Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 2 (52 page)

12 ounces (3 sticks) chilled unsalted butter

A pastry scraper or stiff broad spatula

The ½ cup flour reserved from Step 1

When you are ready to roll out the dough,
beat the butter with a rolling pin to soften it
.

Smear out with
scraper or
the heel, not the palm, of your hand.
When partially softened, work in the flour and continue until butter is perfectly smooth and of easy spreading consistency but still cold. If butter is not supple enough, you cannot spread it over the dough; if it is too soft it will ooze out as the dough is rolled. Chill briefly if you have softened it too much.

Lightly flour the dough and your hands.
Push and pat the dough out, in front of you, into a rectangle 16 to 18 inches long and about 8 inches wide
. Dough is being pushed rather than rolled so that you will activate the gluten as little as possible for this first operation. (Dough will be very soft and sticky if you have not chilled it.)

Using a scraper or stiff spatula, spread the softened butter over the upper two thirds of the dough leaving a ⅛-inch unbuttered border all around
. The lower third is unbuttered.

Fold the dough into three as follows: fold the bottom (unbuttered) third up to the middle
.

Fold the top (buttered) third down to cover it
, just as though you were folding a business letter. You have made 2 layers of butter and 3 of dough.

Rotate the dough a quarter turn counter-clockwise so the top flap of dough is to your right
, as though it were a book you were about to open. Dough will still look rather rough and the spotty damp patches are oil; all will smooth out by the final turn.