my puff pastry isn't puffing :-( this is my second try with it. the first recipe

R

randi

Well-known member
I used a few weeks ago was for a veggie tart. I defrosted the puff pastry in the frig. rolled out one sheet and fit into pie plate and added the filling and then the top crust. that was the first time I used puff pastry in a recipe. when the bottom crust, in partiuclar, didn't puff I thought I had the oven too low - 350

last night I decided to make the leek and bacon flan and put it into a puff pastry bottom. I pressed a sheet of pastry into a rectangular glass dish, poured in the flan and popped into a 375 oven. this time the pastry kinda melted into the flan and you could hardly tell there was a bottom crust at all.

what am I doing wrong?

TIA

PS once again, the flan was a show stopper and everyone wanted the recipe smileys/smile.gif

 
The bottom crust won't puff because the filling holds it down. The top crust

of the pie, and the edges of your flan, should have puffed. Maybe 350* was too low, or perhaps it was rolled too thin.

I haven't tried the flan, but I know pre-baking the crust keeps quiches from getting soggy.

 
thanks Joe. when you pre-bake a bottom crust of puff, do you let it brown...

on the top before adding the filling?

even though the veggie tart called for puff, I think a regular crust would work much for it.

 
To be honest, Randi, I've only pre-baked regular pastry. I use a tart pan or pie plate,

prick the dough with a fork, line it with foil and fill with dried beans to weigh it down. Bake at 425* about 12 minutes (until edges show a little color, then remove foil and beans and bake another 5 minutes, until the dough is set. It doesn't really brown on the top surface but it gets nice and brown on the bottom.

You can then turn the oven down and bake the filled crust.

All that weighing down might defeat the purpose of puff pastry, but you could use it and the edges should expand and get nice and crisp.

 
Your temp is too low....

since puff pastry uses only the steam created by the moisture in the buttery dough, you have to have it hot enough to make steam quickly - minimum of 400*. Keep puff pastry cold until you put it in the hot preheated oven. Always form your pastry then place back in the fridge for at least a few minutes and then throw into the hot oven.

On the pre-baking - it will puff up and can make it hard to fill and the edges can mess up. I've tried to recreate these little tarts that are made of puff pastry and it didn't come out like I wanted. So I am still experimenting with this part of things.

One other thing, be sure that you are using a sharp cutter to cut the puff pastry and that you make good clean cuts. You don't want to crimp the cut edges in order to get a good puff and separation on the layers.

 
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