'Need To Know' Recipes
This is a list of all the basic recipes you will need to create your own, fresh ingredients to use in the actual recipes listed. For example, pastry, basic sponge cake mix, buttercream, icing, etc. This will be super handy and will taste so much better than shop bought items.
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Axel's Basic Rough Puff Pastry
Ingredients
- 250g plain flour
- 250g butter
- 1 tsp salt
- Roughly 150ml cold water
Dump your flour and salt into a large bowl. Crumble up the butter the butter into tiny little chunks and rub them into the mix. Make sure you don't over rub, because you do need to see small chunks of butter sticking out still. (What is rubbing? - Rubbing is a technique where you take the mix between your fingers and thumb and move from side to side or round and round.)
Once that's all sorted you need to make a well (A round dent in the middle of the mix.) and pour in about two thirds of the cold water. You'll need to mix this until the dough feel nice and firm. (If it's not how you want it, add more flour or water accordingly being careful not to overuse.)
Cover with cling film (Wrapping plastic.) and leave in the fridge for 20 mins.
After you've had a cup of tea and done your laundry (Or however you choose to spend that 20 minutes.) you then need to turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface. (Don't over flour it as it can make the dough dry and it will crack.) Knead (What is kneading? - Kneading is a technique where you use your hands to press out air from dough. You do this by pressing down with both of your hands using the base of your palm. Once you have done that a few times, fold the dough as if you were folding a t-shirt once and do it again. Keep folding and keep it up as long as you can, or for only a short while depending on the recipe.) it GENTLY and once you've had enough and your arms feel like they are about to drop off, form into a smooth rectangle. Roll the dough in one direction only, until 3 times the width making sure to keep the edges straight and even.
Have you noticed a nice streaky effect the butter has made? This is perfect! Don't over-do the kneading because this is exactly what you need.
Fold the top third down to the centre, then the bottom third up and over that. Give the dough a quarter turn in any direction and roll out again to three times the length. Now you need to fold it again like you just did, cover with cling film and cram it back into the fridge for another 20 minutes or more.
And guess what? You just made puff pastry! You may now roll out the dough and use it.
