Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Spinach Puff Pastry

Chef: Dean Brettschneider as heard on Nine To Noon Monday 2 July 2012

Tags: pastry, baking, spinach

Pie by Dean Brettschneider.
Published by Penguin Group NZ.
© Dean Brettschneider, 2012

Ingredients

• 50g clean spinach leaves
• 130ml ice-cold water (place in the refrigerator overnight)
• 300g strong bread flour
• 50g chilled butter
• good pinch of salt
• ½ tsp fresh lemon juice
• 225g chilled butter, for layering

Method

Place spinach in ice-cold water. Using a hand blender, blitz until water is a green colour and leaves are blended through but not puréed, as you want to have flecks of spinach throughout the dough. Set aside.

Place flour, first measure of butter and salt into a large mixing bowl and, using your fingers, roughly break up the butter into the flour. Add ice-cold spinach water and lemon juice. Using your hands, mix ingredients to form a firm dough. Tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 2–3 minutes. Form into a ball. Cover dough with plastic wrap and allow to rest for 5–10 minutes. On a lightly floured surface, use a rolling pin to roll out dough to a 25cm square approximately 1cm thick.

Ensure layering butter is the same consistency as the dough – this can be done by hitting the chilled butter with a rolling pin to achieve a 17cm square (the hitting will be enough to soften the butter). Place it inside the rolled out square of dough.

Fold each corner of dough into the centre to encase layering butter in an envelope, creating two layers of dough and one layer of butter.

Now give pastry six ‘single turns’ as described in the Basic Puff Pastry recipe and cover with plastic wrap. Store in refrigerator or freezer until needed.