Costrada de Alcalá de Henares

Instructions

FIRST DAY (NIGHT BEFORE)

Make the dough for puff pastry.

1. In the bowl of the stand mixer add the flour, previously sifted, together with the water, the sugar, the honey and the salt. Knead with the hook at speed 1 and leave until you get an almost developed dough. It will take about 5-7 minutes.
2. Add the butter and knead again until it completely integrates and we obtain a homogeneous and smooth dough.
3. Take the dough out of the bowl, shape a disc, wrap very well in film and put it in the fridge until the next day.

Make cream pastry.

1. In this link you can see how to make pastry cream.
2. Once it has cooled, refrigerate it (covered with film to prevent it from drying out) until the next day.

SECOND DAY

Stretch the dough.

1. Take the dough out of the cold and proceed to stretch it immediately.
2. Lightly sprinkle a work surface with flour and stretch the dough. The measure should not be exact, around 14 x 8 inches / 45 x 20 cm.
3. Set aside.

Prepare the butter.

1. Prepare two teflon sheets and place the butter on one of them. Cover with the other sheet and began to beat it with the aid of a roller to flatten it.
2. Flatten square, or as much as possible, about 8 inches side (or the width we have given to our dough).
3. Place the butter in the middle of the dough, so that the width of the butter and the width of the dough is the same.
4. Fold the ends of the dough on the butter, bringing each of them to the center. Seal well the union of both folds in the center as well as the sides. The dough should be completely sealed by each of its sides.

Laminate the dough.

1. To see how to puff the dough, making a double fold and three single, you can do it in this post. In this post I'll explain in detail the process, as well as accompany it with a video.

Make the last stretch to form the layers of puff pastry.

1. Take our dough out of the cold and stretch it.
2. Lightly sprinkle the work surface with flour and stretch the dough. We will give dimensions of  39 x 10 inch/100 x 25 cm approximately (maybe even a little more), its thickness will be 0.2 mm. If the dough does not fit on the work table, cut it in half and stretch them separately.
3. As you stretch the dough, remember to occasionally rise the dough from the work surface to make sure it does not stick to it and sprinkle a little flour if necessary.
4. To make the dough so thin, in the last stretch, you can use the pasta machine. Then cut the ends a little and proceed to cut the pieces.
5. Once we have the measurements in our dough, cut a strip of each side to equal the dough and leave the layers puff pastry "visible".
6. Divide the piece into rectangles of 6 x 3 inch/15 x 8 cm. In total we will cut 24 pieces to elaborate 8 costradas.
7. Place them on a perforated tray lined with baking paper and prick the surface to prevent them from rising during baking.
8. Place another baking paper on top of the puff pastry and, on top of this, a tray. This way we make sure that the little that grows, does it in a uniform way.

Bake.

1. Preheat oven to  390ºF/200ºC (at least 20 minutes before baking).
2. Place in the middle of the oven and bake for 18 minutes.
3. Remove, place on a rack and leave to cool completely.
4. Repeat the same process with the following puff pastry pieces.

Make Swiss meringue.

1. Incorporate water and sugar in a saucepan. Place at medium heat.
2. We will use a kitchen digital thermometer to know the temperature of the syrup. When it reaches 244ºF/118ºC, remove it and add it to the semi-whipped egg whites.
3. Add the egg whites in a heat-resistant bowl and begin to whip them.
4. Beat until they are quite firm, but not too much or dry.
5. The syrup will be ready as soon as we reach this point.
6. Incorporate the syrup in a fine continuous thread over the egg whites beating at the same time.
7. We will continue until a firm consistency is achieved and a very brilliant meringue.
8. Place the bowl on a saucepan with water over low heat, continue whipping for 3-4 minutes. We will obtain a meringue of very firm consistency.
9. Let it rest for 2 minutes before using.

Assemble costrada de Alcalá.

1. Put the pastry cream in a piping bag with a smooth tip 0,4 inch/1 cm in diameter. Set aside.
2. Introduce Swiss meringue in a piping bag with an 0,7 inch/18 mm Saint Honoré tip. Set aside.
3. Take one of the baked puff pastry rectangles. Pipe pastry cream on the surface.
4. Place another rectangle of puff pastry on top of the cream.
5. On this one, pipe the Swiss meringue for all the surface.
6. Take the last rectangle of puff pastry and spread some meringue with the help of a spatula covering all the surface with a very thin layer of meringue.
7. Sprinkle the surface with toasted almonds.
8. Place this rectangle of puff pastry over the meringue and sprinkle the surface with icing sugar.
9. Repeat the same process with the other pieces.
   

Notes

• Work with the cold ingredients and respect the rest times.
• When you manipulate the pieces, be careful not to press them, otherwise you can spoil the layers that will give rise to the future puff pastry.
  

• Preheat the oven well to ensure that the cooking is carried out correctly.
• In my case I have used Swiss meringue because it achieves a very firm and creamy texture and consistency. Of course, you can use Italian meringue if you prefer, even a simple French meringue.
• The almond is toasted beforehand so that it acquires that marvellous aroma and characteristic flavour. But, in case you are going to bake it, use raw almonds.
  
• You can use laminated almonds if you prefer.
• If you don't have a Saint Honoré tip, you can use a smooth one with a diameter of 2 cm, for example.
• If you do not prepare so many pieces of costrada, puff pastry can be kept refrigerated for 2-3 days or frozen for 1 month.
• We can keep costrada refrigerated for 2-3 days.
  

Archivado en

• Almonds
• Breakfast
• Meringue
• Pastry cream
• Puff pastry