Mais Oui! Marvelous French Pastries

By law, butter manufactured in the United States contains at least 80 percent fat. The remainder is made up of water (13 to 19 percent), milk solids (namely, protein and lactose), and salt, which may be added as a preservative and flavoring. Premium, European-style butter has a higher fat content—at least 82 percent, and up to 86 percent. Higher-fat butter has a firmer consistency and is slower to melt. We recommend using European-style butter when making croissants and kouign-amann because it is more pliable, which makes the dough easier to work with. (It doesn't make as much of a difference in our recipe for palmiers.) Unsalted butter also has a higher water content, which can glue the layers of dough together, making for a less flaky pastry.

A laminated dough is a dough made through a process of wrapping a square of butter in a lean, yeasted dough, and then rolling it out and folding it several times. Each of these roll and fold steps is known as a “turn,” and it exponentially multiplies the thin, alternating layers of fat and dough within the pastry. When baked, the heat of the oven melts the butter, turning the water in the butter to steam which puffs up the dough, creating the signature layers in a laminated pastry like a croissant.

Flour is milled from wheat berries, which contain starches, proteins, and fats. There are two main proteins in wheat flour—glutenin and gliadin. In dry flour, these proteins are basically lifeless strands wrapped around granules of starch. But they begin to change shape when they come in contact with water, a process called hydration. Once moistened, the individual protein molecules (the glutenin and gliadin) begin to link up with one another to form long, elastic chains called gluten. The more the hydrated gluten in a dough is manipulated, usually through stirring or kneading, the more gluten that’s developed, thus the baked good has more structure and chew. For some baked goods like breads this gluten development is desirable, but for tender cakes and pastries you want to limit the formation of gluten.

Nope! As long as you have a rolling pin you’re well on your way to perfect pastries at home. A few rimmed baking sheets and a good ruler are also essentials, but most people have these in their kitchen already. For cutting dough we often call for a pizza wheel, but even this is optional and a sharp chef’s knife can easily stand in.