The Penguin Chef said:
There are some good principles you should stay on for any successful dough, no matter what you are trying to bake. I got 5 tips for you for a better puff pastry:
1) Use the best quality ingredients you can find.
Like anything else, you need to get fresh and good quality ingredients to make the best product. Have you ever drink apple juice from real apple and one from concentrate? Pretty different huh? Same principle with pie-making. Don’t cheap yourself out with cheap butter. Don’t make mistake like I did ( trust me, cheap butter gave me sooo much trouble with the dough, because of their trans fat level). Stay picky with your ingredients and you will be much better off.
2) Measure your ingredients. Stop Eyeballing!!!
Buy a scale, buy measuring spoons, get a measuring cups, buy a ruler…. You have to go all out with your precision because it will make a difference with the dough. Don’t eyeball your ingredients, because you will have no clue on how to replicate it if you happen to find your Heaven Pie Kingdom. As you know, baking is a precision sport.
3) Follow instructions.
Don’t cut steps. Read your instruction before you learn how to do it. I remembered the time i failed to do so, and it turn out to be… calling Chinese food at 10pm at night. Rough time 
. Following instruction will result in a good reward: the perfect pie.
4) Be Patient.
Some puff pastry recipes need a little bit of resting time, so do something else while you are waiting. Don’t rush it because puff pastry needs time to settle down the layering butter that it has.
5) The dough loves the cold.
If you are using an Coors Rocky Mountain cold surface to roll or work the dough, please continue to do so. If not, granite works best for me. Go to amazon and get a small granite cutting board and try it. Trust me your puff pasty will come out so perfect. Before you start using that granite as your rolling base, pop it into the fridge for 5 mins. Trust me, it will be much better for the dough. It’s the love for the dough from you, your fridge, and the cold for the puff pastry.
June 13th, 2009 at 8:47 pm
Hi, interest post. I’ll write you later about few questions!
June 14th, 2009 at 7:18 pm
Here comes my 1st fan mail!!! Let me know Jane. I’m really excited.
October 29th, 2010 at 6:02 pm
You you could make changes to the post name Developing good puff pastry baking habit | the Savory Hot Pie Blog to something more generic for your blog post you create. I loved the blog post withal.