Rough Puff Pastry (Easy Foolproof Recipe)

Mixing and preparing pastry dough

1. Take the all-purpose flour and salt. If you want you can sift flour and salt together.
2. Then mix very well. Set aside.
3. Take the cold unsalted butter and chop it in 1 inch cubes. Overall you will need 2 cups of chopped cold butter. Do note the butter has to be cold and hard. It should not be soft.
4. Now add the cold butter cubes to the flour and salt mixture.
5. With a knife or pastry cutter roughly cut the butter in the flour.
6. Some large pieces or cubes of butter should be there. Do not make to a breadcrumb consistency. The butter should not melt. If the butter begins to melt, then cover and place in the refrigerator for 30 mins.
7. Then sprinkle ¼ cup + 1 tablespoon ice cold water all over. The water also has to be cold. So do chill water in the fridge before preparing the pastry.
8. Mix with your hands and gently bring the dough together. Add 1 or 2 tablespoons more water if required to bind the dough or if the mixture looks very dry. Do not knead. You just need to collect and gather the dough. There will be some pieces of butter in the flour and its alright.
9. When you get a rough piece of dough together, then cover and place in the same bowl or another bowl. Refrigerate for 45 minutes to an hour.
10. After 45 minutes, sprinkle some flour on your work surface.

Folding and rolling puff pastry dough

1. Remove the rough dough from the fridge and place it on the sprinkled work surface.
2. Sprinkle some flour on the dough also.
3. Now gently roll the dough in one stroke downward. If any piece of dough comes out, then stick it back to the dough.
4. Make a 20 inches by 8 inches rectangle. Shape the sides to get a rectangle with the rolling pin.
5. Now make two folds. First fold from the top and bring the fold till center.
6. Overlap the second fold on top of the first fold.
7. Now lift the folded dough and place the overlapped folded side facing your left hand side. The dough will be facing lengthwise to you.
8. Again sprinkle some flour and gently roll in one stroke to make a rectangle.
9. Again fold in the same way and keep the folded side facing your left hand side and gently roll.
10. Repeat this folding and rolling 6 times.
11. After the last rolling is over, then fold again in the same way. Then gently roll a bit to even the dough. You will see this last fold is much more smooth than the previous ones.
12. Do note that if the butter begins to melt, then refrigerate the dough for 20 minutes after every fold. Cover the dough and keep in the fridge. In hot and warm temperatures you may need to do this.

Storage and Uses

1. Cover with a foil or cling film and place in the fridge for an hour before you start shaping and making the pastries. You can also keep overnight or for a day. If not using the dough in a day, then keep in the freezer.
2. This recipe make for about 900 grams (about 2 lb) of puff pastry dough. It will suffice to make for 16 to 18 medium-sized turnovers or vegetable puffs.
3. Use puff pastry dough to make your favorite recipes with it like sweet or savory tarts, pies, turnovers, pot pies etc.
4. If you have refrigerated the pastry dough, then remove the pastry and keep at room temperature for 5 to 10 minutes before using it for any recipe.
5. If the dough is frozen, then remove and keep at room temperature for 20 to 30 minutes before using it.
6. If not stuffing or filling the pastry with anything, then you can directly shape and bake without thawing/defrosting if frozen or if you have refrigerated the dough.
7. While making recipe that has a stuffing or filling, sprinkle flour and then very lightly and just a bit, roll the dough. Do note that the filling has to be ready, before you roll and then stuff it in the puff pastry sheets.
8. This is just to make the surface even. Then slice the dough in two or three equal parts.
9. This also depends on the quantity you want to make. Then roll and make puff pastries with your choice of stuffings or fillings.