Puff the Magic Pastry

It always rises to the occasion

- Emily Tyra

WHEN PUFF PASTRY hits a hot oven, its hundreds of layers levitate to flaky and delectable new heights. It's all thanks to steam, escaping in tiny bursts from water in the dough.

A close cousin to the croissant, which contains yeast to help it rise, puff pastry runs solely on its own steam.

The dough itself is made by a painstaking process called lamination, involving butter and lots of it. Bakers roll out the dough (a basic recipe of flour, water, salt and sometimes eggs), grate shards of butter on top, then repeatedly fold the dough over and roll it flat again. This process of rolling and folding creates the countless layers, but it's even more involved than it sounds.