The Secrets of Butter

In another excellent article in the New York Time's Dining and Wine section, the author writes about the properties of butter that most home cooks ignore. For mixing and creaming, butter should be at 65 degrees (F). At 68 degrees, it begins to melt, along with your chances of getting a perfect cookie. The reason is that butter is an emulsion of water in fat which helps it to hold air pockets when you cream it. After the butter starts to melt, the emulsion is gone and you can't get it back by refrigerating it. The article advises home cooks to freeze the batter if the butter starts to warm up and to not use a paddle speed above medium on a stand mixer.

Perhaps this knowledge is key to my Thanksgiving puff pastry failure. I tried to make my own puff pastry and after 3 hours of hard work, there was barely any puff to it. I thought I hadn't used enough butter (the recipe wasn't very specific), but I think that the more immediate problem was that my butter had melted by the time I folded it into my pastry dough. Well, I'm going to give it another try and if I'm successful, I will be sure to post a well-written, detailed recipe.