Food Preparation Techniques

How to Prepare

Puff Pastry

Keep it chilly: Except for baking and defrosting, puff pastry likes cold temperatures. If your raw pastry turns limp while you prep your dishes, put it in the freezer for a couple of minutes to firm up. Put assembled, unbaked puff pastry items in the freezer for a few minutes before baking. The firmed-up butter (or other fats) will give off steam in the oven.

Fillings: After they're cooked, puff pastry and patechoux puffs can be filled with a variety of ingredients, including cooked wild mushrooms, caramelized onions, goat cheese, crab salad, salmon mousse, curried vegetables, ground lamb or beef mixtures.

Wrap it up: You might have the urge to wrap yourself in puff pastry, but here are better things to wrap. Lay out a sheet of puff pastry, put a wheel of brie or cored and poached apples or pears on top, and gather and fold the pastry around the item. Bake 20 to 25 minutes at 400 degrees until golden.

Savory choux: When leaning toward a savory puff, just omit sugar from the pate choux recipe. Slice the tops off baked puffs. Fill with a wide range of ingredients (but beware of moist fillings; they'll make choux and puff pastry soggy). Reheat in the oven until the filling is hot.

Use an egg wash: Egg wash – 1 beaten egg mixed with 1 tablespoon of water – holds turnovers together and makes baked pastries shine. Brush the top surfaces of unbaked puff pastry or pate choux with egg wash just before they go in the oven. Don't leg egg wash drip over seams or around the edges of turnovers or shells; egg coagulates and prevents the pastry from puffing.

Heating: Frozen choux puffs can go directly from the freezer into a 400-degree oven for approximately 5 minutes. Room-temperature pastries can be reheated in a 350 degree F oven for 5 minutes. Unbaked puff pastry items can go straight from the freezer into a hot oven – 400 to 425 degrees F. Bake times are always approximate and vary from recipe to recipe and the size of the baked good. Best indicator for doneness: uniform golden brown, crisp and dry. Puff pastry does not reheat; eat it when it's baked.

Freeze and use: With either puff pastry or pate choux, small hors d'oeuvres can be made in advance and frozen (tightly wrapped in plastic). Unwrap and pop them straight into a hot oven when the need arises. Baked choux puffs can be wrapped tightly in plastic or stored in airtight containers in the freezer for up to three months.

To make a lid for pot pies: Roll thin sheets of unthawed puff pastry. Cut to fit your baking dish. Freeze the cut dough between sheets of parchment until you bake your next pot pie.