Patêsô – that’s we call a savory puff pastry filled with strong pepper-flavor ground pork or beef, it’s very popular pastry in Saigon, surely this pastry is French-inspired but now commonly found in many bakeries in Vietnam. This pastry could filled with ground chicken, beef, curry or veggies…but most popular is pork with strong black pepper flavor.
There is many things we can do with puff! We can make big tarts for casual gathering, or tiny tarts for an elegant dinner with someone special, fold it into a turnover with fruit or jam for a special breakfast like popular French chausson aux pommes or bake it in muffin tins to make cups that can be filled with just about anything. Let’s do a good puff-pastry today!
Step 1 Preparation for the lean dough
- All-purpose flour 500 gr.
- Salt 10 gr.
- Butter 75 gr.
- Water 250 ml.
Knead all together except the tourage butter, at first speed for 5′ then just few minutes at the second speed, until we get smooth dough. Cover it with cling film and chill it in the fridge for 2 or 3 hours or overnight.
Step 2 Preparation for the tourage or the beurrage
- Tourage Butter 300 gr.
In the same time, we can shape the tourage butter into a square with the baking paper or in kitchen plastic bag. Chill it in the fridge for 1 hour.
When the butter is pliable, shape it into a square or rectangular (14 x 22 cm), wrap in plastic or baking paper, and chill 10 minutes (no longer).
Remove the dough from the fridge and roll out to a square, pay attention to the thickness of the dough to cover well the butter and not too thin.
Place the butter on top of the dough, fold the corners of the dough over the butter so they meet in the middle. Pinch to seal.
The butter is a challenge, you want it to be cold so it stays solid and doesn’t melt into the dough, but you also need it to be pliable so it can be rolled out without breaking into pieces…better check the butter first, make sure it’s slightly soft and the dough is cold.
Now the process of making puff pastry starts – rolling out the dough, folding it up, and rolling it out again. One round of rolling out and folding up is called a “turn” and you do five or four turns in total to make puff pastry…at LCB we do 5 turns but at home as we use regular butter – 4 folds is enough.
If some butter starts to pop through the lean dough as you roll, just sprinkle the spot with a little flour, pat it with your fingers, and carry on…
To make sure the butter stays cool, refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes after every turn if your kitchen is warm…If the butter continue to pop out and it’s happening a lot, that’s a sign that the butter is melting , you should refrigerate it for another 30 up to 45 minutes.
Rotate the folded dough so it looks like a book about to be opened. Roll it out again into a rectangle and fold it again.
In order to cut sharply, do keep the dough in the fridge for at least 30 up to 45 minutes, after cutting, wet the edge carefully with cold water as it helps to seal the dough after filling. Do egg wash two times and bake it at 180-200°C for 40 minutes.
If you plan to freeze the dough, it’s best to do so after just 3 turns, thaw overnight in the fridge and then complete the final 1 or 2 turns before rolling out the dough and baking. If necessary, you can freeze the dough after all 4 or 5 turns, but the pastries might not be quite as puffy.
Le petit renard 