The Chronicles of Julia Child's (Not So) Fast Puff Pastry Pithiviers

[Warpy]

Poor Jamie, Child's instructions on this one were awful. "The size of lima beans," are we talking baby limas or big, mature dried limas? My guess is that he went for the latter. That's why it melted into a puddle, losing its shape completely.

The only way I've ever made the "fast" puff pastry work is by grating frozen butter into the flour, stirring frequently to coat it all with the flour. Plus, there is no way I'd do it during the summer without a chilled surface to work on.

Thoughts, fellow foodies?

[Nittersing]

1. Yes to grating & chilling!

I didn't watch the video, but when I've made puff pastry from scratch I grated the butter and used ice packs to cool down the counter. Worked very well!

[Warpy]

2. Me too on the ice packs

I have a glass back so I always have a bunch of them in the freezer. Not as good as a 20 pound slab of chilled marble, but it'll do.