Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 2 (57 page)
Read Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 2 Online
Authors: Julia Child
1)
Forming the dough
The preceding recipe for 2½ lbs. chilled classic puff pastry
A pastry-cutting wheel or long knife
A 3½-inch plain, round cutter
A 2-inch plain, round cutter
A large baking sheet 12 by 16 inches at least
1 or 2 trays or baking sheets in the refrigerator for storing pieces of dough
A sharp, thin skewer (or large darning needle)
Because puff pastry softens so quickly out of the refrigerator, you will find it best to work on only part of the dough at a time, keeping the rest chilled. Each piece will make 3 patty shells. Roll the dough into a rectangle 18 inches long and 8 inches wide, cut into thirds crosswise using pastry wheel or long knife, and refrigerate 2 of the pieces of dough. Roll the remaining piece of dough into a 10- by 14-inch rectangle ¼ inch thick. Work rapidly from now on so that dough will not soften before you are through; if it does, stop immediately, refrigerate everything for 15 to 20 minutes and then continue. Soft, limp dough is impossible to work with.
With the 3½-inch round cutter, cut 6 disks in the pastry, spacing them half an inch from the edges of the pastry and from each other. |
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| Rinse pastry sheet in cold water, shake off excess water, and place the 3 disks upside down on the sheet, spacing them ½ inch from edge of sheet and from each other. Paint tops of disks lightly with cold water and |
Seal each ring to each disk by making slanting indentations ⅛ |
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| Prick all over exposed center of bottom disks with the tines of a table fork |
With a 2-inch round cutter or a knife, |
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Pastry will probably have softened; refrigerate baking sheet for 10 minutes, or at least while you are rolling out and cutting the next 2 pieces of dough. When all 9
bouchées
are assembled on the sheet, cover with waxed paper and refrigerate for at least 40 minutes before baking, so that dough can relax and
bouchées
will not shrink or bake out of shape.
