Insert Coffee: Puff Pastry and Chocolate Croissants

All summer I thought about making puff pastry from scratch, but I didn't want to attempt it until the weather was cold. I think the wait paid off because the puff pastry was super simple and I didn't have a problem keeping it cold at all.

The most important tip to remember about puff pastry is that you can't let it get warm. If the butter gets warm and soft you won't have a flaky layered end product.

I'm including the steps to make chocolate croissants, but the uses for puff pastry are endless. It makes great appetizers (sundried tomato pinwheels), main courses (beef wellington), and desserts of course (apple turnovers).

The process may sound complicated, but if you go through it step by step it's very simple and just requires a little upper body strength and a cold fridge.

Puff Pastry

1 lb cold unsalted butter (4 sticks)
3 3/4 cups flour
1/2-1 tbsp salt (use less if for sweet preparations, more for savory)
1 1/4 cups ice water
extra flour for rolling dough out

In a food processor or stand mixer (I used the latter) mix together the flour and salt.
Add all of the water at once and mix until the dough forms a ball on the blade/paddle.
The dough will be soft and wet, it should be squeezable and pliable.
Roll the dough into a ball and slash the top into a tic tac toe pattern with a sharp knife.
Wrap the dough in a damp paper towel and let it rest in the fridge while you start the butter.

To make it easier to roll the butter out to an inch thick, slice each stick of butter in half, arrange the pieces in between 2 sheets of plastic wrap in a rectangle. Roll it until the pieces of butter are fused together and it is about an inch thick.

**Very Important: If at this point your butter is soft and oily, chill it in the fridge/freezer until firm again. Chill the butter while you roll out the dough.

Dust your workplace with flour (I used the counter next to a window that could be opened to further cool my kitchen) and unwrap the dough.
Roll the dough out into a 10 inch square. (Doesn't have to be perfect.)
Keep the dough well floured and turn it frequently to avoid the dough sticking.

Place the chilled butter in the center and fold the edges or 'ears' over to completely encase the butter. If you need to stretch the dough to cover the butter, stretch all the dough, not just the edges.

**Crazy Important: If the butter starts to ooze out or it seems too warm, play it safe and chill the dough for awhile. I keep my window blasting me with cold air while I rolled the dough out, just to be safe.

Now it's time to start rolling. You want to do six total 'turns of the dough', with at least 30 minutes chilling time between each set of 2 turns.

The first turn: 'gently but firmly' press down on each corner with your rolling pin to help keep the dough a square.
Roll the dough out into a rectangle that is about 24 inches in height. Make sure to roll from the center to ensure that the butter moves with the dough it is encased it. You may need to roll pretty hard to achieve this.

Once the dough is 24'' fold the dough into thirds like a business letter and brush off the excess flour with a pastry brush.

The second turn:
Turn the dough so that the closed fold is to your left, like the spine of a book. Roll the dough to 24'' and fold into thirds again.

At this point if the dough is still cold you could do the next two turns, but I preferred to take a break (my arms were tired). So the dough went into the fridge for 30 minutes.

The third, fourth, fifth, and sixth turn:
Exactly the same as the second, with chilling breaks whenever you need them.
Once you have finished rolling the dough you should chill it for at least an hour before you use it.

Chocolate croissants are effortless and tasty after all that rolling. Perfect for breakfast or dessert (or both).

Pain au Chocolate aka Chocolate Croissants
1/2 the puff pastry recipe
6 oz quality chocolate (chocolate chips work fine)
1 egg

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Roll out the puff pastry to about half it's thickness (you'll probably need a little flour). Cut into 6 even sized rectangles.
Arrange 1 oz of the chocolate at one end of each rectangle. Roll each rectangle up.