Here in Miami, we try not to make food that requires the kitchen to be cool and dry. My kitchen usually runs about 80℉ all year round, even when the air conditioning is on. Turn on the oven or open the window and it may get closer to 90℉. So when I decided to make homemade puff pastry, I knew I would have my hands full. I would be lucky to get one turn at a time before the dough needed to be returned to the refrigerator.

However, when @LifebyChocolate challenged me to do it, I figured I had to try. I had certainly made it before, when I lived in New England. As long as it is not raining, you can almost always make puff pastry in New England. In accepting the challenge, I also wanted to keep my puff pastry real. No hydrogenated oils, no crisco, no margarine. I found Italian butter at Whole Foods, and I had a little prairie-raised, grass-fed butter still in the refrigerator. I used organic flour.

I found a recipe in “The Art and Soul of Baking” for a Quick Puff Pastry that only requires 3 turns. Let me tell you, this was no inferior cheat. This looked like and tasted like the real thing.

By the time I finished this project, the kitchen had gone from 81 to 90℉. I could barely get a full turn done before the butter melted.

Then I made the Fresh Tomato Ricotta Tart I posted earlier this week using this pastry. I still have about a pound of puff pastry in the freezer, so be on the lookout for what I do next.

This is my entry for Fight Back Fridays.

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Mostly, I eat healthy. What exactly does that mean? Apparently it means different things to different people. So, I’m just going to tell you what it means to me. 

First of all, I’m not perfect. I reserve the right to change my rules from one day to the next, since I’m the one who gets to make the rules. I don’t feed any children or significant others. My dog eats mostly organic, raw food. He doesn’t get to pick his food, so I try to give him the best I can get. Even his “treats” are organic and wheat and corn free (Thank you Paul Newman!).

Here are this week’s rules:

1. I eat relatively little processed food. I like whole food. Real vegetables, fruit, meat. I love to cook, so I do. Almost every day. I do eat cheese, kefir, and the occasional baked good (usually from Whole Foods).

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