Cooking puff pastry at home takes some time, which not every housewife has. When there is a lack of time, they prefer to buy the dough ready-made - in stores. Regular dough can also be sold chilled, but puff pastry is most often frozen.
When defrosting puff pastry, this operation must be treated with extreme caution. The dough must be handled very carefully - frozen layers may break when unrolled. If defrosting is done incorrectly, it is unlikely to make good baked goods.
Slow defrosting
When there is enough time, it is better to use gentle methods for defrosting.
1. Free the dough from packaging - it can be a film, foil or a bag. Lay it out on a board or on a prepared rolling mat and leave to lie down. It is not worth expanding or separating the layers from each other until they are completely thawed - they can crumble, break, and then it will not be very convenient to roll out the dough. At room temperature, five hours should be sufficient. Only after it is completely thawed can the dough be unrolled.
2. Leave the dough on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator overnight without unpacking it. It will thaw in about 10 hours. Even if the hostess changes her plans and she does not bake, the dough can calmly lie in the refrigerator for a little more - the layers will not stick together.
How to quickly defrost puff pastry
To quickly defrost the dough, experienced housewives use methods that are called "emergency" - they try to use them only when absolutely necessary. You should not use accelerated defrosting methods for housewives who do not have much experience. With any miss, the dough turns into a semi-liquid lump, covered with a dry crust on the outside.
The dough is placed in a plastic bag and wrapped in a towel. When wrapped, it must be put on a warm radiator. This defrosting method should only be used in extreme cases.
If there is no particular hurry, it is better to do this: free the frozen layer of dough from the packaging and put it on a board near the stove or battery, that is, a heat source. At a temperature slightly above room temperature, no more than two hours is enough for the dough to be ready for further work with it.
Do not defrost puff pastry in the microwave. Such an operation requires some skill - not everyone gets a good result, and if you make a little mistake, you can get a ready-made puff.
The best way to defrost puff pastry is slow. With it, the dough will retain all its useful qualities, and the baked goods will turn out to be lush and tasty.
