Puff and strudel pastry: hundreds of layers and dough thin enough to read through

Puff pastry is hundreds of ultra-thin layers of dough separated by layers of butter. In a hot oven the water in the dough and butter turns instantly to steam, which pushes the layers apart while the butter keeps them from sticking. Puff pastry rises 4–8 times with no yeast or baking powder — just steam.

Hence the main rule: the butter must stay solid and separate from the dough right up to the oven. If it melts during rolling, the layers merge into one dough and the pastry spreads instead of rising.

Good shop-bought puff pastry is a great option — even pastry chefs use it. Choose all-butter: margarine pastry rises, but tastes worse.

Classic puff pastry with a butter block takes a whole day. The quick method gives almost the same result in an hour to an hour and a half.

Mix the flour and salt, add the butter cubes and toss to coat them in flour. Don't rub in! The butter must stay in pieces. Pour in the ice water and bring together into a shaggy lump with visible chunks of butter. Wrap and chill for 20 minutes.

Roll into a rectangle 1 cm thick, three times as long as it is wide. Fold like a letter: bottom third up, top third over it. Turn 90°, roll into a rectangle again and fold. That's two folds.

Wrap and chill for 20–30 minutes. Repeat twice more with two folds each — six in total. Each fold triples the layers: after the sixth there are more than 700.

Cut with a sharp knife or wheel in one straight downward stroke. Don't drag the knife or use a blunt one: it presses the edge down, seals the layers and the pastry won't rise there. Press cutters straight down too, without twisting.

When brushing with egg, don't let it run down the cut edges: dried egg glues the edges and the pastry rises lopsided. Brush the top only.

For pastry that must stay flat (a tart base, mille-feuille), prick it with a fork. For a raised rim on a tart, score a border 1–2 cm from the edge without cutting through: the edge rises and the centre doesn't.

Puff pastry loves high heat: 200–220 °C. In a cooler oven the butter leaks out before the steam forms and the pastry comes out flat and greasy.

Bake 15–25 minutes depending on size, until deep golden. Pale puff pastry is raw and sticky inside even if the top looks done. Don't open the oven for the first 10 minutes.

A juicy filling (fruit, meat) makes the base soggy. Sprinkle the base with a thin layer of breadcrumbs, ground almonds or starch — they soak up the juice.

Real Viennese strudel dough is stretched by hand so thin you can read a newspaper through it. The secret is high gluten and a long rest somewhere warm.

Cover the table with a clean cotton tablecloth or sheet and dust it generously with flour. Roll the dough out with a pin as far as it will go. Then take off rings and watches, oil your hands and slide them under the dough, backs of the hands up.

Gently stretch the dough from the centre outwards with the backs of your hands, working round in a circle. It should become thin and translucent, roughly 80×60 cm. Trim off the thick edges. Small holes don't matter — they disappear when rolled.

Per 1 kg tart-sweet apples: 80–100 g sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon, 50 g raisins soaked in water or rum, the juice of half a lemon. Slice the apples thinly and mix just before assembling: left to stand, they release juice.

Fry 60 g breadcrumbs in 40 g butter until golden. Brush the dough with melted butter (you'll need 80–100 g in all) and scatter the crumbs over one third of the sheet — they absorb the juice and keep the dough from going soggy. Lay the apples over the crumbs.

Fold in the edges and roll up the strudel by lifting the cloth. Move it onto a tray seam-side down and brush with butter. Bake at 190 °C for 35–40 minutes, brushing with butter every 10–15 minutes. Serve warm with icing sugar and vanilla ice cream.

Filo is ready-made sheets of ultra-thin dough — essentially factory-made strudel dough. It's used for strudels, baklava, pies and crisp parcels.

Filo dries out within minutes and starts to crumble. Take out only the sheets you need and cover the rest at once with a damp (not wet) towel. Brush each sheet with melted butter — the butter between sheets gives flakiness and crunch.

Bake at 180–190 °C until golden. Filo bakes are best eaten the day they're made — by the next day they soften.