Pate Feuilletee

Pate feuilletee, or puff pastry has always been surrounded by mystique. It's delicate, rich, flaky, and crispy dough can be used for countless savory and sweet items. Pate feuilletee literally means "leaved dough" which refers to its layers. It is made by wrapping a layer of butter with dough and then rolling it out, folding, rolling it out, folding until many layers have been formed. The layers grow exponentially as it is folded. When the butter in between each layer of dough melts and creates steam it leaves air pockets that give this dough its flakiness. I make it sound much simpler then the whole process really is. It is quite time consuming and care must be taken at each step. However the end result is very impressive. We learned how to use this dough to make paillettes- spicy cheese straws, palmiers- better known as butterfly wings by us Americans, fruit tarts, goat cheese filled vols-au-vent, mille-feuilles: napoleon, and fruit galettes.