How to Make Puff Pastry at Home

Puff pastry is made with 4 main ingredients: flour, fat (butter or margarine), water, and salt. This type of dough does not contain any form of yeast. The fats are responsible for the “growth” of the layers. The mixture must be compacted and folded several times to obtain a crunchy dough and is perfect to make croissants, pastries, and pies. 5-Minute Crafts is showing you how to make puff pastry dough, step by step. At the end of the article, we also added a few recipes for you to use your puff pastry in.

Ingredients

• 18 ounces of flour
• 1 cup of water
• 1 tablespoon of salt
• 1 egg
• Juice of half a lemon
• ½ cup of melted butter
• 12 ounces of cold butter (a stick)

Instructions

1. Pour a cup of water into a big bowl. Add the salt, egg, and lemon juice.

2. Pour in the melted butter.

3. Use a whisk to beat the eggs and to mix all the ingredients until everything is well combined.

4. On a flat and wide surface, put down the flour, make a hole in the center, and pour the mixture.

5. Using both hands, gently incorporate the liquid mix into the dough you’re making.

6. Knead the resulting dough for about 10 to 15 minutes or until it becomes firm, smooth, and soft.

7. Form a ball with the dough and wrap it in plastic wrap to prevent it from becoming dry. Place it in the refrigerator and let it sit there for about 1 hour.

8. Remove the dough from the refrigerator. Divide the butter stick into 4 blocks. It’s important to make sure that the butter is very cold at all times, during this step and the ones that follow.

9. Sprinkle the work surface with a little flour and roll out the dough. Work it into a rectangular shape and then put the slices of butter right in the center of the dough. Fold the upper and lower part toward the center.

10. Fold it in half from right to left.

11. Use a rolling pin to knead and flatten the dough. Move it from top to bottom several times.

12. Repeat the previous step until the dough is completely stretched and feels smooth.

13. Fold the dough again and keep on kneading it with the rolling pin.

14. Repeat these steps at least 5 times. The more you fold and stretch the dough, the better the result will be. Now you’ve got puff pastry dough.

Puff pastry pie with red fruit

1. Once you’ve kneaded the dough and it feels light enough, you can place it on a buttered and floured mold for pies. Use your fingers to press the puff pastry against the borders and the bottom of the mold.

2. Fill it with red fruit. You can use strawberry or blackberry jam to bring out the flavor of the fresh fruit you’re using.

3. With the remaining puff pastry, you can make shapes and decorate the top of the cake. Once it’s ready, bake for 30 minutes at 350ºF.

Puff pastry bites filled with chocolate

1. Cut the kneaded puff pastry in perpendicular lines, but leave the center of the pastry intact.
2. Fill it with ricotta and chocolate chips.
3. Wrap the center by braiding the folds.
4. Place the bites on a buttered and floured tray. Bake at 390ºF for just 10 minutes.