Use cold butter to put the puff in puff pastry
Question: I've tried to make puff pastry many times, but it never puffs up. What am I doing wrong?
Recipe: Supper Tart of Red Onion, Greens and Grapes
Attention to temperature is paramount to making good puff pastry. The butter has to be cold enough so that it's waxy, but warm enough so that it's pliable.
In the past you may have used butter that was too warm. It may have melted into the dough before it went into the oven.
From now on, make sure the pastry that goes into the oven is stone cold -- even frozen. There should be thin flakes of butter in between the layers. Every time you roll it and fold it, put it into the refrigerator and give it a rest.
Find a recipe that marches you through every step and every detail. Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 2 and The Way to Cook both give very good directions to making puff pastry.
-Lynne
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