How to make puff pastry from scratch

Puff pastry is like pizza dough. It’s the base from which you can have several tasty variations made, from pies to sausage rolls and croissants. This here is how I prepare mine. It however needs a lot of patience and determination.  Ice cold water and keeping the dough cold during preparation is crucial because you don’t want the butter in the pastry. If it melts during the preparation, when you finally put your pastry in the oven, it won’t puff up as it should.

Equipment Needed

• Mixing bowl
• Rectangular casserole dish
• Table knife
• Sieve
• Measuring cup

Instructions

1. Get your ingredients together, these include: 470g Plain flour + ½ cup extra
   ½ tsp Red Seal salt
   ½ tsp dry mustard
   500g butter
   325ml ice cold water
   4 tsp fresh lemon juice
2. Sift flour, mustard powder and salt into a bowl. Rub in 50g butter until mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
3. Make a well in the middle, mix the water with lemon juice then add the lemon water bit by bit to the flour. Mix until a sticky dough forms.
4. Sprinkle flour on your working area and knead the dough for about 10 min or until it’s smooth. You may add a bit of flour at a time on your working area if necessary to avoid it sticking to the surface as you knead it.
5. Shape your dough into a ball them cut a cross that’s about 2 cm deep in the centre.
6. Sprinkle some flour into a container then transfer your dough into the container. Cover and refrigerate until required.
7. In the meantime, cube the remaining 450g butter into small cubes. Add the extra ½ cup of plain flour. Mix until well combined.
8. Transfer butter onto a well floured surface, be very generous with the flour. Shape the butter into a rectangle that’s about 5 cm high.
9. Place butter into another floured container/plastic and refrigerate for 20 min.
10. After 20 min, flour your working area again; take the dough from the fridge. Lightly flour your rolling pin and roll the dough starting from the centre going outwards to the edges to form a square. Ensure that you leave a lump in the middle; don’t flatten it completely for the next stage.
11. Remove the butter from the fridge and place it on the lump, in the centre of the dough.
12. Fold the edges of the dough over the butter to form an envelope.
13. Gently tap on the folded dough to “flatten” the butter. Roll out the dough to form a square that’s about 1 cm thick.
14. Fold your dough 3 times. First, take the one end of the dough to the centre. Fold the other end to the centre again. Your dough should now be looking like an open “book”.
15. Fold one of the ends over the other.
16. Lightly dust the dough with flour. Put it in a lightly floured tray and cover the dough with cling wrap.
17. Refrigerate for 20 min.
18. After 20 min, remove dough from fridge and repeat steps 13-16 three more times. Each time fold the opposite ends (the first time you fold it’ll look like a square, the next time it should look like a rectangle).
19. When you roll out the dough the last time, trim the edges all around so you have a straight edged pastry dough. Your puff pastry dough is now ready to use.