master-cooks | Paul Hollywood's Temperature Trick For Perfect Pastry

Paul Hollywood, renowned baker and judge on "The Great British Bake Off," shares a simple yet effective tip for achieving perfect pastry every time: paying close attention to temperature. According to Hollywood, the key to a flawless pastry lies in keeping all ingredients as cold as possible. This includes chilling the flour, butter, and even the mixing bowl before you start. Cold ingredients help maintain the integrity of the butter within the dough, which is crucial for achieving a flaky texture. As the pastry bakes, the cold butter creates steam, leading to those sought-after layers. Hollywood emphasizes the importance of working quickly to prevent the butter from softening too much during the mixing and rolling process. He suggests using fingertips rather than the palms of your hands when rubbing the butter into the flour, as fingertips are naturally cooler and will not transfer as much heat. Once the dough is formed, it should be wrapped and chilled again before rolling out. By controlling the temperature throughout the preparation, bakers can ensure the butter remains firm and the pastry achieves the desired flakiness and tenderness. Hollywood's temperature trick is a straightforward approach that can significantly elevate the quality of homemade pastries.

Cold pastry dough and hot ovens

There’s a scientific basis for the practice of chilling dough before baking it in a hot oven. This technique is largely related to the butter, which must stay firm to maintain the pastry's flaky texture. If the dough is too warm when placed in the oven, the butter may melt and seep out, rather than remaining within the pastry. The simplest way to keep your dough cold is to refrigerate it (not freeze it) to firm it up before baking. Additionally, as noted by Hollywood, using high-quality butter is essential, and be cautious with the rolling pin, as excessive pressure on the edges can deflate puff pastries.

While the process isn’t overly complex, it does require some effort to perfect. In fact, Prue Leith, Hollywood's co-judge on "The Great British Bake Off," prefers to use store-bought puff pastries, believing they taste good enough to justify the time saved compared to making them from scratch. Whether you agree with Hollywood or Leith is your choice, but keep in mind that there’s a similar cold and hot method for store-bought pastries as well—just ensure you thaw frozen pastries in the fridge before baking. They should be chilled, not frozen, when they go into the oven.

Paul Hollywood's Temperature Trick For Perfect Pastry

Cold pastry dough and hot ovens

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