In this video I show you how to make arlettes Paul Hollywood recipe. This Arlettes recipe was a GBBO technical challenge from Paul Hollywood on the Great British Bake Off Series 6. GBBO stands for Great British Bake Off. The Arlettes recipe is a bit like making puff pastry inside out. With puff pastry the dough incases the butter but in the Arlettes recipe it is the butter which incases the pastry. I had never baked anything that requires this to happen, I had to read the recipe again to make sure that I had not misread it.
Even though the recipe says it makes 8, I managed to make 11 including the cut off edges which I did not want to waste. I did not use silicon sheets to bake because I did not have any so I just used my cookie trays, do not grease them first.
The recipe does not say how long the square of dough is but I made mine 17cm by 17cm.
There will be no need to turn them over but bake for about 7-8 minutes until just beginning to brown and take them out. Do not attempt to remove them from the tray immediately after taking them out of the oven because they will break.
Let them sit on the cookie tray for about a minute and remove them and put on a cooling rack to cool completely. They taste like puff pastry biscuits.
For the Arlettes dough
- 60g strong white bread flour, plus extra for dusting
- 60g plain flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 40g unsalted butter, melted
- 50ml cold water
For the butter layer
- 125g unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 25g strong white bread flour
- 25g plain flour
For the filling
- 50g granulated sugar
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- icing sugar for dusting
Method for arlettes
- Put the flours, salt, butter and water into a bowl and gently mix to an even dough with your fingers. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead for 5 mins until smooth. Shape the dough into a square, wrap in cling film and chill for 1 hour (or freeze for 20 – 30 minutes).
- For the butter layer, cream the butter and flour together. Sandwich the mixture between 2 sheets of cling film and roll out to a rectangle the same width as the square of dough, but twice as long. Chill in the fridge for 25 minutes.
- Place the chilled butter sheet, short end facing towards you on a lightly floured surface and place the square of dough in the centre of the butter sheet. Make sure it is positioned neatly and covers almost to the edges. Lift the exposed butter sheet at the top and fold it down over the dough, then fold the exposed butter sheet at the bottom up over the top, so the dough is completely enclosed in the butter sheet.
- Place the dough on a lightly floured surface, short end towards you. Roll out to a rectangle, keeping the edges as even as possible. Fold the top quarter down and the bottom quarter up so they meet neatly in the centre. Then fold the dough in half along the centre line. This is called a book turn.Wrap the dough in cling film and chill for 25 minutes.
- Remove the dough from the fridge and make another book turn. Wrap the dough in cling film and chill for 25 minutes.
- For the filling, mix the granulated sugar and the cinnamon together in a bowl. On a lightly floured surface roll out the pastry to a rectangle as before and sprinkle over the sugar.
- Make another book turn to incorporate the sugar, then roll out the pastry 1cm thick, to a rectangle 12cm x 20cm. Roll up the arlettes pastry from the short end like a swiss roll. Wrap in cling film and chill for 25 minutes.
- Heat oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Trim the ends of the arlettes roll and cut into 8 x 1cm slices. Dust the work surface heavily with icing sugar and roll each piece of dough out very thinly, turning to coat in the sugar and to prevent sticking.
- Place the arlettes on 2 baking sheets lines with silicon sheets and bake for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven, carefully turn the biscuits and cook for a further 3-4 minutes until golden. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
