Making Pasta Sfoglia

It is important that pasta sfoglia be made under proper conditions. If working in a very hot kitchen and/or if there is no marble surface, the dough will be difficult to handle. It will need to be chilled again as soon as it starts to get soft and before the butter starts to melt and ooze out; otherwise the dough will be impossible to manipulate.

The techniques illustrated above are used when making Millefoglie.

Pasta sfoglia consists of alternating layers of a lean-dough mixture, or pastello (composed of flour, water, salt, and a small amount of butter), and a butter block (panetto).