Arlette

Back

Makes 9 pastries.

Ingredients:

For the dough:

60 gr. strong white bread flour

60 gr. all-purpose flour

1 tsp. salt

40 gr. unsalted butter, melted

50 ml cold water

For the butter layer:

125 gr. unsalted French butter, room temperature

25 gr. strong white bread flour

25 gr. all-purpose flour

For the filling:

50 gr. granulated sugar

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Confectioner's sugar for dusting

Preparation:

Put the flours, salt, butter and cold water in a bowl and gently mix to form an even dough with your fingers.

Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and knead for 5 minutes until smooth.  Shape the dough into a 5 inch square, wrap in cling wrap and chill for an hour or freeze for 20-30 minutes. 

For the butter layer, cream the butter and flours together using an electric mixer.  Sandwich the mixture between two sheets of cling wrap and roll out to a rectangle (the same width as the dough) but twice as long 5 inch by 10 inch.  Chill in the fridge for 25 minutes.

Unwrap the chilled dough and butter layer.   Place the chilled butter sheet, short end facing towards you on a lightly floured surface and place the square of dough in the center of the butter sheet.  Make sure it is positioned neatly and covers almost to the edges.  Lift the top of the exposed butter sheet and fold it down over the dough, then fold the exposed butter sheet at the top, so the dough is completely enclosed in the butter sheet.

Place the dough on a lightly floured surface, short end towards you.  Roll out to a 6 inch by 12 inch rectangle, keeping the edges as even as possible.  Fold the top quarter down and the bottom quarter up to meet in the center.  Then fold the dough in half along the center line.  This is called a book turn.  Wrap the dough in cling wrap and chill for 25 minutes. 

Remove the dough from the fridge and make another book turn.  Wrap the dough in cling wrap and chill for 25 minutes.

For the filling, mix the granulated sugar and the cinnamon together in a bowl.  On a lightly floured surface, roll out the pastry to a rectangle as before and sprinkle over the sugar.

Make another book turn to incorporate the sugar, then roll out the pastry to 1/2 inch (1 cm) thick, to a rectangle 5 inch by 8 inch.  Roll up the pastry from the short end like a Swiss roll.  Wrap in cling wrap and chill for 25 minutes.

Preheat the Convection oven to 350 degrees.  Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone sheets. 

Trim the ends of the roll and cut into nine 1/2 inch thick slices with a very sharp knife, dental floss or spectra fishing line.  Dust the work surface heavily with confectioner's sugar and roll each piece of dough out very thinly to an oval (1/8 inch), turning to coat in the sugar and to prevent sticking.  Place the pastries on the prepared baking sheets and bake for 5 to10 minutes or until pastry is beginning to crisp.  Turn pastry over and cook another 5 to 10 minutes (2 minutes at a time) or until golden brown.  Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

History:

This recipe comes from the Great British Bake Off.