap the rolling pin on top of it to flatten gently and then roll it out into a rectangular shape. Fold the opposite sides of the rolled out dough in such a way that the sides meet in the center and then fold it again. Place it in the fridge for another 30 mins. 
• After 30 mins take it out and roll it out into a rectangular shape. Again make the fold like we did it in the previous step. Keep it in the fridge for 30 minutes. Repeat making folds for two more times, each time placing it back in the fridge once your done folding.
• I am having a hard time explaining it in words and so are you in understanding it :). So why don't you check out the video here. Please note that I used different measure of the ingredients.
• You can refrigerate the puff pastry for months if you are not going to use it immediately. If you do refrigerate it, just thaw it before you start making puffs, cookies or anything else and you would be good to go.

Making of Chicken puffs

• Preheat the oven to 425 F.
• Roll out the puff pastry to a thickness of a chapathi/tortilla . Cut it into small squares enough to stuff in the filling. Place 1 tbsp of chicken fillings.
• Use water to seal the ends of the dough together. Place it on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
• Beat the egg and add a tbsp of water to make the egg wash. Brush it on top of the chicken puffs.
• Bake it for 25-30 minutes or untill the top of the puffs turns golden brown. 
• Let it cool a little before you serve it.

Tips

1. The butter (ingredient 5) should not be at room temperature. Start working with it as soon as you take it out of the fridge. Else the butter would start melting and it would get difficult to work with it.
2. Dust your surface with flour so that the dough does not stick to the surface while you are kneading the dough/making folds/rolling out the dough.
3. Do not roll out the puff pastry too thin. Else it may break open when they are put together to make puffs and baked.
4. Use the amount of butter that is mentioned in the ingredients to get more flaky puffs. 

You could use the puff pastry to make Palmiers/Elephant ears , Pigs in a blanket etc.