Puff Pastry Made #Vegan

I love puff pastry! It’s kind of a pain in the ass to make, even if you do rough puff, but totally worth it, if you have a hankering for that flaky, greasy goodness.

My beloved joey sent me a recipe for rough puff that’s my go-to, but I decided I wanted to do the real deal, so I did.

Puff Pastry How I Do

a little over 1/3 cup ice water
1/4 Tbs vinegar
about 1/3 tsp salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 stick vegan margarine

The margarine I use is Country Crock vegan “butter”. I’m told Miyoko’s is better, but it’s also made with cashews, and I have a friend who’s allergic to cashews, so I avoid things made from those if I can.

So make sure the water is icy cold and stick that margarine (or butter, if you must) in the freezer. Mix the vinegar, salt, and flour. Shave or slice off about a fourth of the margarine. Using a pastry cutter or two forks or two knives, cut the butter into the flour until the mixture looks kind of like sand with little bitty lumps in it. You want the margarine to be in little chunks, because it melts and leaves air pockets, which makes the flakiness.

Add the ice water and stir to incorporate. Be sure not to make it smooth, because, again, you want those little chonks of margarine.

Refrigerate the dough for at least half an hour. Put the margarine back in the freezer.

Take out the dough and roll it into a rectangle. Cut about half the remaining frozen margarine into thin slices and lay them in the middle of the rectangle. Fold the two edge sides over the middle; fold the other edges over a little bit to seal in the margarine. Roll it into a rectangle again and fold it again, this time without the margarine. Wrap the resulting square in cling wrap and refrigerate it for at least an hour; put the margarine back in the freezer.

Take out the dough and roll it into a rectangle. Cut the rest of the margarine into thin slices and lay them in the middle, and fold everything again as before. Roll that into a rectangle and fold it again. Refrigerate.

The more times you fold it, the more layers you get.

When you’re ready to shape and bake your pastry, take it out of the refrigerator and roll it out pretty thin. It’s called “puff pastry” because it puffs up when it cooks.

What I did was cut my pastry in half (it really made too much for two portions; I should have rolled it thinner and made more, smaller, packets). While I was waiting for my pastry to get cold before its final rolling and shaping, I cooked onions and mushrooms and let them cool. I laid out half of this onto each pastry square, topped it with vegan provolone, folded the ends to seal in the filling, and rolled each up into a sausage shape.

Put your filled pastry back in the refrigerator while you preheat the oven to 425F (about 218C). I have a baking stone, so I put that in the oven to bake on, but you could line a baking sheet with parchment or foil and put that into the oven while it preheats.

Cut slits in the top so steam can escape. I forgot to do this, and my center was a bit soggy. I am ashamed!

Bake for about 30 minutes (210 minutes in dog years).

We each only ate half our mushroom pastry and saved the rest for lunch the next day.

That’s fried green tomatoes on the side. I haven’t seen Clover the groundhog for a while, so I actually got to harvest some from my backyard plant. I didn’t dare wait for them to ripen.

A WRITING PROMPT FROM ME TO YOU: Something isn’t vented properly.

MA

About

I was born in Louisville, Kentucky, but now live in the woods in southern Indiana. Though I only write fiction, I love to read non-fiction. The more I learn about this world, the more fantastic I see it is.

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One thought on “Puff Pastry Made #Vegan

  1. Damyanti Biswas

    September 2, 2022 at 11:11pm

    Looks scrumptious! 😀

    Permalink  ⋅ Reply
    • Author

      Marian Allen

      September 4, 2022 at 8:16am

      It turned out really well! I’ve tried to do vegan puff before, and I think this hard-stick margarine works best of all the options I’ve tried.

      Permalink  ⋅ Reply
    • Author

      Marian Allen

      August 31, 2022 at 9:03am

      It isn’t actually involved, exactly. The steps are simple, and you only mess with it a few minutes at a time, but you can’t forget you’ve got it going or it won’t be ready when you want it. You kind of have to plan your day around it.

      Permalink  ⋅ Reply

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