Puff Pastry from Scratch (with Video) - Sense & Edibility (2024)

Puff Pastry,feuilletageorpâte feuillettéein French, is a light, flaky pastry of a laminated dough made with layers of butter and dough. It is the base for desserts like napoleons, pastries likeQuesitos or fruit turnovers, and savory recipes like beef wellington and cheese straws. In this tutorial, I’ll teach you everything you need to know to achieve success when making your dough.

This article was originally published in October 2019. I’ve updated the recipe to include metric measurements and snazzy new pictures.

What is Puff Pastry?

My most stressful class in culinary school was Classical Pastries. Chef Jan Bandula was the instructor, and he was also a Certified Master Pastry Chef. And he was European. Failure was not an option in any of his courses. But Chef Bandula also wanted us to win. He never made us feel like idiots if our bread didn’t rise or our chocolate didn’t set up. Because of him, I veered off of the culinary course I began culinary school on and navigated straight to the pastry shop. One of the recipes I learned in Chef Bandula’s class, which I still hold dear to my heart, is Puff Pastry.

The two components of puff pastry are thedétrempeand thebeurrage. A mixture of flour, butter, and water make up thedétrempe. Thebeurrageis simply butter mashed together with flour, an acid (lemon juice), and salt. The butter mixture is wrapped inside the dough, and the two become one. You end up with a dough with at least 513 layers of fat and dough. In the end, your pastries have dozens of layers of flaky, crisp, buttery goodness.

Where does Puff Pastry come from?

Puff pastry is a French invention. The classic French preparation of this recipe results in a pastry of 1,500 layers. This obscene amount of flakiness is where the French pastry, napoleons, gets its namemille-feuille,which means “a thousand leaves.”

Why make Puff Pastry from scratch?

Before beginning this recipe, you need to know that it requires time. The preparation and folding are not difficult, nor does this recipe require advanced pastry skills. Most people avoid making puff pastry at home because it requires a couple of hours to make from start to finish. But, most of that time is the required chilling time that the dough must undergo to make the puff pastry properly. If you don’t count the chilling periods, making the puff pastry takes less than an hour.

Making puff pastry from scratch is as easy as making pie dough. Homemade puff pastry also tastes butterier than store-bought dough. You probably have all of the ingredients to make puff pastry in your kitchen. In short, making puff pastry dough from scratch is worth it because it tastes better, you already have everything you need, and just because you can.

What ingredients are in Puff Pastry?

You only need 6 ingredients to make puff pastry. One of those is cold water, so, technically, you only need 5.

Breaking this recipe down into the two parts of thedétrempe and thebeurrage, I start with thebeurrage because it needs to chill as long as thedétrempe and it’s messier. You need unsalted butter, bread flour, lemon juice, and kosher salt to make the butter layer for the puff pastry. The only piece of equipment you need is a mixing bowl. Maybe a knife to cut the butter into small pieces, but that’s it.

Can I use a different fat to make Puff Pastry?

You shouldn’t make puff pastry with any fat other than butter. Plenty of fats are marketed as the “best thing” for puff pastry, but they’re lying. I would never lie to you. Forget the calorie count in this recipe. That’s not what we’re here to do. Puff pastry has a significant calorie count because it’s a butter-layered dough. Butter is the only fat worthy of this decadent pastry. It melts in your mouth, leaves layers as crisp as fallen fall leaves, and tastes sublime.

Classic European puff pastry is made by hand. Use the warmth of your hands to mash the room temperature butter into a smooth paste. Break up the bigger chunks until the butter resembles peanut butter. You can use a hand mixer for this if you have dexterity or other issues with your hands.

Add the bread flour, lemon juice, and salt to the paste in the bowl. Adding the bread flour creates a loose dough that is closer to the consistency of the dough layer than butter alone. Additionally, the lemon juice gives the butter some pliability to make it “stretch” along with thedétrempe.

