Make your own puff pastry

“I wanted to challenge myself and make puff pastry for the first time, really just to see if I had it in me. I am a pain suisse lover so decided to go straight to that rather than a croissant, and not only just a pain suisse but a cross laminated one. Do I hate myself? Maybe. It took me 11 hours to only make 6 so I won't be doing this again any time soon but I'm pleased with the results! The cross lamination didn't work perfectly as I think my pastry was too warm before it baked so it lost some of the definition.”

“What is it about puff pastry? The mere mention of it sends shivers down every baker’s spine. Could it be the knowledge that it has 944 microscopic layers of dough and butter, which seem to break all laws of physics? You look down at your own two hands and think, “These two hands? All by themselves? No way,” before huffing off to the grocery store to buy the ready-made version. [...] The truth is, I’ve only made my own puff pastry a handful of times, and never in a professional setting, only at home. It became obvious that if I wanted to have the priceless gift of knowledge, I was going to have to gift myself. So I tried to make this sultan of doughs on my own, with pretty good results.”

“The first time I attempted puff I was an amateur. And such is its reputation that the very idea of trying to make it made me so nervous I insisted that my stalwart and husband occupy the same room. I was following a baking chapter in a Julia Child volume. Her instructions were clear and I eventually produced a passable batch of puff. By my third try, I felt suave enough to dispense with my stalwart's soothing presence.”