We go to great lengths to achieve fusion in some baked goods. We keep the butter in the pie crust cold on ice. We handle our crushed dough with the utmost care. We wait for our cookies with sharp cutters, not drinking glasses.
But the baker and Delicious roast Author Erin McDowell has another tip that not only maximizes the crust, but actually increases it: She folds her dough, and not just when she's making puff pastry. “An instructor I had in pastry school very casually introduced the concept of pie dough to class once – and it seemed so obvious!” she recalls. “I started folding my own pie crust recipe and was very impressed with the results. I started making it with other pastry doughs, like cookies, not long after.
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It makes sense when, as Erin explains, you think of folding as free rolling. In traditional laminated pastriesfor example puff pastry OR croissant, a dough of flour and water is wrapped around a block of melted butter, then rolled and folded over itself many times to create separate layers of dough and butter. Once the dough is in the oven, the water in the butter evaporates, creating steam, which causes airy pockets to develop between each layer of dough and, in turn, a flaky pastry once it's fully baked.
Folding a cookie or pie dough mimics this process. These pastries do not have distinct layers of butter and dough, like dough, but they do have large chunks of cold butter scattered throughout. When you fold the dough, these pieces of butter pile up on top of each other, creating rough layers of butter and dough that translate to melt once baked.
Photography by Rick Holbrook; food styling by Kaitlin Wayne
When can I (or not) use the folding method in my dough?
This folding method can be applied to any recipe that's made with cold butter that you want to be crumbly—think cookies, pie crust, and cookies. It will work in any dough recipe where the cold butter is worked into the flour but left in larger chunks, otherwise known as the cutting method. For example, some cookie and cookie recipes are made with heavy cream instead of cold butter (as are any cookies referred to as “discard the cookie“); they are meant to be soft and mild, rather than long and salty. These types of doughs would not benefit from a folding step.
Some recipes already include this step. our Buttermilk Biscuits Recipe, for example, instructs you to fold the dough before cutting it into cookies for extra layers. And Claire Saffitz's All Purpose Flaming Pastry Dough it relies on two rounds of cutting, folding and stacking to develop texture in the dough and create a noticeable smooth texture in the baked pie crust. The same cut and stack method is used in these as well Cornmeal Scones with Fig and Rosemary Layers.
Food photography and styling by Liz Neily
Food photography and styling by Liz Neily
How to fold your own cracker dough
If the recipe doesn't clearly call for folding, you can add this step yourself. After the dough is formed, but before you roll it out and/or cut it, gently shape it into a rough rectangle or square. It's usually good for the dough to be stiff and still a little floury at this point, as folding will help it become more cohesive.
Fold the dough like a letter – bring a third to cover the middle third, then fold the last third to cover the same section. Alternatively, you can use a paring knife or another straight edge to cut the dough rectangle into halves or thirds, then stack them on top of each other. One round of folding may be enough, but you can repeat this process once or twice more if you like. Simply turn the dough 90° (quarter turn), roll out the folded dough into a rough rectangle or square once more and fold again.
Folding in thirds is common, but it's not the only way. Erin likes to fold her dough into quarters by folding the dough in half, then folding it in half again.
Food photography and styling by Liz Neily
Food photography and styling by Liz Neily
Understand that you can fold also a lot. The goal of most of these pastes is to not only be smooth, but also soft. Overhandling the dough can encourage the development of gluten, which in turn can make good baking tough and dense. There's a sweet spot between folding into more layers and overworking the dough—if the dough becomes wet, soft, hard, or springy, avoid further handling. To avoid these pitfalls, Erin also recommends chilling the dough before folding and between each subsequent fold (about 30 minutes, if you have the time). As she writes in Delicious roast“The folding method works much better when the fat is cold and firm and the dough has had time to rest.”
Each time it is folded, Erin advises, “For pie dough, I recommend only two to three folds. I call this my 'extra fluffy' dough. She adds, “When you get into the four to six folds, you're more into rough pastry territory—much more noticeably flaky.” As for cookies, “any number of folds between one and four will make the dough lighter and fluffier and allow the cookie to rise higher,” she advises. “It's not that you can't do more (folding), but it's also not really necessary for impressive results.”
Start by cooking our recipes for Buttermilk Biscuits AND All Purpose Flaming Pastry Dough to see what a difference folding can make, then branch out to try it on other lighter, more savory baking recipes – like these Sourdough sandwich cookies, Easy self-rising cookiesOR Scones. Like Erin, you can never look back.
Cover photo and food styling by Liz Neily.
