Description
Crafting this homemade rough puff pastry dough reveals French baking secrets with minimal effort. Baker techniques yield flaky, buttery layers perfect for sweet and savory recipes you’ll want to master immediately.
Ingredients
Scale
- 1 cup (226 grams) unsalted butter, cold and cubed
- 2 ½ cups (300 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ cup (120 milliliters) ice-cold water
- 12 tablespoons (180 milliliters) additional water (as needed for consistency)
Instructions
- Preparation: Combine flour and salt in a large mixing bowl, ensuring thorough integration of dry ingredients.
- Butter Incorporation: Add ice-cold, cubed butter to the flour mixture. Delicately fragment butter using fingertips or pastry cutter, maintaining visible butter chunks that will create signature flaky texture. Gently introduce ice-cold water, stirring until dough loosely coheres. Adjust moisture minimally if needed.
- Initial Resting: Shape the rustic dough into a rough rectangle, wrap completely in plastic film, and refrigerate for 30 minutes to stabilize molecular structure and enhance workability.
- First Lamination: Lightly flour work surface and rolling pin. Roll dough into an elongated rectangle, then fold top and bottom thirds inward like a business letter. Rotate dough 90 degrees, positioning unsealed edges horizontally. Wrap and chill for 20-30 minutes.
- Repeated Folding: Execute three additional rolling and folding cycles, interspersing each with a precise chilling period. This technique develops intricate, delicate pastry layers that will create exceptional flakiness.
- Final Preparation: After the last folding, securely wrap dough and refrigerate for minimum one hour. The pastry is now primed for various culinary applications and can be frozen up to three months for future use.
Notes
- Chill Butter Strategically: Keep butter extremely cold and cut into small cubes to ensure optimal flakiness and distinct butter layers within the pastry.
- Handle Dough Minimally: Use light, gentle touches when mixing and folding to prevent overworking, which can develop gluten and create tough pastry texture.
- Monitor Moisture Carefully: Add water sparingly, just enough to bind ingredients; excess liquid compromises the delicate pastry structure and flakiness.
- Refrigeration is Key: Consistent chilling between folding stages allows butter to solidify and creates signature multi-layered, crisp pastry texture.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 2 hours
- Category: Desserts, Snacks
- Method: Mixing
- Cuisine: French
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 7
- Calories: 290
- Sugar: 0 g
- Sodium: 200 mg
- Fat: 20 g
- Saturated Fat: 12 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 8 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 30 g
- Fiber: 1 g
- Protein: 3 g
- Cholesterol: 40 mg