Puff pastry is one of those amazing, delicious things which seems impossible to make. In fact, in the last I have always used the Pepperidge Farm frozen puff pastry whenever a recipe called for it, simply because I believed it to be more work than it was worth to make it from scratch. But, I recently found a recipe in Cook's Illustrated magazine for quick puff pastry which they promised was just as good as the traditional method of making it.
Puff pastry is made with flour, butter, water, and salt. In the traditional method, the flour, water, salt, and a small amount of the butter are combined to make a dough, and then the remaining butter is pounded with a rolling pin between sheets of wax paper to create a thin square sheet of butter. This butter square is then wrapped in the dough, and then the entire thing is rolled out into a long rectangle and folded into thirds like a letter. The dough is then refrigerated for a while, then rolled and folded again, refrigerated, rolled and folded... 6-7 total cycles of rolling, folding, and refrigerating! This creates hundreds of thin layers of dough and butter, which, when baked, puff and form the ultra-thin, crispy layers.
Cook's Illustrated's quick method has you combine the flour, salt, and a bit of the butter just like the original, but then you add the remaining butter to the food processor and the water, pulsing to make a dough that still has visible chinks of butter in it. You roll this dough out and fold it longways into thirds, and then roll it up like a jellyroll, so that the rolls create the many layers. This is chilled just once, and then you can use it.
A napoleon consists of a sheet of puff pastry which is baked sandwiched between two sheet pans to keep it from rising too much. This is then cut longways into 3 equal pieces. The top piece gets glazed with poured fondant traditionally (blech!) or as I like it - with chocolate ganache and a drizzle of melted white chocolate. All the pieces are stacked with pastry cream between.
Quick Puff Pastry (from Cook's Illustrated)
2 cups (9 oz) unbleached all purpose flour
20 tablespoons very cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4 inch cubes
1 tsp salt
6-7 tablespoons ice water
Place the flour and salt in the bowl of your food processor. Pulse once or twice to combine. Add 4 tablespoons of the butter and pulse 10 times. Add the remaining butter and pulse twice just to evenly distribute the butter. Add 6 tablespoons of the water and pulse 4 times. Press the dough between your fingers to see if it will hold together. If it's too dry to form a dough, add the remaining tablespoon of water 1 teaspoon at a time, pulsing once and rechecking to see if it will hold together between additions. Turn out the dough onto a floured countertop and knead as briefly as possible to form a rough ball of dough. Roll the dough out to a 12 by 18 inch rectangle. Fold it in thirds longways, so you have a 4 by 18 inch rectangle. Start at the short end and roll it up like a jelly roll. Pat it down a but to form a 5-inch square. Wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour before using.
