The one Dough to bake them all

[panur_links]

I wanted to make these delicious looking Homemade Strawberry Crossover Puff Pastries, but the dough recipe is... well,  a little more calorie-ridden than what I'm comfortable with? I know it will make a generous amount of the dough, but I don't think I've ever seen that amount of butter in the same place in my life. Even if I made the amount

Comments

[chapstickqueen]

You could, but pie crust is not the same as puff pastry. You'd be giving up TONS of flaky goodness!

[panur_links]

I was hoping for some in-between? Not as fatty as the pastry, but not as dry as the pie one...

[chapstickqueen]

You could halve the amount of butter in the puff pastry? That would still give you flaky layers.

[herefox]

It won't be puff pastry without the large amount of butter, I'm afraid. It would probably be still tasty but it will be denser. I suspect you'd get a consistency rather like shortbread.

[madame_manga]

That looks like a good recipe! I might try that myself.

As for mega-butter: yeah, puff pastry is a very special beast. Without the butter, you will not get the intended result. Please don't try to cut it down, or you will be disappointed. There are some recipes in which you can reduce the fat without a problem, and I'll often do that with Cook's Illustrated recipes just to make them more digestible, since their European-trained taste for buttery sauces/heavy cream is way out ahead of mine. This is not one of those recipes. :-)

Puff pastry is a lot of work in home cooking terms, and in my (recipe) book, that means it's a special treat. Special treats are OK, especially when you have to devote two days and most of your mixing bowls to making them. It's something you might indulge twice a year or so, not every week. Make it for a gathering, so they all get eaten up while they're fresh and you won't be staring at a whole platter of them at bedtime while they sing their siren song of seduction. :-)

[kamaliitaru]

This may or may not work for you, but the way I "reduce" the amount of calories in puff pastry is to roll it thin. It's still rich, it's still buttery, but I have it in my head that if I roll it to 1/2 as thin as it should be, I'm cutting calories. I'm probably not, but I have myself fooled into thinking I do.

[layers_of_eli]

You can try this cream cheese dough. I'd say it was about as "in-between" as you can get :) http://willowbirdbaking.com/2010/04/06/raspberry-almond-braid/

[layers_of_eli]

This smartie actually laminated the dough, getting roughly the same effect, even, as puff pastry (without the insane butteriness and puff, I'm sure, but still): http://vintagekitchennotes.blogspot.com/2012/10/chorizo-and-mozzarella-danish-braid.html