Chocolate puff pastry...

I was really tired some weeks ago and I decided to make some puff pastry to relax (laughs). The last puff pastry dough I made was perfect, real delight and it was very easy to do. The secret is the method called Rough Puff Pastry, developed by French chef Michel Roux. It is different from all the puff pastry recipes out there because it eliminates the need to prepare two doughs and then wrap the butter brick with that made of flour and water. The recipe of Michel Roux tells to mix it all at once, carefully of course, and then goes direct to the folds. I loved the recipe and decided to make a chocolate version, or better, cocoa version.



The idea to make a chocolate pastry thing I got from Pierre Hermé who has developed his own version of a chocolate puff pastry, but his version is the so called "inverted" dough, which is very labor intensive. My chocolate puff pastry is just an adaptation of Michel Roux rough and the result is just as good with a flaky consistency and slightly savory taste.

I made some changes tough. I made six folds instead of the four indicated by Roux. The cocoa mass is more delicate, melts easily and for that reason I did one fold at a time and did six folds in total, instead of four.





What exactly you can do with more than a kilo of chocolate puff pastry? Anything you would make with the regular one... Why not start with a pears and chocolate tart?





Chocolate Puff Pastry

A variation of the rough Puff Pastry from the Pastry by the French chef Michel Roux.

Para ver um passo a passo do método tradicional de massa folheada clique aqui. Para ver minha postagem com a versão normal da massa folheada do Michel Roux clique aqui .

500 gramas de manteiga sem sal gelada
450 gramas de farinha de trigo
50 gramas de cacau em pó
1/2 colher de chá de sal
150 ml de água gelada

How:

In a clean, dry surface, make a circle with the flour and add the sifted cocoa and salt. With the help of a fork mix the flour to cocoa. Then add the diced butter. With the fingertips (or fork) go mixing the butter mixture to flour, cocoa and salt until it forms a crumbly and dry mass. then add water to the few and continue stirring until a homogeneous mass. You may not need to use any water or possibly need to use more water than indicated, it depends on the environmental conditions of your kitchen and the quality of flour used.


Do not over mix the dough too, while mixing butter to flour, to prevent the butter to melt too fast. Careful with the adding of the water. I have not needed to add any water indicated, only half to form the dough. Maybe you need it all, maybe you don´t.

Once the dough got stick together, make a ball and wrap the dough in plastic and light film and refrigerate for half an hour.
Once chilled, remove the dough from the refrigerator and open on a floured surface. Careful not to add too much flour to the surface. Roll the dough to form a rectangle with size close to 40CM X 20CM and then fold the dough in three, just like folding as a letter. First you fold the top part down, to the middle and then you fold the bottom part up to the middle. Just like folding a letter. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place the dough in the refrigerator for 20 minutes or half an hour. Tip: before wrapping the dough in the plastic, make some marks on the dough with your fingers, two little marks, to help your remember that you have folded the dough twice.

Roll the dough again until it forms a slightly larger rectangle with 50CM X 30CM. Fold the dough into three again, always vertically. The top part down and the bottom part up, like a letter (that was fold number THREE). Then, turn the folded dough and place it vertically in front of you and roll the dough again, into another 50 X 30 rectangle (the same size as the previous rectangle) and fold it again, as a letter (that is fold number FOUR). Make FOUR finger marks on the surface of the dough to remind you the numbers of fold you have already done. Wrap the dough in plastic again and place the dough in the fridge for 20 more minutes.

Repeat the folding twice again, to reach a total of SIX foldings. At the end of the sixth fold place the dough in the fridge again for 40 minutes. After that your cacao puff pastry is ready to be used.

You now have around 1kg (two pounds) of puff pastry. Divide the dough and place the parts in a clean fresh film or a sealable plastic bag. Place them in the freezer or in the fridge, you case you plan to use it immediately.

It can stay in the fridge for up to 3-4 days and in the freezer for up two months. After their cold mass is ready to use.