Feuilletage rapide

Île-de-France

Origin

Feuilletage rapide is the quick method of making puff pastry, which Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck set out in Mastering the Art of French Cooking as a practical alternative to the classical pâte feuilletée. It belongs to the Parisian pastry tradition, in which the butter is laid into the dough in a single sheet and folded in by turns. The quick method takes the same principle as the classical dough and shortens the labour: the butter is cut into the flour in pieces and the layers are formed by rolling and folding.

Description

The dough is made from plain wheat flour, salt, cold water and a large proportion of cold unsalted butter cut into cubes. The butter is left in visible pieces about the size of a large bean, so that it is not rubbed into the flour as for a pâte brisée. The mass is brought together with the water, rolled out into a rectangle and folded in turns, with rests in the cold between them. The turns build the layers of dough and butter that rise in the oven into the leaves from which the pastry takes its name. It is used for vols-au-vent, bouchées, tartlet cases, palmiers, pithiviers and the covering of a pie.

III

The Thread

—Both doughs leave the butter in pieces and make the layers by rolling and folding, so the labour is shorter than for the full laminated dough. The British pastry is usually folded in fewer turns and is used chiefly for pie crusts, where the French dough is also cut into fine shapes. British

—Both pastries depend on thin separate layers that turn crisp and flaky in the heat of the oven. Filo is stretched into leaves and brushed with fat sheet by sheet, whereas feuilletage rapide forms its layers by folding a single mass of dough and butter. Greek

—Hojaldre is the Spanish puff pastry, built on the same principle of dough and fat folded into many layers that rise with the steam. It is commonly bought ready made and used for empanadas and sweet pastries, while feuilletage rapide is made by the cook for the dish at hand. Spanish

Flavour Context

Feuilletage rapide is eaten with fillings that give a soft, moist contrast to its crisp leaves: creamed chicken or sweetbreads in a vol-au-vent, almond cream in a pithiviers, or a sharp fruit filling. With savoury fillings a dry white wine of good acidity suits it, and with sweet ones a lightly sweet wine. The reason is structural: the richness of the butter in the pastry asks for acidity or freshness to cut it.

V · Quality Hierarchy

The dough is made with dry, high-quality unsalted butter and fine plain flour, kept cold… Good unsalted butter and plain flour are used, and the turns and rests are respected,…

VI · Sensory Tests

sight: When the dough is first rolled, streaks and flecks of butter should be visible through it, lying in flat…

VII · Where the dish lives or dies

The pastry lives or dies on the temperature of the butter during rolling and folding. The butter must stay cold and in distinct pieces, so…

Pillars V — VII

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