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I think it’s time you learned how to make puff pastry. For no other reason than the experience is life affirming. I know, I know. Gluten and dairy intolerances abound. If you abstain, I really am happy for you. No better feeling than feeling well. And yet. Sometimes one is called to enfold cold butter into flour, with a pinch of sugar and salt, all encouraged to coalesce into a dough with a drizzle of ice water, resulting in one of humanity’s greatest creations. Puff pastry.1
This past weekend, I made a leek tart composed of four parts. Puff pastry, béchamel, caramelized leeks, and thyme. Very simple. I made enough pastry and béchamel for two tarts so that I could freeze half of each, ready to be made into another tart with ease in the future. This is a good habit to get into: whenever you’re making something that requires effort, double the recipe and freeze half. This is a gift you get to give to your future self.
Leek Tart
yields 1 fully assembled tart (which serves 6-8 for a snack)
+ 1 sheet of puff and 1 cup of béchamel for another day
Puff Pastry
You want to work quickly in this recipe in order to keep the butter cold. What makes puff pastry flaky is the distinct layers of butter throughout the dough. We don’t want a totally homogenous and dense dough, a result of warm butter, so we work quickly and with cold butter to avoid this. You don’t need to rush, just don’t dilly dally.
500g flour
500g butter, cubed and cold
12g sugar
12g salt
1/2 C ice water, approximately
In a bowl, mix to combine the flour, salt, and sugar. Add in the cold butter, coating in flour first then pinching the chunks of butter between your fingers to incorporate into the flour. Drizzle in 1/4 cup of ice water and begin to combine the dough with your hands. Add more water if necessary. Press the dough into two discs. It’s ok if the dough feels a little dry it will hydrate more in the fridge. Using a rolling pin, flatten out the dough then wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for an hour.
Remove the dough from the fridge and lightly flour your work surface. Roll out each dough round into as much of a rectangle as possible (this does not need to be precise). What we are going for is for the length of the dough to be longer than the width. Fold the dough like a trifold pamphlet. Cover with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and let rest in the fridge for another hour. Repeat this process one-two more times, depending on the level of flakiness you’re after. The more folds you do, the more layers you’ll get (though there is a point of diminishing return), but honestly I’ve done it both ways many times and they are both delicious. Once you’ve done all your folds, you can roll the dough out to your desired tart shape. See mine above, a rustic rectangle. After you roll out your dough, place it back in the fridge (covered) for 30 minutes or so. At this point, you can use this dough like you would the pastry dough you buy from the store. Make a tarte tatin, a pot pie, cinnamon sticks, whatever! Or continue on to make a leek tart.
Béchamel
500g milk
30g flour
30g butter
2 garlic cloves, peeled
Big pinch salt
1 tsp peppercorns
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
Sprig or two of thyme
Put your milk in a pot and place on the stove over medium heat. Add in garlic cloves, a pinch of salt, peppercorns, nutmeg, and a spring of thyme. Bring to a simmer then turn off heat. Let steep on the stove for 15 minutes. Strain and then return to medium heat.
In another sauce pot, melt butter over medium heat. Add in flour and begin to whisk. Cook for 2 minutes, whisking constantly. Ladle in warm milk bit by bit, whisking as you go until all the milk is incorporated. Taste. Season with salt and pepper. Divide in half between two pint containers. Keep one out, label the other and freeze once it has cooled.
Caramelized Leeks
8 leeks, only the white and light green part (you can reserve the greens for veg stock), sliced in 1/2 inch coins
4 Tbs butter, approximately
Salt and pepper, to taste
In a pan, melt butter. Arrange leek slices cut side down in the pan. Season with salt and pepper. Cover with lid, but leave it ajar to allow for the steam to escape, while helping the leeks cook through. Alternatively, you can cover the leeks with a cartouche of parchment paper with a hole in the middle. Here’s a good video that explains what a cartouche is and how to make it. I did two rounds of caramelizing. You never want to overcrowd your pan when you are trying to get good caramelization on something. You want the moisture in the vegetables to have room to release their steam, not have it trapped and create an almost blanch-like effect.
Cook until leeks are nicely colored on one side. Remove from pan and let cool. Taste.
Assembly
We have our pastry dough, béchamel, and caramelized leeks. Now we assemble. Preheat your oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment. Remove dough from fridge. Make a shallow indentation around the perimeter of the tart, almost like you are outlining a frame. I use a bench scraper for this, but you can also use a butter knife. Be careful not to cut down all the way through to the baking tray. You can see in the picture up top, how the leeks and béchamel are framed by pastry dough. Brush the perimeter of the dough with an egg wash (1 egg + a dash of water/milk/or cream, whisked thoroughly until homogenous).
Spread the béchamel within the frame of the dough. You’ll probably use a bit over a cup and a half of béchamel for this. Whatever you don’t use, you can add to what you have already set aside to freeze.
Organize the leeks on top of the béchamel however you’d like. I scattered mine. Pick thyme and sprinkle it over top, trying to make certain every area of the tart gets some. Finish with sea salt and cracked pepper. Back for 20-30 minutes. At 20 minutes, start keeping an eye on the tart. Check both the bottom of the tart and the top to see how it is browning. If you feel it needs more color on the bottom, move the tart to a lower rack. Vice versa if you feel it needs more coloring on its top. When it is browned to your liking, remove from the oven and let cool on a rack until ready to eat.
This tart takes well to so many different vegetables. My favorite is with heirloom tomatoes in the summer. Roasted mushrooms and charred cabbage are also very delicious.
Individual tomato tarts.
If you are looking to make the real deal puff, get out of here! No, I’m kidding. But it is much harder. By real deal puff I mean a composed dough with a beurrage (solid block of butter). I suggest following this recipe by Le Meilleur Du Chef. It is entirely in French, but comes with step by step photos which make it easy to follow.