Wrapping the fruit in delicousness... Rough Puff Butter Pastry....

Too many "aspiring" bakers tell me they CAN'T make good pastry!  I say "YES, YOU CAN"... you just need to understand a little of the actual chemistry that creates the final product to correct your technique!  I adore pies!  But every pie needs the RIGHT pastry to make it totally amazing!

Rough Puff Pastry is a basic butter dough with a tender bite and a delightfully flaky consistency.  It should be buttery flavoured, dry without being brittle, never oily textured, and the body of the dough must never be tough.  Most cooks overwork the fat component into the flour, use warmed fat (thinking it will be easier to handle) or knead the resulting mass; this creates gluten, a protein that gives bread wonderful elasticity, but is a disaster with pastry!

I cheat when it comes to pastry.  I make MOUNTAINS of it every year when the apples on my trees come ripe!  There are times when LARD is the better choice for pie crust, but with many people not happy eating that particular fat I will substitute BUTTER into my recipe, or use half butter and half lard.  NEVER use "special pastry shortenings"... the resulting pastry will be greasy, have an unpleasant melt point in your mouth and the layers created by using cold animal fat won't be nearly as flaky.

So lets' start with the basics.  I will give you amounts for five single crusts, but I usually double this recipe and make five large chunks.  Use a BIG bowl to allow your hands to work the dough.  Make sure your hands are really clean and remove your rings, watch, jewelry...   You will need a large knife to literally cut the COLD fat.
 Measure five and a half cups of unbleached all purpose flour into the bowl.  Measure in one teaspoon of salt (I sometimes just eyeball it) and a teaspoon and a half of double acting baking powder.  Stir this together with your hands until the dry ingredients are well incorporated.  Take your butter ( or lard, or combination of the two) out of the fridge and cut it lengthwise into four flat pieces. 
Turn each piece in the flour and cut each slice into four sticks.  Stack all the stick together and cut them into small blocks.  Toss the blocks with the flour mixture.  This is when mixing makes the perfect flaky consistency. 
You don't want to break the butter up too much, but you do want it a little squished.  I press some of the butter to flatten it with my hands, working the butter into the flour until the edges of the blocks are slightly rounded. 

Now comes the chemistry part.  Crack one whole egg into a one cup measuring cup.  Add one tablespoon of lemon juice (fresh is better!) and whip loosely with a fork.  Strain in enough ICE WATER to make one cup of liquid.  Pour the liquid ALL AT ONCE into a well in the middle of your butter loaded flour.  Pulling the edges of the flour into the middle with your hands, mix the resulting mass until it JUST holds together. 
You can add another teaspoon of water if the dough seems too dry to work easily. 

The reason this works?  Acids destroy protein;  the acidic component of the lemon juice acts as a dough conditioner, helping to prevent the formation of the protein - gluten - within the flour mass.  The egg acts as a binding agent and allows the crust to colour nicely when baked.  The double acting baking powder begins to activate when the liquid is added, but continues to create pockets of carbon dioxide during the heating process, making the flakes separate better and causing the characteristic flakiness that distinguishes good pastry!  The other ingredient you need for good pastry?  

PATIENCE!   Now you have to wait!  Divide the dough into five even lumps.  I actually combine two lumps into one at this point because I don't like my double crusted fruit pies to make a mess in my oven, but if you are making custard pies, or you want the beauty of a classic double crust or lattice topped pie keep it in five portions.  Wrap in plastic wrap OR slip the dough into clean plastic bags and put it in the fridge.  Literally forget about it for at LEAST an hour.

 Better yet, make it the day before so you can allow the dough to rest and lose any elasticity you may have worked into it as well as letting the animal fat harden again.

When you roll the dough I sometimes use an old, clean sheet as a "pastry cloth".  Flour your surface well, and work the dough into a disk with your hands.  The fat will resist the shaping process and that is GOOD.  Working with a rolling pin, begin to roll the dough into an evenly rounded shape... eventually I will post a video, but not this time!  When the dough will over flow the sides of the pan it is the right size.  If I am rolling a double portion I work the circle until it is TWICE the width of the pie pan so I can "flip" the dough over the fruit filling; that way the pie won't "spill" over the edges when the filling starts to bubble!

Push the dough into the bottom of the pie pan and poke a few holes in the bottom of the crust.  Fill with your prepared fruit filling, top with the second crust, trim, brush with a little water and dust with about a teaspoon of sugar before baking.  I like to use my gas oven on convection bake, with a temperature of about 425 degrees Fahrenheit.  Your oven will probably use a different temperature.  Just remember - medium hot to flash the crust but not make the fat melt and run out before the flour can seal it in!

Just the pastry, my darlings....   I will give you the filling recipes later, or you can fill them with your own personal favorites ....    And it's a full moon, so the Kitchen Witch is heading off to better things tonight!