Puff pastry: It’s the type of item that makes everything feel like a special event. All those airy, flaky layers and that delicious buttery taste!
But it’s not the type of thing you’d manufacture yourself. I mean, it’s simply an ingredient you purchase from the grocery store freezer section. Right?
Wrong! What if I told you you could create fresh, all-butter puff pastry sheets from scratch in your kitchen? And it just takes four ingredients and comes together in about 15 minutes?
It’s true! This is the most delicious puff pastry you’ll ever taste, and the best thing is it’s SO EASY to prepare. You’ll never purchase store-bought puff pastry again! This will become one of your favorite recipes!
Most puff pastry recipes will urge you to start by mixing soft butter with a little of flour, then shape that into a square wrapped in dough. There are a lot of stages, a lot of chilling, measuring, rolling, and folding. It can get really particular and precise, and to be honest, it worries me out.
I appreciate when things are a bit more basic and intuitive.
I have reduced back the number of processes and the time needed to prepare this homemade easy-puff pastry.
The first time I cooked it, I couldn’t believe how great it tasted despite the quick preparation. In other words, this is a shortcut recipe.
The outcome is virtually comparable to true puff pastry cooked the fancy French method, but the prep time has been shortened down to approximately 15 or 20 minutes.
What Is Puff Pastry?
Puff pastry is a delicate, light, and flaky pastry that may be utilized in numerous ways. You might also know it by its French name: pâte feuilletée.
It is designed to be supple, buttery, and flaky, like pie crust, biscuits, and danish. And the most essential thing to keep in mind while cooking these sorts of pastries is to keep them nice and chilled at all times!
Butter is placed into the dough, generating hundreds of flaky layers. This process is termed “lamination.” Steam is created when the cold butter goes into a hot oven, causing all those layers to split and the crust to blow up skyhigh!
Ingredients and Notes
-
All-Purpose Flour: You’ll need 2 cups. When measuring, take cautious not to pack the flour. To avoid from doing this, scoop the flour into the measuring cup, then use a knife to level out the top. Here’s additional about the best method to measure your ingredients: How to Measure Ingredients for Baking. A gluten-free flour mix that can sub 1:1 for ordinary flour should work just fine, if you’d want to make gluten-free puff pastry.
-
Salt: Salt conveys the tastes and amplifies them. The finished product won’t taste salty, but it will make everything so much more tasty! I enjoy kosher salt best since it doesn’t have any additives (table salt generally contains iodine and that can leave a harsh taste) so the flavor is pure, plus it’s extremely affordable and simple to find.
-
Unsalted Butter: Make sure that the butter is cool. This will generate great lamination. Cold butter also helps to shorten the time and processes necessary in a traditional preparation. Without cold butter, your pastry will not flake into all those gorgeous layers. I like to use unsalted butter since it allows me manage the amount of salt in the pastry. For vegan or dairy free puff pastry, use a plant-based butter that can substitute for dairy butter 1:1.
-
Cold Water: You want to use cold water, so the butter doesn’t melt too rapidly.
Read Also: Exploring The World Of Puff Pastry Filling Recipes
How to Make Puff Pastry
-
Start by mixing flour and salt in a large bowl. Just give the mixture a brisk whisk to integrate everything evenly.
-
Then, fetch your chilled butter, and slice it thinly. You want plenty of slices, all of them no thicker than 1/4-inch.
-
Toss the butter slices into the flour mixture, ensuring each greased piece is uniformly covered.
-
Next comes cold water. Pour in the water and mix until the dough forms a ball. Don’t worry if you see huge hunks of butter- that is just how it should be!
-
At this time, your butter is probably starting to warm up and go mushy, so it’s better to give the dough a cold. Flatten it into a disk form using a rolling pin, wrap it in plastic wrap, and drop it into the fridge for an hour or the freezer for 20-30 minutes.
-
Once it’s cold and stiff, lay the dough on a lightly floured work area and start laminating. It’s as easy as shaping the dough into a rough rectangular shape and folding it into thirds, like a letter.
-
After each fold, give it a 90-degree spin and then repeat. You can see what I mean if you watch the video below. Then roll out into a rectangle.
-
I’m not going to tell you what the rectangle’s dimensions should be. It doesn’t matter. As long as you can fold it into thirds, it’s absolutely fine.
-
And I’m not going to tell you precisely how many folds you should make either. I’ll leave it to the fancy-pants French pastry chefs. The bottom line is the more you fold it, the more flaky layers it will have.
-
I normally fold anywhere from 4 to 6 times. After that point, the butter is probably starting to soften up again, so it’s definitely a good time to get the puff pastry sheets back in the fridge or freezer.
How to Bake
-
When you’re ready to bake your puff pastry, get it out of the fridge and roll it to a thickness of approximately 1/8 to 1/4 inch, depending on how you want to use it.
-
If I’m making a baked brie, for example, I might go closer to 1/4-inch, but if I’m creating puff pastry cups, I might roll it a bit thinner so it’s easier to tuck into the wells of the muffin pan.
-
Then you may cut your puff pastry down to any size you need. I enjoy using a pizza cutter to do this. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, or follow the recipe you are using.
