Red Currant Bakery

Rough Puff Pastry
0 Add ice into a cup of water and set aside.
3 In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and sugar with a fork.
2 Thinly slice the cold butter, dropping it into the dry ingredients as you do. The slices should be between 1/8th and 1/4 of an inch thick.
4 I like to use a pairing knife and cut directly off a big Kerrygold block but you can also pre slice the butter on a cutting board if you prefer. Just make sure the butter stays cold.
5 Smush each slice of butter between your fingers into the dry ingredients to flatten them out and start working in the flour mixture.
6 Drizzle the ice water onto the surface of everything in the bowl.
7 Use a fork to mix and slightly smush the water into the mixture until it looks shaggy. It’s ok if it still looks a little dry but there shouldn’t be large amounts of completely dry flour left. Don’t be tempted to add more water.
8 Pour the mixture onto a sheet of plastic wrap and use the sides of the plastic wrap to smush the dough into a square that’s between 1/2″ and 1″ thick.
9 Place the dough in the fridge to chill for 45 minutes.
10 After 45 minutes, dust your work surface with flour. Take the pie dough out of the fridge and roll the dough out in a rectangle that is about 1/4″ thick. Use flour and a bench scraper as needed to keep the dough moving and keep it from sticking.
11 Letter fold the dough so fold the top third over the middle third, and then the bottom third over the other two thirds.
12 Rotate the dough 90 degrees and roll the dough back out to 1/4″ thick. Repeat the letter folds, it should be a skinny long rectangle so when you fold it you will have a square.
13 Rewrap the dough and chill for another 45 minutes.
14 After the 45 minutes have passed repeat the above steps of rolling and folding the dough twice. Rewrap the dough and chill for another 45 minutes. At this point you can chill it for as long as you need until you’re ready to use it.
15 If chilling for more than 6 hours, place it in a ziptop bag to make sure it doesn’t dry out.
Lemon Blueberry Filling
17 Add the blueberries, 25 grams of sugar, lemon zest, and the juice of one lemon to a sauce pot.
18 Place the pot over medium low heat and wait until it starts to bubble. Then stir frequently and continue to cook until all of the blueberries have broken down but it's still quite saucy. Allow to reduce for another 5-10 minutes.
19 In a separate bowl stir together the corn starch and 25 more grams of sugar. Add in the juice of half a lemon (more as needed to make a sauce like texture) and stir to combine.
20 While stirring the blueberries, pour in the corn starch mixture. Stir and cook for another 3-5 minutes until it has visibly thickened.
21 Remove the pot from the heat and pour the blueberry compote into a shallow dish or baking sheet to allow it to cool completely. Cover the surface with a sheet of plastic wrap to keep if from forming a skin.
22 Once cooled, move it to the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
23 Make sure it's cold before using for the filling of the puff pastry.
Assemble and Bake
25 Preheat the oven to 400 F and place a rack in the center of the oven.
26 Line a baking sheet, with a sheet of parchment paper.
27 Make the egg wash by whisking the egg with two tablespoons of water and a sprinkle of salt in a small bowl.
28 If using the homemade ruff puff, use flour as needed to roll the pastry as thin as you can. If using store bought, just give it a quick roll out so that it's smooth and flat. For the homemade pastry you'll want it to measure about 16" x 10" (slightly larger is better).
29 Trim off any scraggly edges and then cut the rectangle into 8 even rectangles.
30 On four of them, spoon 3-4 tablespoons of the chilled blueberry filling into the center.
31 Brush the edges of the rectangles with the filling, with the egg wash. Lay the top set of rectangles over the top of the bottom set. You have to slightly stretch each rectangle to fit it over the pile of filling.
32 Press the edges of the two sheets of pastry together with your fingers first. Then use a fork to crimp the edges together so they are fully sealed.
33 Use the same fork to prick the top of each pastry rectangle three times so that steam can escape. At this point I like to put them into the freezer for 10-15 minutes so you can put them on anything that'll fit in your freezer, just make sure to line it with parchment so they don't stick.
34 After the time in the freezer, evenly space the pastries on the original parchment lined baking sheet. Brush the top of the pastries with more egg wash.
35 Bake the pastry in the preheated oven for 15 minutes, then rotate and bake for another 10-15 minutes until deeply golden brown.
36 Once baked, remove the sheet from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool for 10-15 minutes minimum.
Lemon Glaze
38 In a small bowl whisk together the powdered sugar and lemon juice into a glaze. It should be the consistency of a creamy peanut butter or a thick honey. Add more powdered sugar or lemon juice as needed to thicken or loosen the glaze respectively.
39 Once cooled, spoon or drizzle the tops of the pastries with the glaze. Optionally decorate with a few more fresh blueberries.
40 These are best fresh but they will keep for a day or two at room temperature in an airtight container.