Hmmmm, pie

Today is one of the warmest days of the years so far so naturally I'm baking a pie.  Maybe I should start looking at the weather forecast more when planning my meals?  Today is one of our semi-regular Dungeons and Dragons sessions with friends so I'm trying out something new.  Rather than just using stewing steak as I'd usually do I thought I'd include some oxtail to give a different sort of flavour to the pie.  The basic recipe for the pie mix was the one I used for the stew I made to celebrate the return of Game of Thrones so I probably won't be including it here.
Like the masochist I am I decided to make things even harder for me - as well as using a completely new ingredient (well, new to me anyway) I decided to have another go at making puff pastry.  I've had limited success in the past, I've made it twice before and while it tasted lovely and buttery it didn't puff up in that distinctive way it's supposed to.  Fingers crossed that it'll be third time lucky!
Puff pastry has a reputation for being difficult to make and I won't lie, it is time consuming.  The key is to keep all the ingredients as cold as possible; I think part of the problem I've had before was that even in winter our kitchen is quite warm.  We've been known to have our kitchen and living room windows open when it's been snowing outside!  Another thing I've done wrong before is handling the dough too much which again warms it up.  So this time I took extra precautions to keep the ingredients as cold as possible.

Puff Pastry

225g plain flour
1tsp salt
250g cold, unsalted butter
150ml very cold water (I put mine in the fridge ahead of time)

1) Mix together the flour and the salt.  Once thoroughly mixed place the bowl in the fridge for a few minutes to cool down.

2) While the bowl is getting cold cut the butter into cubes.  Once done take the flour out of the fridge and being careful not to be too vigorous with it add the butter.  Using a knife gently roll the butter in the flour so that it's coated.  Return the bowl to the fridge for 10 minutes.

3) After 10 minutes take the bowl and the water out of the fridge.  Add the water to the mix and stir with a round ended knife until it forms a rough dough.  You might need to use your hands to get it to all stick together but ideally you want to handle the dough as little as possible.  Take a large piece of clingfilm and put it on your counter.  Place the dough on the cling film and squish it together to form a ball.  There should still be big chunks of butter showing through the dough.  Wrap it in clingfilm and return it to the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

nice big chunks of butter still visible in the dough

4) once the dough has been thoroughly chilled it's time to begin the rolling out and layering.  Take the dough out of the fridge and while it's still in the clingfilm shape it into a rough square.  Now there are those who say to roll the dough out between two sheets of clingfilm but to be honest I'm not convinced that this is any easier than just rolling it out on a flour dusted counter.  My personal preference is to not use the clingfilm method but it might work for some.  I dust my counter and rolling pin with flour and do it the old fashioned way.  Roll out your pastry til it's about a 15cm by 45cm rectangle.  You should be able to see streaks for butter in the dough still.  Lift up the bottom of the pastry and fold about 1/3 up then do the same with the top third.  Turn the dough 90 degrees and roll out again.  Repeat the folding then return to the fridge for 30 minutes.

5) Repeat the rolling, folding, chilling sequence another 3 times.  When you're doing this you're creating the layers that will (hopefully) give the pastry its puffiness.  Once done with the folding chill for at least a couple of hours or preferably over night.

The pastry is now ready to use in whatever recipe you want.  Good luck!