Ola Hansen 
Puff pastry: It’s the type of item that makes everything feel like a special event. All those airy, flaky layers and that delicious buttery taste!
But it’s not the type of thing you’d manufacture yourself. I mean, it’s simply an ingredient you purchase from the grocery store freezer section. Right?
Wrong! What if I told you you could create fresh, all-butter puff pastry sheets from scratch in your kitchen? And it just takes four ingredients and comes together in about 15 minutes?
It’s true! This is the most delicious puff pastry you’ll ever taste, and the best thing is it’s SO EASY to prepare. You’ll never purchase store-bought puff pastry again! This will become one of your favorite recipes!
Most puff pastry recipes will urge you to start by mixing soft butter with a little of flour, then shape that into a square wrapped in dough. There are a lot of stages, a lot of chilling, measuring, rolling, and folding. It can get really particular and precise, and to be honest, it worries me out.
I appreciate when things are a bit more basic and intuitive.
I have reduced back the number of processes and the time needed to prepare this homemade easy-puff pastry.
The first time I cooked it, I couldn’t believe how great it tasted despite the quick preparation. In other words, this is a shortcut recipe.
The outcome is virtually comparable to true puff pastry cooked the fancy French method, but the prep time has been shortened down to approximately 15 or 20 minutes.
What Is Puff Pastry?
Puff pastry is a delicate, light, and flaky pastry that may be utilized in numerous ways. You might also know it by its French name: pâte feuilletée.
It is designed to be supple, buttery, and flaky, like pie crust, biscuits, and danish. And the most essential thing to keep in mind while cooking these sorts of pastries is to keep them nice and chilled at all times!
Butter is placed into the dough, generating hundreds of flaky layers. This process is termed “lamination.” Steam is created when the cold butter goes into a hot oven, causing all those layers to split and the crust to blow up skyhigh!
Ingredients and Notes
All-Purpose Flour: You’ll need 2 cups. When measuring, take cautious not to pack the flour. To avoid from doing this, scoop the flour into the measuring cup, then use a knife to level out the top. Here’s additional about the best method to measure your ingredients: How to Measure Ingredients for Baking. A gluten-free flour mix that can sub 1:1 for ordinary flour should work just fine, if you’d want to make gluten-free puff pastry.
Salt: Salt conveys the tastes and amplifies them. The finished product won’t taste salty, but it will make everything so much more tasty! I enjoy kosher salt best since it doesn’t have any additives (table salt generally contains iodine and that can leave a harsh taste) so the flavor is pure, plus it’s extremely affordable and simple to find.
Unsalted Butter: Make sure that the butter is cool. This will generate great lamination. Cold butter also helps to shorten the time and processes necessary in a traditional preparation. Without cold butter, your pastry will not flake into all those gorgeous layers. I like to use unsalted butter since it allows me manage the amount of salt in the pastry. For vegan or dairy free puff pastry, use a plant-based butter that can substitute for dairy butter 1:1.
Cold Water: You want to use cold water, so the butter doesn’t melt too rapidly.
Read Also: Exploring The World Of Puff Pastry Filling Recipes
How to Make Puff Pastry
Start by mixing flour and salt in a large bowl. Just give the mixture a brisk whisk to integrate everything evenly.
Then, fetch your chilled butter, and slice it thinly. You want plenty of slices, all of them no thicker than 1/4-inch.
Toss the butter slices into the flour mixture, ensuring each greased piece is uniformly covered.
Next comes cold water. Pour in the water and mix until the dough forms a ball. Don’t worry if you see huge hunks of butter- that is just how it should be!
At this time, your butter is probably starting to warm up and go mushy, so it’s better to give the dough a cold. Flatten it into a disk form using a rolling pin, wrap it in plastic wrap, and drop it into the fridge for an hour or the freezer for 20-30 minutes.
Once it’s cold and stiff, lay the dough on a lightly floured work area and start laminating. It’s as easy as shaping the dough into a rough rectangular shape and folding it into thirds, like a letter.
After each fold, give it a 90-degree spin and then repeat. You can see what I mean if you watch the video below. Then roll out into a rectangle.
I’m not going to tell you what the rectangle’s dimensions should be. It doesn’t matter. As long as you can fold it into thirds, it’s absolutely fine.
And I’m not going to tell you precisely how many folds you should make either. I’ll leave it to the fancy-pants French pastry chefs. The bottom line is the more you fold it, the more flaky layers it will have.
I normally fold anywhere from 4 to 6 times. After that point, the butter is probably starting to soften up again, so it’s definitely a good time to get the puff pastry sheets back in the fridge or freezer.
How to Bake
When you’re ready to bake your puff pastry, get it out of the fridge and roll it to a thickness of approximately 1/8 to 1/4 inch, depending on how you want to use it.
If I’m making a baked brie, for example, I might go closer to 1/4-inch, but if I’m creating puff pastry cups, I might roll it a bit thinner so it’s easier to tuck into the wells of the muffin pan.
Then you may cut your puff pastry down to any size you need. I enjoy using a pizza cutter to do this. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, or follow the recipe you are using.