Baking Bootcamp: Chocolate Hazelnut Rolls with Quick Puff Pastry

Hey friends!

I’m so excited to announce that it’s time for another Baking Bootcamp Series with King Arthur Flour!

Baking Bootcamp is a 3-part baking challenge that’s meant to get us in the kitchen and have us emerge with new technique, new baking knowledge, and really lovely sweet treats!  Let’s bake together!

Last year we baked four delicious recipes and learned about the difference between baking flours along the way.

We made Triple Berry Cinnamon Swirl Bread  +  Whole Wheat Oatmeal Honey Bread +  Apple Pie Biscuits  and Gruyere and Green Olive Rolls.  Sharing our treats on Instagram and becoming better bakers along the way!

This Baking Bootcamp, we’re focusing on technique.  I want to take some of baking’s most intimidating techniques and make then  approachable enough for our home kitchens.  Let’s push ourselves!

For our first challenge, we’re making quick puff pastry.  Puff pastry is a laminated dough that focuses on incorporating cold butter into flour, creating a very rich, flaky, luscious dough.  True puff pastry is a real undertaking of time, temperature, and courage.  We’re going to make a quick puff pastry, using a rolling and folding technique, to create buttery and flaky breakfast rolls.

My Supplies!  Here’s what you’ll need for the Chocolate Hazelnut Rolls with quick puff pastry.

Three recipes shared on Instagram #bakingbootcamp + Three awesome sets of prizes!

The idea is simple!

•  Make these Chocolate Hazelnut Rolls with quick puff pastry (they’re sooooo good!) and take a picture of your creation!

•  Follow @joythebaker and @kingarthurflour on Instagram

•  Photograph your beautiful rolls and post them to Instagram with the hashtag #bakingbootcamp

•  When you submit a photo, you’ll be entered to win a 1-year supply of King Arthur Flour and a Baking Essentials box valued at $250!!  Official rules and details can be found here.

Let’s get baking!

Let’s start by making the quick puff pastry.

King Arthur has a post about making true laminated dough.  Lots of great tips and information.

We’re making a simple laminated dough starting with 2 cups of King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour.

Salt into the flour to bring flavor.

We aren’t adding sugar to our puff pastry.  There will be plenty of sweetness incorporated with the hazelnut filling and sugary glaze.

Plenty of butter.  Flour and butter is our foundation.

About the butter.  Let it be cold, cubed, salted, and fatty.  Use the highest quality butter you can find.  A European-style butter (extra creamy and fatty) is the way to go.

The butter to flour ratio is pretty high:  2 cups of flour to 10 ounces (that’s 2 1/2 sticks) butter.

Use a pastry cutter (or even your hands, if you’re speedy) to break the butter down into the flour.

The mixture will be very crumbly with butter, coating all of the flour in fat, and leaving big bits of butter throughout the dough.  We want larger chunks of butter to create that marbling and flaky layers that make puff pastry as delicious as it is.

Create a small well in the center of the butter and flour mixture and add water, 2/3 cup of cold water to bring our simple ingredients together.

Work as quickly as you can to keep the butter as cold as you can.

The dough will be on the wet side of sticky.  That’s right!  No need to stir too much once the dough comes together.  We’re going to roll and fold the dough to further incorporate the dough.

A well-floured work surface is key for rolling out the dough.

Commit to making a mess on your kitchen counter.  It will all be worth it.

The dough is placed on the floured work surface, sprinkled with flour, and shaped into a 1 1/2-inch thick rectangle.

Lightly roll the dough into a 1/2-inch thick rectangle.

The dough will be fairly soft, so you won’t need a lot of pressure in rolling.

Now a fold!

Starting with the bottom of the rectangle, fold the dough up 1/3.

Press the dough, just lightly.

And fold the top third of dough over the first.

We’re creating a dough envelope.

The dough is turned to the right one-quarter turn.

And this time the folded dough is rolled into a 1/2-inch rectangle, and folded again using the same envelope technique, turned another quarter turn, and the process is repeated six or seven turns.

With four simple ingredients, rolling and folding, rolling and folding, the dough comes together beautifully into a soft but sturdy dough.

Fold into thirds, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerator for 1 hour (or overnight) is necessary.

Chilling the dough is essential to re-chill the butter and distribute the moisture, so when we roll the dough out, we maintain all of the butter layers for beautifully flaky rolls.

The dough is rolled into a 1/4-inch thick rectangle.

If the dough was in the refrigerator overnight, it will be super chilled and may need about 20 minutes to rest at room temperature and may take a bit more pressure in rolling out.

Move the rolled dough around on the floured counter to ensure that it’s not sticking.

Time to fill!

We’re going with chocolate and hazelnut flavors.  They feel perfectly cozy for fall.

For the hazelnut layer I used King Arthur Flours Hazelnut Praline Paste.  It’s the consistency of almond butter and is absolutely delicious as a sweet and nutty filling.  You could also use a chocolate hazelnut spread like Nutella in a pinch.

Spread in an even layer.

Sprinkle generously with chopped roasted hazelnuts.

And chopped dark chocolate too.

If you’re using a chocolate hazelnut spread, you may want to skip the dark chocolate sprinkles.

The long and tall end of the dough is rolled tight.

And lightly pressed together to create an even roll.

Use a bench knife to create 1 1/2-inch thick rolls.

And place in a lightly greased muffin tin for baking!

The rolls emerge from the oven bubbling and golden.  They rise slightly during baking, creating really delicious, flaky golden pillows of chocolate and hazelnut.

While they cool just slightly, whisk up a simple powdered sugar glaze.

And generously spread!

These rolls are best served warm and glazed the day they’re baked.

I’m so happy to be back with another Baking Bootcamp challenge! I can’t wait to see what comes out of your oven!

Some recipe notes:

•  Rolled and folded puff pastry can last int he fridge up to 4 days, and well-wrapped in the freezer for a month.  If frozen, thaw in the refrigerator before rolling.

•  Rolls can be filled, sliced and frozen.  To bake, thaw in the refrigerator overnight before baking.

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