I'm familiar with the proper steps in making rough puff pastry but I have difficulty rolling out the dough. I'm hoping someone can make suggestions or explain how to do it better.
I find it easy rolling out softer doughs – pastry dough or yeast doughs. Rolling out chilled rough puff pastry dough is very difficult though as the butter is hard, making the dough hard too. It takes a lot to push on the rolling pin to roll to size each time. Raising the my height to apply more pressure helps some but not enough.
I'm pretty new to making rough puff pastry so maybe I'm doing something wrong? It's not something I plan to make that often but it would be nice as a dough for Guinness Irish stew.
Best Answer
To 'roll out' laminated dough, you generally need to flatten out the dough first.
One technique can be to repeatedly press a rolling pin across sections of the dough to spread/soften the dough. Until the dough is pliable or near the required thickness. This method is usually started along the center line (as if dividing the dough in half), continuing to each quarter (halving again). Rotate the dough, or the rolling pin if you need to keep a specific shape.
Another technique is to roll the dough out to almost or the required thickness before chilling. This is probably more suited when using grated frozen fats.
PS: Depending on the climate, dough can be rested in as little as 20 minutes in a refrigerator/freezer. As it's only to stop the fat melting into the flour.