Last weekend when I made the Nutella Marshmallow Turnovers, I mentioned that I’d made the puff pastry from scratch rather than use a store-bought version. I also promised to show you exactly how I made the pastry, and today I’m going to deliver on that promise 🙂 All you need are a few simple ingredients, primarily butter and flour, and a bit of time and patience to transform the ingredients into something special.
This was actually my second time making my own puff pastry. Last year I tried the recipe from The Art & Soul of Baking, and had very good results. I wanted to attempt a different recipe this time though and after searching my cookbooks, came upon this “quick” version from Baking Illustrated. Both recipes produced delicious pastry that was light and flaky so I can’t necessarily recommend one over the other based on that criteria. You’ll just have to try them both and see what you think!
Let me warn you upfront that this post is loaded with photos – there are pictures for just about every step in the recipe (even a few that probably didn’t necessitate one). In some instances I’ve included a collage rather than large individual photos, but the full-size photos can be found in my Flickr stream if you are interested.
Once you’ve made your puff pastry, the possibilities are endless. It can be utilized in sweet and savory recipes alike. Here are a few ideas:
Caramelized Onion & Gruyere Tart
Caramel Apple Turnovers
Individual Chicken Potpies (from Teenie Cakes)
Nutella Palmiers (from Handle the Heat)
Homemade “Quick” Puff Pastry
from Baking Illustrated
3 cups (15 oz) all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon ice water
2 teaspoons lemon juice
Add the flour, sugar and salt to the bowl of a large food processor and pulse a few times to combine. Add about one quarter of the the butter cubes and process until the pieces of butter are dime-sized, about four 1-second pulses. Add the rest of the butter to the bowl of the food processor and process just to coat the butter cubes with flour, about two 1-second pulses. (shown left to right & top to bottom below)
Transfer the mixture to a large bowl. Combine the ice water and lemon juice in a small bowl (I reused the bowl I had the butter in). Add about half of the liquid to the dough mixture and toss just until combined. Continue to add the liquid, a little at a time, until the dough will clump together in your hand if squeezed. My kitchen is really dry in the winter so I used all of the liquid called for by the recipe as well as about an additional tablespoon beyond that.
Turn the dough onto a work surface – it will be dry and shaggy, so don’t be worried. Mine still had some very large pieces of butter as well.
Now, you want to fraisage the dough. It might sound complicated but it just means that you take a small portion of the dough and, using the heel of your hand, push and drag the dough forward using a short, brisk motion. (I was home alone when I made this recipe so photos of this action were pretty much impossible, but I’m embedding a video to demonstrate the technique instead.)
After turning my dough out onto a piece of parchment, I took a little at a time to fraisage using the technique shown above. After I performed the fraisage on that portion, I found it easiest to use my bench scraper to lift the dough from my work surface. I transferred it to the end of the board I was working on, and grabbed the next section of dough from my parchment paper. You want to repeat this process with all of the dough. When you’ve finished, gather the dough into a ball. Repeat the fraisage process a second time.Â
After you fraisage a second time, shape your dough into a rectangle measuring roughly 8×4 inches. Wrap it in plastic and refrigerate for an hour. (My dough was definitely still rough at this point.)
Place the dough on a lightly floured work surface and roll it into a 15×10-inch rectangle.
Fold the dough lengthwise into thirds, like a letter.
Turn the dough so a narrow end is facing you. Loosely roll up the dough starting from that narrow end and moving all the way down the length of the dough.
Press the dough into a rectangle measuring 6×5-inches. (It’s finally starting to come together and look a little less ragged and rough.)
Repeat the process of rolling the dough into a 10×15-rectangle, folding it into thirds, rolling it up starting at a narrow end and forming into a 6×5-inch rectangle. If at any time the dough becomes too sticky or soft to work with, you can cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate briefly. (I’m including photos again only so you can see the change in consistency of the dough. I was starting to lose all light at this point so apologies for the quality of the pics.)
When you’ve finished the process of rolling and folding for a second time, you’ve successfully made puff pastry! You do want to wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate for at least an hour before using it. You can keep the dough in the fridge for 2 days or, pop it in the freezer for up to a month. I cut mine in half and put half in the fridge to use the next day and half in the freezer. The cool thing about cutting the dough in half was that I could see all of the layers that had been created.
I hope you’ll give it a try, I think you’ll be surprised by how easy it is if you just take it one step at a time. And I know you’ll agree the results are worth the effort!
Please do more tutorials…I really feel like I need the step by step instructions and never understood what “fold like a letter” meant until I saw your picture!
I am so impressed! So much work!
I’ve always been extremely curious on what it takes to whip up a batch of homemade puff pastry. It’s rather expensive in grocery stores here, so I may have to give this a try one afternoon!! 🙂 Thanks for the great tutorial!
You’re amazing! I would be way too scared to try this but you make it look easy and do a great job. Kudos!
Very helpful! Thanks for posting!
This is wonderful. I love making things with puffed pastry but always buy it — and the kind I get is expensive! I’d love to try making it myself. Great job with this.
I have both these recipes on my want to try list…thanks for sharing your results!
Wonderful step-by-step tutorial! I enjoy making puff pastry and your tutorial explains it so well.
Good job!
