Puff Pastry Puff Pastry was invented in about 1645 by a French pastrycook's apprentice named Claudius Gele. At the end of his apprenticeship, Claudius wanted to bake a delicious loaf of bread for his sick father, who was prescribed a diet consisting of water, flour and butter. Claudius prepared a dough, packing the butter into it, kneading the dough out on the table, folding it, and repeating the procedure ten times, after which he moulded the dough into a loaf. The pastrycook, who had watched the procedure, advised Claudius against baking the loaf as he thought the butter would run out of it. Nevertheless, the loaf was put in the oven, and as the loaf baked, both the pastrycook and Claudius were more and more surprised at the shape and the unusual size it attained. Having finished his apprenticeship, Claudius left for Paris, where he found work at the Rosabau Patisserie. Here he completed his invention, which won the shop an enormous fortune and name. Claudius later went to Florence, where he worked in the Brothers Mosca's pastry shop. The brothers Mosca reaped the honour of having invented the Puff Pastry, although Claudius kept his secret to himself and always prepared his pastries in a locked room. Claudius died in 1682, a highly regarded artist.   Danish Pastry Danish Pastry is thought to be a variant of Puff Pastry. Once the idea of rolling butter into a water dough had been invented, the attempt to roll it into a yeast dough was a natural development. 150 years ago, in the 1840s, Master Baker Albaek of Copenhagen, Baker to the Royal Court, began to make puff pastries based on yeast dough. The technique had travelled with journeymen bakers from Austria and Germany, who had learnt to roll butter into yeast doughs in Vienna. This made the pastries light and fluffy as never seen before. Danish bakers were quick to acquire the method, and invented all sorts of fillings. During the early decades, only bakers were allowed to make "Vienna" pastry, but in 1857, six pastrycooks (the predecessors of today's confectioners) in Copenhagen were allowed to make it. The City authorities based their decision on the grounds that sugar and spices were used in preparing the dough, and these were the traditional raw materials of pastrycooks.   Margarine The butter needed to roll into the dough was in short supply at the time, and therefore a very expensive ingredient. About 20 years after the arrival of "Vienna" pastry in Denmark, in 1860, the Frenchman Mége Moúries invented the artificial butter later known as margarine. As margarine won acceptance in bakeries, the particularly fine and excellent pastry margarine for which Denmark is famous was developed. Pure butter is not the best ingredient to use in Danish Pastry or in Puff Pastry as it is generally too soft. Its baking power is not as good as that of pastry margarine, which is more stable in baking, imparting bigger volume to the finished product.   Danish Pastry of the very highest quality - what makes Danish Pastry unique? A yeast dough rolled with margarine is the simple secret behind Danish Pastry. The dough and the margarine are rolled until the margarine is distributed in 27 layers. While baking, the margarine "lubricates" the many thin layers of dough, thus creating the delicious crisp Danish Pastry. It is important to use only pastry margarine of the very highest quality to ensure its even distribution throughout the dough. High quality Danish Pastry is golden, flaky, deliciously crisp and moist. Designed and powered by: