any baked meat, or make paste for venison, Florentine, tart or what dish else you please and so bake it — The English Housewife, 1615 Now the fat, traditionally butter and weighing about half the initial dough weight is pounded with a rolling pin until it warms up to about 60ºF/15ºC and becomes pliable, its consistency matching the consistency of the dough (Firmer fat would tear the dough, softer fat would be squeezed out during the later rolling Shortenings, with their low water content, produce a lighter and crisper puff pastry, though a less flavorful one.) The fat is formed into a flat piece, placed on the dough square, and the combination repeatedly folded onto itself and rolled out, with turns to vary the direction of rolling and rests in the refrigerator to give the fat a chance to resolidify and the gluten to relax The sequence of turning, rolling, folding, and refrigerating is repeated several times, for a total of six “turns.” With each rolling out, the gluten becomes more developed, and the dough more elastic and difficult to shape The result of this work, which takes several hours, is a dough made up of 729 layers of moistened flour separated by 728 layers of fat (The term millefeuille, or “thousand-leaf,” is applied to a pastry made by stacking two baked pieces of puff pastry, with a layer of pastry cream in between.) The dough is rested for at least an hour after the final turn, and then is rolled out for baking to a thickness of about a quarter of an inch/6 mm This means that each layer in the dough is microscopically thin, around a thousandth of an inch or a hundredth of a millimeter This is much thinner than paper thin, about the diameter of an individual starch granule The dough must be cut with a very sharp knife; a dull blade will press the many layers together at the edge and restrain their expansion When puff pastry is baked in a very hot oven, the ...total of six “turns.” With each rolling out, the gluten becomes more developed, and the dough more elastic and difficult to shape The result of this work, which takes several hours, is a dough made up of 729... several hours, is a dough made up of 729 layers of moistened flour separated by 728 layers of fat (The term millefeuille, or “thousand-leaf,” is applied to a pastry made by stacking two baked pieces of puff pastry,... by stacking two baked pieces of puff pastry, with a layer of pastry cream in between.) The dough is rested for at least an hour after the final turn, and then is rolled out for baking to a thickness of about a quarter of an inch/6 mm