Sometimes you feel like you can’t win with people. Take kitchen shortcuts, for example. You suggest a shortcut or store-bought item to make a dish easier or faster, and you get dinged by purists who complain that this is just another sign of laziness or the collapse of modern society. Or, instead, you insist that something is worth making from scratch even if it is longer or takes more effort, and then you get harangued for being too complicated. It’s a tough line to walk.
But I feel pretty confident that most people – most reasonable people, anyway – will agree that store-bought puff pastry is an excellent, totally acceptable shortcut. And that’s not only for the average home cook. Plenty of chefs and restaurants rely on this freezer staple, too.
Puff pastry takes time, effort and skill, three things which can be in short supply for any type of cook. Puff pastry is exactly what it sounds like: Pastry that puffs into beautiful layers. It’s made by enclosing butter in dough and then executing a series of rolls, folds and turns to build up many layers. When the pastry is heated, steam, generated by the melting butter, pushes apart the layers of dough, creating the characteristic flake.
Even experienced bakers can struggle with puff pastry (myself included), but, thankfully, the store-bought stuff can be just as good, or better. Use it to make tarts, turnovers, cookies, elegant hors d’oeuvres and more. Here are tips for getting the best results: