How to make Puff Pastry at Home
Certainly, you can buy puff pastry from the store, but if you’re in the mood for a real buttery flaky and hygienic version of puff pastry, you can make it yourself at home. Yes, it’s the process is time taking but in return, you will get something great and much better than store-bought.
From such simple ingredients — flour, water, butter — greatness comes. Here’s everything you need to know to make puff pastry from scratch.
Things you can make with Puff Pastry
Before I start making, let’s have some knowledge about Puff Pastry.
- What is Puff Pastry
- How to use Puff Pastry
- How to handle your Puff Pastry?
- How to store Puff Pastry?
- Essential Tools for Puff Pastry
- Things to be Considered
- Recipe of Homemade Puff Pastry from Scratch
- Homaemade UNIPUFF Short Recipe
What Is Puff Pastry?
Puff pastry is a classic pastry dough that has dozens of alternating layers of butter and dough. When baked, those layers puff up and turn into the most delicate, light, golden, buttery flakes of pastry.
Making puff pastry involves layering butter between a simple dough of flour and water, then folding it again and again — four to six times total — to create all those hundreds of paper-thin layers. In the oven, the water in the butter and in the dough turns to steam and puffs each layer. What’s left behind is the airy, crispy, buttery creation we call puff pastry.
How to Use Puff Pastry?
Puff pastry makes super-simple tart shells, easy appetizers, a multitude of desserts, and breakfast pastries. You can bake it into cups for a savory filling, stuff it with fruit to make mouth-watering turnovers, braid it to make a stunning dessert, and even twist it to make cheese straws.
How to handle your Puff Pastry?
~ Always keep the dough covered so it does not dry out, and use only as much flour as needed when rolling. Handle the dough as little as possible to prevent the end product from being tough.
~ From frozen, whether homemade or store-bought, let the pastry thaw overnight in the refrigerator or for about 30 minutes at room temperature. Do not unfold store-bought pastry while it is still frozen or it may break.
~ Once thawed, carefully unfold the dough and roll it out on a lightly floured surface. Should any tears or cracks occur, brush with water and gently press back together. If it starts to soften, pop it back in the fridge for a bit.
~ Once rolled or cut to your desired shape, transfer the pastry to your baking sheet before adding in any fillings.
~ If you have any leftovers, don’t knead them back together. Instead, layer leftover pieces on top of each other, then roll slowly but try not to roll out too much.
How to store Puff Pastry?
Store fresh, homemade dough in fridge for up to five days — wrap it tightly in plastic wrap. You may freeze prepared dough or ready-to-bake items, like a turnover, for up to three months.
The method I’m following uses a block of dough and a block of butter (Unipuff) — along with a series of rolls and folds — to create layers upon layers of pastry. When baked, the butter melts and creates steam, which is then encased and trapped between layers of dough, causing them to separate into dozens of flaky layers. And the result is like, melt-in-your-mouth clouds of flaky goodness!!
Essential Tools for Puff Pastry
Store fresh, homemade dough in fridge for up to five days — wrap it tightly in plastic wrap. You may freeze prepared dough or ready-to-bake items, like a turnover, for up to three months.
The method I’m following uses a block of dough and a block of butter (Unipuff) — along with a series of rolls and folds — to create layers upon layers of pastry. When baked, the butter melts and creates steam, which is then encased and trapped between layers of dough, causing them to separate into dozens of flaky layers. And the result is like, melt-in-your-mouth clouds of flaky goodness!!
Making puff is a pretty low-tech process — no fancy gadgets or even a stand mixer required. However, there are two tools you really need and that are tricky to replace: a pastry scraper and a French rolling pin.
- Pastry Scraper
The pastry scraper is used in all the steps: for scraping the flour back into a pile as you make the dough, for nudging the butter into place as you work it, for lifting and moving the pastry as you roll. A pastry scraper also acts as an extension of your hands and fingers, helping you manipulate the dough without warming it up too much with your hands.
- French Rolling Pin
A French rolling pin or a tapered rolling pin is also essential for pounding the butter and making it pliable. So, it is also a very handy and must-have tool.
~ Things to be Considered ~
#1: Making the Lean Dough
First form a trough down the middle of a pile of dough, add a tablespoon of water, then fluff with your fingers. Keep your fingers loose and use a scooping motion. Repeat, adding water just one tablespoon at a time, until the dough forms shaggy clumps and holds together when pressed. The fluffing process is to ensure that the water gets evenly mixed into the flour and that not too much gluten is formed.
#2: Keep the Butter Cold, but Pliable
The butter in puff pastry presents a bit of a challenge: you want it to be cold so it stays solid and doesn’t melt into the dough, but you also need it to be pliable so it can be rolled out without breaking into pieces. Cut the cold butter into pieces and begin pounding it with the end of the rolling pin.
Scrape the flattened butter up with a pastry scraper, fold it over on itself, and continue pounding and scraping until the butter will bend without breaking, but is still quite cold.
Sprinkle the butter with a few teaspoons of flour during this process — some of the liquid in the butter will bead up on the surface as you pound and the flour helps absorb this. Also, rub flour on your rolling pin as needed to prevent it from sticking to the butter.
Watch how to make Puff Pastry at Home
You may also like: Homemade Puff Pastry Recipe Card!
Easy Homemade Puff Pastry Recipe
Equipment
- Equipment you Need:
- Pastry scraper
- Plastic wrap
- French Rolling Pin
Ingredients
For the dough:
- 500 grams All Purpose Flour, more 4 to 5 tablespoons for unipuff
- 250 grams UniPuff, soften (Store-bought or Homemade. I used homemade)
- 1 TSP Salt (Leveled) use less quantity of salt so that you can use the puff pastry in sweet recipes
- 2 TBSP Butter, OR ghee can be used
- Chilled Water, as required for kneading process
Instructions
How to make Puff Pastry
- Take a big bowl, add sifted all-purpose flour (500 gram) with salt and mix well.
- Now add butter and mix with the help of fingertips. (till flour look like crumbs)
- Then gradually pour water in small quantity and knead a normal soft and smooth dough.
- Rest dough for about 2 to 3 hours in the refrigerator.
- Meanwhile, add 3 to 5 table Spoons of all-purpose flour into unipuff (if using home-made unipuff) and mix well. (Recipe of UNIPUFF is below)
- Make a rectangular shape of unipuff again. (but it’s up to you, sometimes I do but sometimes I don’t, depends on the time) Then refrigerate it and let it cool to semi soften.
- Now roll the square dough, make sure the center should be thick but all 4 sides should be thin.
- Place unipuff in the center of the dough (upside to thick place)
- Then cover or fold the unipuff with the edges of rolled puff pastry dough. Cover 1 side then opposite side then rest of sides. Pinch slightly to seal. (Remember, remove all air otherwise air bubbles may arise and will destroy your puff pastry!)
- Then change the dough position (upside down). It means, flip the dough block over, seam side down.
- Now begin pounding the butter block (inner side) slowly with the rolling pin to soften it.
- Now Wrap the puff dough in cling film (or wet muslin cloth) and put in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes. (Recommended in hot seasons, otherwise may be skipped or reduced the rest time period in cold areas, (if you are in hurry). But it would be best if you rest your puff pastry after every fold!)
- First Turn: Dust the worktop lightly with little flour and flip the butter package over so the seams are down. Roll it out to a rectangle roughly 12 inches long by 6 inches wide.
- Fold from both sides in half and half. (like, two-door cupboard), as shown in images.
- Then fold half on the other half folded side. (Must check the tutorial images), wrap into cling and refrigerate it for about 20 to 30 minutes or more. (Depends on the weather temperature).
- Repeat this process 3 more times.
- Second Turn: Rotate the folded dough so that it looks like a book about to be opened. Roll it out again into a rectangle, 12-inches by 6-inches. Fold it again the same as before we did. Rest the dough in the refrigerator after every fold.
- Repeat the same process for Third and Fourth Turn, roll out and fold in the same way.
- After the fourth turn, the dough should feel much more smooth and pliable and should be easy to roll out.
- If you notice any butter popping up through the dough, pat it with a little flour.
- Your puff pastry is ready. Wrap in plastic and chill for a final 60 minutes, or overnight.
- Now you can use right away or you can freeze for upto 3-4 months. whenever you want to use your puff pastry you just need to thaw it only, for half an hour at room temperature then you will be able to make any kind of pies, pinwheels cones, tarts, savory or sweet puffs and much much more!!
- Puff Pastry is Ready!! Now you can use right away or you can freeze for up to 3-4 months.
HOMEMADE UNIPUFF SHORT RECIPE (optional)
- In a big and deep pot add 1 liter of chilled water with some ice cubes.
- Now add 1 kg melted ghee or butter into the chilled water.
- Now use electric beater till butter/ghee changes the color to white and appears in pieces (unipuff)
- Stop beating and collect all the unipuff from the beater paddles and rest the unipuff for about 2 hours into the chilled water.
- Now take out all the unipuff in batches & squeeze with the help of your hands. Make sure all water is drained out completely. (For more perfection use a muslin cloth and hang the cloth to drain out all the water just after squeezing with hands.)
- Now take a square-shaped baking pan. Line with aluminum foil or butter paper. (A bit extra to lift unipuff easily)
- Freeze unipuff till its solid form.
- Lift up the unipuff from the pan and cut (with a warm knife) into 4 portions.
- Each portion of unipuff should between 250 to 300 grams)Voila!! your homemade UNIPUFF is ready!! Use this homemade unipuff in making puff pastry or even in cakes like cake rusk especially. You can freeze this unipuff up to 3-4 months in the freezer if not using right away.
Notes
Recipe Notes (Important Points)
~ Be calm and gentle! Do not use a rolling pin with the pressure. Roll with slow hands. ~ Do not dust too much flour, otherwise, puff pastry will become dry. The good puff pastry should be flaky and crispy but soft inside. After baking you must get perfect light fluffy and flaky result but if you add too much flour to dust you can not achieve good puff pastry after baking. ~ When you are adding unipuff and start to fold, that time, please make sure no air is inside. otherwise, when you roll with the air bubbles, your puff pastry might be broken and will fall apart. (Then it would not be easy to handle! So be very careful at the time of rolling the dough.) ~ Rest is very necessary (at least 20-30 min) after every rolling and folding. ~ If your unipuff is little bit leaking from sides or anywhere else, just add a bit extra flour and fold with slow hands and refrigerate immediately for about 20 to 30 minutes or more. ~ Cover the dough completely from all the sides whenever the dough is resting whether in a fridge or in kitchen, otherwise, dry patches will appear on the dough surface and then will become hard to handle and would be very difficult to manage puff pastry again. (I used cling film wrap to cover pastry dough every time.) ~ Always measure the perfect ratio of ingredients, and the perfect ratio of puff pastry is: ~ The quantity of all-purpose flour should be doubled from the unipuff. ~ Try to make with half the quantity of ingredients first. ~ Fold every time from the folded side. NOT from the backside of folded dough. ~ If you are folding first from horizontal sides then your next fold should be from vertical. (Example, 1st fold is horizontal, 2nd fold is vertical, 3rd fold is horizontal and the last 4th fold is vertical)Did you make this recipe?
Please let me know how it turned out for you! share a picture on Instagram with the hashtag #rockingrecipes or share in your IG stories.