Homemade Puff Pastry
Homemade puff pastry is not as hard to make as you might think and is so incredibly good. Use it for everything you’d use store bought for.
Did you know that you could make your own puff pastry? And that it’s not that hard? Did you know that it only has five ingredients? Well, it’s all true.
I learned how to make puff pastry a few years ago, when I took an awesome cooking class. I was amazed at how easy it was to make. If you make your own pie crust, you would find it extremely easy.
There are a couple of things you should know before you get started. First of all, make sure that all of your ingredients are REALLY cold.
You need to put the flour and butter in the freezer for an hour and the water needs to be ice cold. In addition to that, be careful not to overwork the dough and be careful not to use too much water.
Lastly, this freezes beautifully, so you can make a couple of these at once and freeze some for later!
Ingredients Needed to Make Homemade Puff Pastry
Full instructions are found below in the printable recipe card
- All-purpose flour
- Cake flour
- Unsalted butter
- Salt
- Ice water
How to Make Puff Pastry
- Mix the flours together with the salt and freeze for 1 hour.
- Cut the butter up into 1/2 cubes and freeze for 1 hour.
- Put cold flour and butter into a large mixing bowl.
- With a pastry blender, cut the butter into the flour until you have 1/4 in pieces of butter.
- Add enough cold water to the flour mixture until the mixture almost holds together (I needed to use a little more water than that, probably 2 tbsp more).
- Turn dough out onto a lightly floured board and press together to form a rectangle. There should be large chunks of butter showing.
- Roll the dough into a rectangle that is about 5×7 inches.
- Fold the narrow end inward to meet in the center and then fold the dough again so that there are four layers.
- Turn dough 1/4 turn and repeat the process.
- Repeat the process two more times for a total of four turns. After the last turn, fold the dough accordion style.
- Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill for at least 45 minutes.
- Use as you normally would use puff pastry.
What to Make with Homemade Puff Pastry
- Easy Puff Pastry Apple Tarts
- Cheddar Puff Pastry Bratwurst Bites
- Pumpkin Puff Pastry Pull Apart Bread
- Herbes de Provence Pot Pie
- Puff Pastry Pizza
Homemade Puff Pastry
Homemade puff pastry is not as hard to make as you might think and is so incredibly good.
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup cake flour
- 1 1/2 stick of unsalted butter
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup ice water
Instructions
- Mix the flours together with the salt and freeze for 1 hour.
- Cut the butter up into 1/2 cubes and freeze for 1 hour.
- Put cold flour and butter into a large mixing bowl.
- With a pastry blender, cut the butter into the flour until you have 1/4 in pieces of butter.
- Add enough cold water to the flour mixture until the mixture almost holds together (I needed to use a little more water than the 1/4 cup, probably 2 tbsp more).
- Turn dough out onto a lightly floured board and press together to form a rectangle. There should be large chunks of butter showing.
- Roll the dough into a rectangle that is about 5×7 inches.
- Fold the narrow end inward to meet in the center and then fold the dough again so that there are four layers.
- Turn dough 1/4 turn and repeat the process.
- Repeat the process two more times for a total of four turns. After the last turn, fold the dough accordion style.
- Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill for at least 45 minutes. Then use as you normally would use puff pastry.
Notes
- It's very important for the ingredients to be very cold when you start. This will insure that the puff pastry has a flaky texture.
- This can be frozen up to 1 month. Wrapped tightly in plastic wrap before freezing
That does seem easy, thanks for the tip Lisa!
beautiful job, Lisa!
xoxo,
~Melissa
I've always wondered if I could make it from scratch. Thank you so much for the tutorial! I might just get brave enough to try it.
Thank you so much for linking up at Foodie Friday. I am pinning this post on my Pinterest boards.
Thanks so much Lisa! I tried making this last weekend and it turned out perfect! I made nutella cheese danishes with the dough. SO good! I’ll post photos on my site this weekend. 😀
Here’s the photo: http://shellyallenart.com/food_062113_nutella_cheese_danishes.htm
Thanks again!
I used this recipe for the crust on a homemade chicken pot pie. I doubled it for the amount of pot pie I was making. It was so easy to make and the pictures helped ensure I was doing things correctly. It turned out great….it was a huge hit at my house. Never again will I buy pastry crust from the store. You could also make this ahead of time, just make sure it’s wrapped we’ll!
I’m glad to hear you had success with the puff pastry, Stacy. I think it’s a lot of fun to make and it tastes so good! As far as making this ahead of time, I have found that it freezes well. I bet your chicken pot pie was delicious! 🙂
This is something that I have been wanting to learn.
Could I substitute whole wheat pastry flour for the AP flour?
Thanks
I’ve only tried this with AP flour, so I’m not sure how it would turn out with whole wheat flour. But I have a feeling it wouldn’t turn out as well. I suspect it would turn out too dense and wouldn’t puff up like it’s supposed to.