Puff Pastry Dough Recipe: A Beginner's Guide

Ingredienti

• 375 g all-purpose flour
• Pinch of Salt
• 225 g cold unsalted butter, cut into about 1cmx2cm pieces
• 240 g cold water
• 1 cup ice (this doesn't have to be exact, just enough to make the water cold)
• 60 g Apple cider vinegar

Preparazione

1. 1

   Place the flour and salt in a bowl. Add the butter, and toss lightly to coat.

2. 2

   Combine the water, ice, and apple cider vinegar in a jug.

3. 3

   Working relatively quickly, squish each piece of butter in between your fingers to flatten it, then place it back in the flour and make sure that it is nicely coated. This gives you nice flat pieces of butter to give you nice layers in the puff pastry. Squish each piece of butter once. Continue until all have been flattened.

4. 4

   Add some of the ice water into the butter and flour mixture - I usually start with 120g. Using your hands, mix in well, but do not knead the dough - you do not want to develop gluten. Continue to add water, a tablespoon at a time and mixing in, until you have a dough that holds together well, but is not too wet. A little flour around the bowl is ok (see images in blog post).

5. 5

   Squeeze the dough together with your fingertips then turn out onto a work surface and shape into a rectangle.

6. 6

   Wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap, then rest in the fridge for one hour.

7. 7

   Remove the rested dough from the fridge, unwrap, and place on a lightly floured surface. Using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll the dough out into a rectangle - you want to aim for a rough rectangle shape, and the dough thickness to be around 1 cm. The shape doesn't have to be exact, you just want to aim for a rectangle shape.

8. 8

   Brush any excess flour off the pastry with a pastry brush, then hold a short end and fold the pastry in half. Fold it in half again, so the dough has been folded in four. Tuck any loose edges in if you would like, the re-wrap in plastic wrap and rest in the fridge for 20 minutes.

9. 9

   Repeat step 8 three more times, for a total of four folds. If the dough seems like it is fighting you or it is starting to stick, then increase the rest time between folds. Sometimes I can sneak fold two and three in back to back without any rest time in between, but just see how you go. I try and make my last fold into a nicely shaped rectangle so that the dough ends up a nice shape in the fridge.

10. 10

    Re-wrap the puff pastry, and rest in the fridge for at least 2 hours and up to two days. It is now ready to use.