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Hi Bold Bakers!
WHY YOU’LL LOVE THIS RECIPE: Let this Easiest Puff Pastry Recipe show you how to make a flaky and butter pastry from scratch with very little effort. It does not require folding but works perfectly for tarts and hand pies!
IMPORTANT NOTE: This recipe was updated and improved on 2/10/2023, to include additional step-by-step photography and answers to the most frequently asked questions.
Knowing how to make great pastry is baking 101, and I want to make sure all of you Bold Bakers are prepared for any recipe that comes your way.
So, I’m going to share with you my Mum’s recipe for an easy shortcut Puff Pastry, AKA rough puff pastry, flakey pastry, or blitz pastry. You can officially say goodbye to store-bought, frozen puff pastry sheets!
I highly recommend you check out my video for this recipe. Some of my recipes are a bit more detailed than others, and this is one of those recipes. I can explain to you the “whys” and “hows” here, but seeing is believing, and once you watch my video, you will 100% believe this puff pastry recipe will change your baking.
The best part about this shortcut puff pastry is that you don’t need to fold it like traditional pastry, but it still yields amazing results.
How do I get away without resting and folding 100 times? The secret is grated frozen butter! The colder the butter, the better!
Table Of Contents
What Is “Easy Puff Pastry?”
My shortcut pastry is a hybrid of a puff AND rough puff pastry that is light, buttery, and flaky. It is so much faster than traditional; it doesn’t require folding on a floured work surface or resting to create layers!
Instead, I grate in frozen butter to give you the same effect. The same results, but the technique is simpler and saves time.
The simple step of the grated butter makes sure you have tiny pieces of butter throughout your pastry without rolling the dough with a rolling pin and fold for hours to get them. Why take the long road when the shorter road gets you to the same place?
Tools You Need
Puff Pastry Ingredients
- Butter: You need your butter to be frozen for this technique to work! So pop it in the freezer for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight. I always use salted butter unless specified otherwise. You can use also unsalted butter here.
- Ice water: You want to keep everything as cool as possible to prevent the butter from melting before baking.
- Lemon juice: Lemon juice helps to tenderize the dough.
- All-purpose flour: AP flour will serve as the base of the puff pastry.
- Salt: A little dash of salt makes everything taste better!
How To Make Easy Puff Pastry Dough
This How to Make Easy Puff Pastry is so simple to follow and you’ll wonder why no one’s taught you before! Once you’ve learned how to do it, you’ll never look back at store-bought puff pastry (and don’t forget to get the full recipe with measurements on the page down below):
- Place butter in the freezer for at least two hours. Once the butter is ready, the whole process should only take 15 minutes to 30 minutes.
- Mix water and lemon juice in a jug.
- Mix cold flour and salt in a large bowl.
- Grate frozen butter into the same large bowl. Stir with a knife.
- Pour the water and lemon juice mixture into the large bowl. Bring the pastry together using your hands — you don’t even need a food processor.
- Bring the dough together in a ball, and seal it with plastic wrap.
- Either bake, refrigerate for up to three days, or freeze for later use.
![How To Make Easy Puff Pastry How to Make Homemade Puff Pastry](data:image/svg+xml,<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 1440 1440"></svg> "Easy Puff Pastry collage2")
Can I Make Puff Pastry In Advance?
You can make this puff pastry ahead of time, wrap it in cling wrap, and store it in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
How To Freeze Puff Pastry
You can also freeze it for up to 1 month. Be sure to remove excess flour using a pastry brush then wrap it tightly!
![How To Make Easy Puff Pastry Puff Pastry Dough](data:image/svg+xml,<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 1365 2048"></svg> "Easy Puff Pastry8")
Puff Pastry Troubleshooting And FAQs
Can you halve this recipe?
You can halve this puff pastry recipe by cutting the ingredients in half.
What do I do if I don’t have lemon juice?
Lemon juice is used to help tenderize the dough. If you don’t have any lemons on hand, use a few drops of white vinegar. If you don’t have vinegar, try to handle the dough as lightly as possible, and you should be grand.
Why didn’t my pastry rise?
Chances are, your pastry became too warm. Either you overhandled the dough, your kitchen was a touch too hot, or you didn’t get it into a HOT oven, letting it sit in a lukewarm oven for too long.
Gemma’s Pro Chef Tips
- Keep everything AS COLD AS POSSIBLE. Freeze your butter, use cold, cold water, and pop your bowl and your knife in the fridge. You don’t want your butter to get warm.
- When baking puff pastry, bake in a HOT oven for best results.
- Be sure to watch my video going over this recipe. I promise it will help!
What To Make With Puff Pastry
It’s great for sweet or savory treats:
IMPORTANT NOTE:This recipe was updated and improved on 2/10/2023, to include additional step-by-step photography and answers to the most frequently asked questions.