Cold butter for flaky pastry
Pea-size chunks of cold butter stay solid in the dough. In a 200°C (400°F) oven they melt, the water in the butter turns to steam, and the steam pushes the dough into thin layers. Warm butter blends into the flour and gives a dense, crumbly crust.
Chill the dough before rolling and baking
Your hands and the room warm the dough as you work. Chill it for 30 minutes before rolling and 15 minutes before baking, so the butter is firm when it hits the oven. Solid butter chunks are what make the layers.
Mix as little as possible
Flour, water and mixing build gluten, the stretchy network that makes bread chewy. That's bad news for pastry. Add ice water a spoonful at a time, and stop when a pinch of dough holds together.
Test yourself
Questions from the interactive lesson, with the answer and the why.
A pie dough made with soft, creamed butter bakes up like a cracker. Why?
No solid butter chunks were left to make steam. Chunks melt late and make steam, while smeared butter just coats the flour.
True or false: Warm dough makes flakier pastry.
False. Warm dough lets the butter melt in early, so the layers disappear.
What went wrong? You work the dough with warm hands until the butter vanishes into the flour. The crust bakes up tough, not flaky.
The butter melted in and the mixing built gluten. With no butter chunks there are no layers, and extra mixing makes the dough tough.
Fill the blank: Flaky pastry dough should be handled as ___ as possible.
Flaky pastry dough should be handled as lightly as possible. Minimal mixing keeps gluten low and the butter in chunks.
You add extra water to make pastry dough easier to roll. The baked crust is tough. Why?
More water builds more gluten, which makes it tough. Wetter dough forms more gluten and bakes up chewy.
Cold vs soft butter biscuits
Flaky layers need cold butter.
Do the 40-minute experiment