Preparing for my final exam at culinary school, I looked at a random selection of recipes, then – for reasons I can’t remember – took on putting together a  pâte feuilletée, a dish with puff pastry. This was a doozy, difficult to complete in the middle of a hot July. The the school’s air conditioner was iffy, and even  the cooled marble I was afforded to use was sweating from the humidity.

Fast forward to my weekend microbakery and I decide to make apple turnovers; chausson au pommes. I decided to try a method of inverse lamination, feuillatage inverse, which means just what it says. Where the butter is usually enveloped into the center of the dough (detrempe), and then folded seven times, here it is reversed. The butter is folded over the dough and laminated.

The advantages are that the preliminary fold is already introduced, making the quality of the dough in final product fantastic. In addition, it creates a manageable dough which can be cut and used directly without having to chill before final use. My chausson was, if I can boast, remarkable. The next afternoon I even played with a classic; half a pear, stuffed with blue cheese baked on a pear shaped piece of dough and baked, ridiculously delicious!