Piece of life
This year I dug on a double adventure: making a classic puff pastry and make it with cocoa. All this for a chocolate King’s Cake; greediness can make us do unusual things… But of course, I didn’t invent anything: Christophe Felder has already done all the work in his book “Galettes.”
(Christophe Felder and Camille Lesecq)
About the Cocoa Puff Pastry
As it was my first classic puff pastry, I must say that I am delighted with the result. I always considered the traditional method as a barrier, but it was not insurmountable in the end. I won’t lie to you, the inverted puff pastry is still easier to work with, and I’m more comfortable with this recipe [click here for all details], but I’m proud to have tried the classic method and to have obtained a beautiful King’s Cake.
The main difficulty I encountered was during the turns. The dough punctured on the edges when I rolled it out. In addition, the edges were full of small holes. In the end, it didn’t seem to be a problem because my dough was well-puffed. But I guess that, ideally, this should not happen.
Like all puff pastries, it will take several hours to prepare and use, and I suggest you always prepare it the day before [or more]. I’ll take you to the recipe, but for all the details concerning the turns, I recommend you to consult my article about the inverted puff pastry, where I detailed all the steps in photos and videos.
Cocoa Puff Pastry
Ingredients
For detempering
- 140 ml cold water
- 10 g white vinegar
- 65 g melted butter warmed
- 5 g salt
- 250 g flour
For the Butter Pastry
- 200 g cold Butter Pastry
- 40 g unsweetened cocoa powder
Instructions
For detempering (use the hook)
- Mix the water, the vinegar and the salt.
- Put the flour in the beater bowl. Mix at low speed, gradually add the liquid mixture and the melted butter.
- Work the dough for a few minutes only, to obtain a homogeneous result.
- Roll it out in square shape, wrap it with the cling film and let it rest for at least 2 hours in the refrigerator.
For the Butter Pastry (use the wire whip beater)
- Put the butter pastry and the cocoa in the beater bowl.
- Mix at low speed until the butter pastry absorbs all the cocoa (some minutes).
- Roll it out in square shape, wrap it with the cling film and let it rest for at least 2 hours in the refrigerator.
Assembling (for all the details about assembling, I suggest you to consult my article about the inverted puff pastry)
- Take the distempered dough from the refrigerator and place it on a floured work surface. Roll it out to a thickness about 1 cm.
- Place the cocoa butter pastry at the center of the distempered dough (adjust the size if necessary, the butter pastry must be totally wrapped by the distempered dough).
- Fold each side of the distempered dough over the cocoa butter pastry to trap it in.
- Roll out the dough lengthwise until you get a thickness of about 8 mm. Make a single turn. Make a quarter turn. Roll out the dough again and make another single turn.
- Wrap the dough with the film and take it to the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
- Take the dough out and make 2 more turns as explained above. Put the dough back in the refrigerator for 2 hours, then, proceed as above a 3rd time. The dough is ready but it needs chilling for more than 2 hours before it can be used.
