Puff Pastry
This homemade puff pastry recipe will be your favourite part of the dessert you are making. It is incredibly buttery and rich and will make your dessert taste amazing! Whether used for sweet tarts, savoury pies, or elegant appetizers, the effort invested in making puff pastry from scratch is rewarded with an exquisite, melt-in-your-mouth experience that elevates any dish to a new level of culinary excellence.
In this post, you will learn how to make Puff Pastry.
What is Puff Pastry?
Puff pastry, also known as pâte feuilletée, is a light, flaky pastry made from a laminated dough composed of alternating layers of dough and butter. This pastry is renowned for its delicate texture and rich, buttery flavour, achieved through a labour-intensive process of rolling, folding, and chilling the dough.
Homemade puff pastry is truly a marvel in the world of baking, offering an unparalleled flakiness and buttery richness that store-bought versions simply cannot match. The process of meticulously rolling and folding the dough to create hundreds of delicate layers results in a pastry that puffs up beautifully in the oven, yielding a light, airy texture with a crisp, golden-brown exterior.
How to Work with Puff Pastry
- Keep It Cold: Work quickly and keep the dough cold to prevent the butter from melting. If it gets too warm, chill it before continuing.
- Flour the Surface: Lightly flour the rolling surface and rolling pin to prevent sticking, but avoid using too much flour, which can toughen the dough.
- Cut Cleanly: Use a sharp knife or pastry cutter to cut the dough cleanly, ensuring the layers can puff up properly.
- Avoid Overhandling: Handle the dough as little as possible to keep the butter layers intact and maintain the pastry’s flakiness.
- Use an Egg Wash: Brushing the pastry with an egg wash (beaten egg mixed with a little water) before baking gives it a golden, shiny finish.
Folding and Turning the Dough
Folding and turning the dough creates layers to the dough. The layers can be hard to see when you are rolling the dough out, but when you actually bake the dough, you will see the layers and the dough will be incredibly flaky.
- Initial Fold: You start with one layer of dough and one layer of butter.
- First Turn: After rolling out and folding the dough (a single turn), you create 3 layers.
- Second Turn: Each subsequent turn triples the number of layers from the previous turn.
So, after 6 turns, you would have 729 layers of dough and butter in your puff pastry. This large number of layers is what gives puff pastry its characteristic flakiness and light texture.
Why am I Using Milk and not Water for the Dough?
While not common in traditional puff pastry recipes, some variations or specific types of laminated dough might include milk. This recipe does use milk for a couple of reasons.
- Texture and Flavour: milk can contribute to a slightly softer dough and a richer flavour due to its fat content and natural sugars.
- Hydration: using milk instead of water can alter the hydration level of the dough, which can affect the dough’s handling and final texture. It typically makes the dough slightly more tender.
Once you have tried this recipe with the milk, you will understand why milk is used and not water.
Do I Have to Use Unsalted Butter?
Now I realize that most of us use whatever kind of butter that we have in the house when baking or cooking be it salted or unsalted butter. However, I must stress the importance of using unsalted butter in this recipe.
If you use salted butter instead of the unsalted butter, your puff pastry will be incredibly salty! So, whatever you do, make sure to use only unsalted butter in this recipe. You will have put too much time and effort into this recipe for your pastry to come out salty.
How Many Servings Will I Get?
This puff pastry recipe yields 2 servings of puff pastry dough so you will be able to make two different kinds of pastries with this recipe. It is best not to half this recipe if you only want 1 serving of puff pastry for a dessert. Freeze the other serving of puff pastry for the future.
Freezing Puff Pastry
Freezing: Homemade puff pastry can be frozen for up to 2 months. Ensure it is well-wrapped to prevent freezer burn and to maintain its quality. After preparing the dough and completing the rolling and folding process, wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap. Then, place it in an airtight container or a resealable plastic bag. Make sure to date when you froze it so that you know how old it is and whether it can still be used.
Thawing: Transfer the frozen puff pastry from the freezer to the refrigerator. Let it thaw slowly overnight or for at least 6-8 hours. This gradual thawing helps maintain the dough’s texture. If you need to thaw it quickly, leave the puff pastry on the counter at room temperature for about 30-40 minutes. Monitor it closely to ensure it doesn’t become too soft or sticky.
Other Options
If you do not have the time to commit to making this Puff Pastry recipe but would still like to make a homemade pie crust, try this Flaky, Pie Dough recipe. This recipe is not as time consuming but still has excellent results.
Ingredients
All-Purpose/Plain Flour: offers structure and versatility, creating a balanced, tender, and sturdy pie crust.
Unsalted Butter: provides rich flavour, contributes to a flaky texture, and allows for precise salt control.
Salt: salt enhances flavour. Adding too little salt can cause the pie crust to be bland.
Milk: milk can contribute to a slightly softer dough and a richer flavour due to its fat content and natural sugars.
Tips
- Make sure to use unsalted butter and not salted butter in this recipe.
- Milk can be substituted for cream in this recipe, but for the sake of simplicity and having the ingredients already in your kitchen milk is perfectly adequate.
- When rolling out and turning the dough, try to use as little flour as possible to keep the rolling pin from sticking.
- Make indents with your fingertips into the pastry so that you remember how many turns your have completed if you are worried about forgetting.
- Freeze the other serving of puff pastry for future dessert recipes.
Puff Pastry
Ingredients
- 2 3/4 c. all-purpose/plain flour
- 2 tsp. salt
- 3/4 c. whole milk
- 1 1/2 c. butter unsalted
- 1/3 c. all-purpose/plain flour
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, place the unsalted butter and beat on medium until butter is flaky. It is best to let your butter sit at room temperature to soften before beating. Once the butter has been beaten until it is smooth add the 1/3 c. all-purpose/plain flour and beat together. Roll out plastic wrap and spoon the butter into the centre to form a 4”x4” block about 1” thick. Wrap tightly and place in the fridge for at least an hour.
- In a large bowl, mix together the all-purpose/plain flour and salt. Gradually, begin to pour in the milk and mix. You do not want the dough to be sticky and do not overmix.
- Once you have formed a dough, place it onto a floured surface and roll out, sprinkling flour on as needed to keep it from sticking. Roll it out to approximately 12”x7”. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate. You want the dough and the butter to be the same temperature.
- Once the butter and the dough have both chilled and are the same temperature, remove from the fridge and place the dough onto a floured surface. Unwrap the butter and place onto the bottom of the dough and fold over the top of the dough so that the butter is encased. Pinch the edges together to seal the butter inside of the dough.
- Using your rolling pin, begin to roll the dough with butter inside lengthwise, adding flour as needed when the dough gets sticky. Roll the dough out into a 20”x7” rectangle trying to keep the edges square. Fold the dough into thirds then turn counterclockwise so that the dough looks like a book with the opening to the right. Roll the dough out again into a 20”x7” rectangle and fold into thirds. This time wrap in plastic wrap and place into the refrigerator. Refrigerate for 1 hour. You have now done 2 turns of rolling out your dough.
- You are going to complete 6 turns of rolling out the dough. Repeat Step 5 two more times. Your dough after the sixth turn should be very smooth. Wrap in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least one hour before you use it or freeze it for future use.