Puff pastry can easily be bought ready made and even ready rolled, but if you have the time to make it at home it’s worth the effort. The actual work you have to put in to it doesn’t take too long, it’s the chilling time that adds the time on. Homemade puff pastry is surprisingly satisfying to make and tastes so much better than shop bought. Give it a go!
Ingredients
- 300g plain flour
- pinch of salt
- 150 – 175ml of water
- 250g butter
First of all, pop a baking tray in the fridge to chill. This will help the dough chill faster and save you time.
In a bowl, combine the flour and the salt. Then slowly add the water. You may not need all of the water, it depends on how dry your flour is, so start by adding 150ml and add a little more if it is too dry. Once the dough comes together into a ball, place on some floured baking paper on to the chilled tray. Flatten the dough in to a disc shape and pop in the fridge for 15-20 minutes.
Whilst the dough is chilling, take your butter and place it between 2 pieces of cling film. With a rolling pin, sharply tap the butter to flatten it in to a rough square shape.
Sprinkle your work surface with flour and place your chilled dough on top. Roll it out slightly, keeping the circular shape as best you can. Don’t roll it too much at this stage, it just needs to be big enough to cover your butter completely.
Place the butter in the middle of the dough and pull the dough in to the centre from the top and then the bottom. Then pull the 2 sides in to the centre. It will look a bit like an envelope. Press the dough down with your fingers to fully enclose the butter.
Sprinkle a little more flour on your work surface and on top of the dough. Roll out the dough in one direction until it’s at least the length of a rolling pin.
Now it’s time to do your first turn. Bring the bottom third of the dough up towards the middle. Then fold the top third down over the top.
Rotate the dough by 90 degrees and flip over. Now do your second turn by rolling out the dough to the length of your rolling pin again and folding your dough just as before. Rotate and flip over the dough again. Roll out the dough slightly (thinner dough will chill more quickly) and pop back on your chilled tray in the fridge. Chill for at least 30 minutes.
Once the dough has been chilled, repeat the same rolling and folding process to do two more turns. After the fourth turn, pop back in the fridge to chill again for at least 30 minutes. Once chilled do one more turn and chill again.
At this point your dough is ready. It depends on what you are making, but in general it will need to be rolled out to the width of a pound coin and baked at 200°C for approximately 30-35 minutes.
