I was pretty skeptical about making puff pastry dough from scratch. The few recipes I found promised it would be simple and quick and that I would never want to buy puff pastry from the store again. Sure...
I am now a believer. It was easy and, if you've never made anything with puff pastry before, incredibly versatile. You can use it for everything from desserts, to breakfast pastry, to appetizers, to the crust of a chicken pot pie. Traditionally, puff pastry is made from a layer of butter smashed in between two layers of dough and then folded and rolled out multiple times until there's multiple layers of butter in the dough. This allows for that flakiness and crunch you get when eating it. This recipe still has that butter, but it's incorporated a little differently. But don't fret, you will still getting that signature puff pastry texture without having to be super precise.
Total Time: 30 minutes
INGREDIENTS:
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, frozen
1/2 cup ice cold water
DIRECTIONS:
Combine the flour and salt in a large bowl.
Cut the butter into small chunks, wait for 5 minutes, and then add the butter to the flour mixture. Toss to coat.
Add cold water and combine with a pastry blender or a large fork. A dough should start to form, but you still want to keep the chunks of butter in there. If the dough seems dry and crumbly, you can add a little more water (1 Tbsp at a time), but don't allow the dough to get wet and sticky.
Lightly flour your counter top and roll out your dough into a 1.5 ft long, oblong shape with the short end at the bottom closest to you.
To fold, imagine the pastry is divided into thirds. Fold the top third over the middle third, then fold the bottom third up over the middle (like folding a letter).
Rotate the folded pastry 90 degrees and roll out again to a 1.5 ft oblong. Fold it again like you did before, then rotate again another 90 degrees before rolling and folding a third time.
Wrap the folded dough in plastic wrap and allow it to chill in the refrigerator for at least a half hour before you use it for your other recipes!
Additional Tips and Tricks:
The key to making good puff pastry is keeping your butter cold and not fully incorporated into the rest of the dough. You want those little chunks of butter to melt when baking to leave behind little air pockets which gives you the flakiness and crispiness.
If your kitchen is warm while you're making this dough to the point where the butter is clearly melting, pop the dough in the fridge for a half hour between folds to let the butter firm back up.
When you use the puff pastry dough for other recipes, make sure the dough is cold before you bake it. Don't allow it to sit out while you prep the rest of the dish.
Re-flour the counter top as necessary. You want to keep the dough from sticking to the counter top, as that could mess up the layers you are creating.
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