Wholemeal Rough-Puff Pastry

This pastry turns up in various FACOTMK recipes, so we’ve given it its own page.

It produces a rough-puff pastry with a nuttier, toastier flavor than doughs based only on white flour, and more closely approximates what cooks in the Kingdoms would routinely use (as there’s something of a cultural bias against over-milling one’s flour just for whiteness).

Its other major difference from white-flour-based puff pastry doughs is that wholemeal rough-puff will not rise as high or puff as extravagantly… but the difference in flavor is worth it.

See the Recipe tab to the right for details on the ingredients and method.

Ingredients:

  • 125g plain flour (or a bread flour will work even better)

  • 125g of wholemeal / whole wheat flour

  • 250g butter—cool but not cold: it should be relatively firm

  • Pinch of salt

  • 150ml cool-to-cold water

Method:

Mix the flour and the salt together. Cube the butter and toss it in the flour: then cut it in roughly. (You do not want the kind of fine-grained result one shoots for when cutting in butter for pie crust or similar. This pastry should show streaks when it’s rolled.)

The cut-in butter

Add the water and mix it gently all together until everything gathers. If your flour’s being abnormally absorptive on the day you’re making this, add a very little more water if you have to in order to get everything to come together.

With the water added and mixed

Cover the dough with a cloth, or plastic wrap if you prefer, and put it in the fridge to rest for about half an hour.

When this time has gone by: Lightly flour a work surface, turn the dough out onto it, and knead it very gently for just a few minutes until it smooths out. Shape it into a rough-ish rectangle.

The rough-ish rectangle

Roll it gently in just one direction until it’s between two and three times as long as it’s wide.

Fold one third of it over the middle of the rolled-out part.

The first fold

Fold the other third on top of the first one.

The second fold

Turn it at a 90-degree angle and roll it just a bit more to smoosh the layers together.

The smooshening

Fold one-third of this business up over the middle again.

Another one-third fold

Fold the other third on top of it.

Yet another fold

When that’s done, stick it in the fridge for another half hour or so. It will then be ready for rolling out and lining a pastry dish.

Categories

Pastry, baking

Image resources

Slated, Olympia cast iron, Zassenhaus, Pera Peris

Food resources
This dish appears in...
The Door Into Fire cover