Derek Polston
Chefs Blog
Published on 20 February 2013
Hits: 188
puff pastry
5 cups flour
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 cups water
2 cups butter
Whisk together your flour and salt. add in water. stir until dough has formed. dough will be a tiny bit on the lumpy side. set aside and let her rest for about 20 minutes. roll out into a rectangle 1/2 inch thick. cut up butter into (chilled) squares and put them ALL over the top of the dough, leaving about a 1/2 inch butter-free around the edges of the rectangle. (the butter needs to be chilled….but it’s a fine line…too warm and your dough will absorb it…too cold and it will break through your dough. my handy-dandy pie and pastry bible noted that 60 degrees F is the perfect temperature for your butter…if you want to be that technical….i just guessed it, myself) after the top of your dough is covered in butter squares…fold it in thirds (like you would a business letter) and roll out again to about 1/2″ thickness. be careful to not let the butter break through the dough or out the sides. (first fold) turn the dough 90 degrees and roll out again into a rectangle and fold again into thirds. (second fold) it’s important to keep your dough chilled, so between every two folds refrigerate for 30 minutes, covered.
you will repeat this process of rolling out and folding two more times…refrigerating between every two folds until you have folded the dough 6 times. once finished, wrap and refrigerate.
the dough can be refrigerated for up to 2 days…or frozen up to a year?! what?!
to make the cream horns:
roll your puff pastry dough out to 1/4″ thick. try your best to keep it in a square or rectangle shape.
cut into 1/2 inch strips length wise.
wrap strips around cream horn mold overlapping the dough as you wrap.
Once you have finished baking…and while they are still warm, they slide right off the mold.
once you have wrapped the dough around mold, brush on an egg wash of your choosing…and send them to the oven!
they bake for about 20 minutes at 400 degrees F.
once tops are golden brown…or to your liking…remove from oven….then remove (while still warm) from mold (be gentle…these buddies are fragile) and transfer to cooling rack.
once cooled…fill with cream and top with powdered sugar….and stick them back in the freezer or fridge. they are best served chilled!
for the cream filling….sheesh…i’ve been testing fillings for weeks. there’s acrisco/sugar filling….a pudding filling….there’s gelatin, to stabilize your whipped cream (this i do not recommend….gelatin smells like burning…and the filling we made with gelatin had a distinct aftertaste of burning….not pleasant) in the end i simply whipped up some heavy whipping cream with vanilla and powdered sugar to taste….light and fluffy…not too sweet.
We Will be shooting for a Late April Early May Grand Opening next season. We plan on a doing alot of samples to help everyone get to try as much of what we have to offer. 
