How to Work with Puff Pastry

Puff pastry is delicate, buttery and a perfect cocktail party food. It is used for making cheese sticks, tarts and canapes, but sometimes people are intimidated by using this butter-packed dough.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Frozen puff pastry
• 1/4 cup flour
• Rolling pin

How to Work with Puff Pastry

1. Defrost your puff pastry overnight in the refrigerator. You cannot quick thaw this or the butter in the pastry will become too soft to work with.

2. Unroll the defrosted puff pastry and place on a floured counter top.

3. Smooth and patch the holes and tears that may appear in the folds of the pastry. These seams are normal and just need flattening.

4. Sprinkle your rolling pin with flour and gently roll your puff pastry in one direction, north to south.

5. Roll your puff pastry again in the opposite direction, east to west.

6. Add more flour to the rolling pin if the pin starts to stick to the puff pastry.

7. Continue to roll the pastry two or three times in each direction to thin the puff pastry to the thin consistency your recipe requires.

8. Place the puff pastry back in the refrigerator to chill the butter in the dough. This will firm up the pastry so you can cut for bread sticks or make your tart shells.