Use your hands (or an electric mixer) to blend the flour and the rest of the ingredients into the butter. Once you have a smooth paste, you can form it to chill.

What do I need to make theDétrempe?

You need all-purpose flour, bread flour, unsalted butter, kosher salt, and ice cold water for the dough portion of this recipe.

The equipment you need for this stage is a mixing bowl, a sharp knife (or bench scraper), and, eventually, a rolling pin.

Do I have to use two types of flour?

Puff pastry is mixed exactly like pie dough is. The reason you use two types of flour to make puff pastry is to give the dough a balance of proteins. All-purpose is a softer flour, meaning it doesn’t have a high protein content. Bread flour, on the other hand is a hard flour. It has a higher percentage of protein than most other flours. If you were to make puff pastry with only bread flour, you’d fight against it and the end result would be an inferior product in height and texture. All-purpose flour cuts the bread flour to make it more friendly to the folding process it’s about to undergo.

Combine the two flours and the kosher salt on a clean work surface or use your hands to mix them together in a large mixing bowl.

What’s the difference between Puff Pastry and pie dough?

Take the butter and grate, cut, or tear it into 1/4-inch pieces or thin shreds. Use your fingers to cut the butter into the flours until the mixture looks coarse and sandy, like coarse-cut cornmeal. If you have a food processor, you can also use it instead of your hands to do this, but I find it warms the butter too much and makes the détrempegummy.

Gather the mixture into a pile, then use the bottom of a measuring cup to form a well in the center of the pile.

Pour the ice-cold water into the well (or over the flour in the bowl) and use your hand or a bench scraper to fold the flour into the water.

Knead everything togetherjust until the mixture forms a soft dough. Don’t over-mix the dough because you don’t want to develop too much gluten. Producing excess gluten through mixing will cause the finished dough to shrink back while you try to roll out the puff pastry later.

Form the mixture into a rude rectangle shape and wrap it in plastic wrap. Transfer the dough to the refrigerator and let it chill for 10-15 minutes. This gives the gluten in the dough a chance to relax.

You can freeze the dough at this point, but you’ll have to thaw it and bring it to the proper consistency before proceeding.

What is laminated dough?

You haven’t made puff pastry yet. That only happens when you combine thebeurrageand thedétrempe. Puff pastry is a laminated dough. Some other examples of laminated dough are croissants and danishes. A laminated dough is one in which fat and dough are folded over one another to create multiple layers. Some laminated doughs have added leaveners to help the dough rise, but puff pastry relies solely on steam for its height. The water in the layers of butter quickly evaporates in the very hot oven, disappearing and leaving in its place empty pockets. Those pockets between the crisp layers of dough give the puff pastry its flaky texture.

Puff pastry is made with three four-fold turns of dough. Folding in the butter layer does not count as a turn or fold when making puff pastry.

Use aheavy rolling pin to roll the dough out into a large rectangle that around about 20-inches (50 cm) long by 15-inches (38 cm) wide. Measurements don’t have to be exact, but you want to roll it out, so it’s between 1/4 to 1/3-inch thick. Try to make or keep the corners as square as possible. Use an offset spatula to spread the butter mixture over 2/3rds of the dough layer. The butter layer should be spreadable, but not oozing. Make sure to keep the butter in an even layer.

How many times do I have to fold the Puff Pastry?

Fold the unbuttered dough third over the adjacent third. Then, fold the remaining third over the exposed dough. This is much like folding a letter.

Transfer the dough-butter package to a sheetpan and cover it lightly with plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough for 15 minutes to give the gluten in the dough a chance to relax.

After 15 minutes, uncover the dough and roll it into a rectangle about 20-inches (50 cm) long by 15-inches (38 cm) wide. The dough will be about 1/4 to 1/3-inch thick.

Fold the two short ends into the center of the dough so their edges meet in the middle of the rectangle. Next, take one of the short edges and fold it over the other, like you’re closing a book.

This is your first of three 4-folds.

Why is it hard to roll out the Puff Pastry?

After the first turn is completed, return the “book of dough” to the sheetpan and cover it with the plastic film. Chill the dough for 25-30 minutes to give the gluten a chance to relax.

Turn the dough 90 degrees so the length becomes the width, or so the short ends are on the left and right. You’re going to turn your dough this way after every fold to ensure your puff pastry layers are consistent and rolled in every direction.

Roll the dough out lengthwise into a rectangle with the same dimensions as the first rectangle. Keep those corners as square as you can. Don’t press down when rolling. Instead, roll evenly and smoothly. Also, try not to run over and down the edges of the dough. This keeps the layers of dough from sticking together.

This is your second 4-fold turn. Give the dough a chance to rest another 25-30 minutes before repeating these steps once more for a total of three 4-fold turns.

If you find that the dough is too hard to roll out, it’s most likely because it was over-mixed during the making of the détrempe. Giving it more rest time may help, but you might have to leave it overnight to give the gluten a while to rest.

What’s the difference between Puff Pastry and Blitz Puff Pastry?

A quick note on the difference between the two.

Blitz puff pastry differs from puff pastry in that it does not contain a butter layer. Instead, more butter is cut into the flour, and the resulting dough is folded over, rolled out, and folded over again. MyButtermilk Biscuitsrecipe uses this technique.

Once the dough is finished, divide it into 4 pieces of equal (or as close to equal) weights. I usually get 3 1-pound 9-ounce bricks and one that is heavier. You can eyeball it, though. Wrap each piece of puff pastry in a layer of plastic wrap and store them in a covered container or food storage bag for up to 4 days.

What do I use Puff Pastry for?

Puff pastry can be used to make most of your favorite breakfast pastries, like:

• Quesitos
• Pastelillos de Guayaba
• Fruit Galettes
• Appetizers
• Fruit Dumplings

And so many other recipes. You can use one piece of puff pastry for most recipes that call for a package (or box) of store-bought dough.

How thin do I roll the dough?

When rolling out puff pastry dough for your recipes, it’s important to roll it thinly- or about 1/8 to 1/4-inch thick. You’re going to be shocked at how much it rises once it’s baked. The reason why it’s important is that the dough will only rise so high in the hot oven before it starts to burn. The thicker you roll it, the more time it needs to rise.

Also, always bake the puff pastry in a very hot oven, at least 400°F (205°C). A blast of high heat encourages the dough to shoot up as that water in the butter evaporates and leaves those layers I told you about earlier. If you bake it at too low a temperature, you risk less-than-stellar layers.

Why does my Puff Pastry bake up soggy?

High heat is a must for baking puff pastry because it prevents the dough from becoming soggy as it bakes. If you don’t hit it with high heat, the butter melts into the dough instead of leaving that void between the layers.

Check that you’re baking at the proper temp of at least 400°F (205°C). Also, make sure you’re cutting your dough with a very sharp knife to prevent the layers of puff pastry from sticking together while baking. Finally, never bake the dough while it’s warm. If the butter is already soft, it will melt into the dough. It’s better to chill the dough than bake it while it’s warm.

How long can I store Puff Pastry in the fridge?

You can store prepared puff pastry dough in the fridge for four days. Don’t store it any longer than that, or the flour in the dough will start to ferment and turn gray.

Can I freeze Puff Pastry?

The best way to store puff pastry is in the freezer. Wrap your pieces of dough in plastic wrap and put them into a freezer-safe storage bag. Store the puff pastry in the freezer for 6 months. Remember to thaw the dough in the refrigerator and allow it to warm up slightly on the countertop before rolling it out.

You’re going to see that making your own Puff Pastry at home isn’t nearly as hard as you thought. Be sure to pin this recipe to your bread or pastry board, and don’t forget to share it with your friends and family!