I have been dying to make homemade puff pastry for a while now, thanks for the tutorial! I now feel like I can do this 🙂
So cool! I would never think to attempt puff pastry on my own…but it seems similar to Nick Malgieri’s easy Danish pastry technique. So maybe on my next snow day I’ll watch your tutorial for inspiration!
You rock it! This is a great tutorial! – mary
Wow. Someday I’ll be brave enough to try this on my own. Definitely saving this post for that day — will need much guidance, I’m sure!
Cheers,
*Heather*
Patience is a virtue that you certainly have! Step by step instructions are wonderful and photos do help a lot. Thank you for sharing 🙂
Great process photos! I like this puff pastry method more than the butter block method because I always have trouble pounding out and shaping the butter. My favorite part of making puff pastry is the folding/rolling part, so I must try out this method. Thanks!
I’ve seen recipes for “quick” puff pastry and wondered how they would turn out. It sounds like you had great results! I like that there’s not so much rolling and turning, and you don’t have to worry about the layer of butter coming out through the dough.
Thanks for this tutorial which I found clear and instructive. Now, the question is, whether I will make it. You certainly are tempting to me to do it. Thanks again.
Great post, Tracey! I’ve made the Art & Soul recipe a couple times, but haven’t tried this one. I’ll definitely keep it in mind for next time I make puff pastry.
Hi Tracey: Thx for the mention, very much appreciated. 🙂
On another note, I luv this post. I’ve been wanting to try my hand at making my own puff pastry…because it’s way too expensive to purchase in the store and I’d like to have some always readily available for dishes & baking projects. Great tutorial. Thank you for sharing this!
Ok you are the new queen of tutorials. This is awesome and now I’m craving some homemade puff pastry in my life.
I can’t believe you made your own puff pastry! In the off chance that I ever attempt this, I will certainly be referring back to this post!
i really have to try this!! i’ve been meaning to try the other easy puff pastry that you posted. great pics!
Wow! Seriously impressive stuff here. Look at all of those layers in there! I’ve never done this, but I would love to try. It would have to be on one of those rare days when I have the house and the kitchen to myself. Fantastic!
Your puff pastry looks fabulous! I love that you can see all of the layers in your photos. 🙂
Awesome tutorial! Puff pastry sure is an awesome thing to conquer.
I have one question though, puff pastry without the butter block? Is it avoidable, are the results the same? I’ve never tried making, and please don’t think I’m undermining your effort, I just want to know if this will give similar puff pastry results!
I wanted to make the Marshmallow Nutella pockets, but puff pastry is so expensive! I will definitely be trying this recipe. I’m curious though, you end up with a block of the puff pastry. Then to make the pockets, it says to start with a square of puff pastry. Are you supposed to roll out the block of puff pastry to get the flat square? Thanks!
@Melissa – I know what you mean – puff pastry is expensive, especially if you are looking for an all-butter version!
Yes, you’re exactly right. Start with the block, and roll the dough into a rectangle that is about 1/8-inch thick. From that large rectangle you can cut the smaller squares of dough that will be used to make the individual turnovers. This recipe makes enough dough for 12 turnovers, so keep that in mind. If you want fewer turnovers just divide the dough accordingly. I divided the dough in half, making 6 turnovers, and sticking the remaining dough in my freezer for another time.
Also, I made puff pastry last year using a slightly different recipe. That one doesn’t yield such a thick block, so you may find it easier to roll. The recipe is here: http://traceysculinaryadventures.blogspot.com/2010/04/homemade-puff-pastry.html
Hope this helps, let me know if you have other questions 🙂
@Avanika – No worries, I totally know where you’re coming from. I had the same concerns too, but this puff pastry is definitely flaky, even without the block of butter. In the preface to the recipe, the folks at Cook’s Illustrated acknowledge that the block of butter is the typical way to approach puff pastry, but that they were trying to avoid that route, as it tends to be quite time consuming with the various turns and chilling periods. Fraisaging the dough and the unique folding/rolling method employed were the alternative they decided on to achieve similar results to using the block of butter.
Wow, this is really impressive. Looks like a lot of work.
I made this on Valentines Day – was so surprised not only by how easy it was but also by how quickly it was to finish. The longest part was waiting the hour it was in the fridge. I am singing your praises to my sister who is like – “it seems like a lot of work”.
Its not and its so worth the time it does take. Thanks so much, recipe is a keeper!
Oh and for the people who said it was a lot of work – its really not. The fraisaging which looks like it would take forever goes by super quick, especially the second pass.
Is it more work than opening a frozen package of pastry – sure, but you cant beat these results
@Adrienne – Thanks for coming back to comment, I’m so glad it turned out well for you 🙂
Thank you so much for such a detail step-by-step guide! *bookmarked* 🙂
I really want to do this but I don’t have a food processor, is there any other way I could still make this? I dunno if a blender would work the same.
@Melissa – I definitely wouldn’t use a blender, I don’t think it would work. You could try your stand mixer (if you have one) – I haven’t tried it myself but that might be ok. Alternatively, I posted another recipe for homemade puff pastry that utilizes a stand mixer so that one might be better for you: http://traceysculinaryadventures.blogspot.com/2010/04/homemade-puff-pastry.html
Good luck!