Homemade puff pastry sheets are made plain flour and butter to create a beautiful laminated dough. The dough is enriched with butter and laminated with butter to create the flaky layers. In this blog post, I have shared two ways of making puff pastry sheets at home using butter and shortening. Though I prefer the shortening for making veg puffs and chicken puffs, all butter puff pastry can be used in making sweet pastry. Learn how to make puff pastry with stepwise pictures and video.
Puff Pastry
For some of you finding puff pastry sheets in your grocery store is easy. Not me, I have no luck in getting them and my super market doesn’t stock them too.
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I was too scared to make my very own puff pastry sheets. Because I thought it is so hard to make. So kind of stayed away from them. But many of my viewers requested the recipe. So I got the confidence to give this a try. It was a huge success and I used it to make veg puffs, egg puffs and chicken puffs.
About Puff Pastry (Homemade)
I love making puffs, but the only thing puts me off is making the pastry from scratch since it will take lots of effort to make the sheets rather than the puffs. In my place i couldn’t get puff pastry in my shops. So if I have to make anything using that I have to make it from scratch.
Few days back I wanted to try chicken and leek pie. So I decided to try out my own pastry. It is such a fail-proof easy recipe to make. It takes less than 30 mins to make from scratch.
I have shared two ways of making puff pastry in this recipe. Puff pastry with butter using a traditional lamination process which is so easy to follow if you try my method. Also a simple puff pastry dough made with shortening which is my favorite.
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Watch Puff Pastry Recipe Video
Puff Pastry Ingredients
Plain Flour – You need to use good quality plain flour also known as All purpose flour for making the dough.
Shortening or Butter – You should use high quality butter or shortening. Make sure the butter is cold before using. make sure you use unsalted butter for making puff pastry.
Salt – I like to use unsalted butter for making puff pastry. So I can control the salt level in the pastry dough.
Sugar – this is optional but I like to use powdered sugar to help with the caramelisation.
Cold Water – use cold water for making the dough.
Bakery Style Puff Pastry Tips & Tricks
Always Keep Cold – Make sure you keep the butter and the dough cold, which makes the pastry flaky.
Using Shortening – In my personal opinion, shortening makes flaky pastry just like bakery style. Use vegetable shortening for easy and flaky puff pastry.
Storage – Puff pastry dough can be stored in fridge for at least 3 to 4 days wrapped in plastic wrap.
Puff Pastry Baking Temperature – Once the puff pastry is made. Roll it into rectangle. Cut it into squares. Fill with your favorite filling, fold it and brush with an egg wash. Now Bake at 220 degree C for 20 to 25 mins.
How to Make Puff Pastry Using Butter
Making Dough
1)Take soft butter in a large mixing bowl. Make sure the butter is unsalted so you can control the salt level in your sheets.
2)add in salt to the butter and cream together till it is combined.
3)Add in plain flour into the creamed butter mixture. I am using all purpose flour.
4)Mix the butter into the flour to get the short crust texture. Use your spoon to crumble the mix into the butter.
5)Now pour in some cold water into the flour. Make sure the water is ice cold.
6)Mix the flour together to form a soft dough. Cover the dough with a plastic wrap or a kitchen towel for 15 minute to rest.
Shortening
7)I am using vegetable shortening. You can easily find this in super markets. It is not dalda | vanaspati. I usually buy this from Amazon.
Layering Shortening
8)Place the dough on a sheet of silicon sheet or silipat.
9)Roll the dough into a sheet. You can sprinkle some flour on the dough and roll it.
9)Now take vegetable shortening and spread it as a thick even layer over the sheet. Spread the shortening smooth and even.
Laminating Dough
10)Fold the rolled sheet like this from both sides.
11)Now fold like this.
11)Now we are going to laminate the dough. Every time, you have to turn the dough vertical to you, sprinkle with flour and roll into sheet like. Then you have to fold the dough and repeat.
12)Now I have rolled the dough into a rectangle like.
13)Fold it as shown above. Repeat this for at least 4 times. Doing this multiple times will create the layers and also strengthens the dough.
14)Now for the final rolling. Roll the dough into a sheet like. Trim off the sides to create a clean edge which helps with the puffing up during baking.
15)Cut the sheet into equal size portions or squares.
Puff Pastry Using Butter
This recipe for puff pastry is made using butter. You should use high quality butter or shortening. Make sure the butter is cold before using. make sure you use unsalted butter for making puff pastry.
Shortcrust Flour
1)Take plain flour in a bowl. This is all purpose flour.
2)Add in salt and sugar. The sugar I am using is powdered. you can skip sugar if you want.
3)Add in cubed cold butter into the flour mixture.
4)Rub the butter into the flour so it resembles crumbly like texture. This process is called shortening of the flour and butter.
5)This is the texture you are looking for.
Making Dough
6)Pour in cold water into the flour and knead to form a soft dough.
7)This is the dough you are looking for. The dough has to be soft and smooth.
8)Cover the dough with a plastic wrap. This ensures the dough doesn’t dry up.
9)Place the dough in fridge and let it rest for at least 30 minutes.
Laminating Dough with butter
10)Once the dough is rested enough. We are going to laminate the dough. The dough has to be cold and the butter block has to be cold.
11)Place the cold butter block between sheets of plastic wrap.
12)Bash the butter using a rolling pin to make it flat and thin.
13)Like this.
14)Now take the cold dough and roll it into a rectangle. You can sprinkle some flour to help with the rolling.
15)Place the butter block in the centre of the rolled dough.
16)Fold the dough from all the sides.
17)Like this to make a parcel.
18)Cover the dough with plastic wrap and place the dough in fridge to rest for 30 minutes. This helps to firm up the dough and butter.
Creating First Set of Layers
19)Now to create the first set of layers. Take the dough between sheets of plastic wrap.
20)Roll it into a rectangle as even as possible.
21)Fold it from one side.
22)Now fold from other side as well.
23)Now flip the dough like this.
24)Cover with plastic wrap and roll it. If you don’t cover with plastic wrap, you might need to sprinkle with more flour.
25)Roll it as even as possible.
26)Now fold from one side.
27)and the other side.
28)Wrap it with plastic wrap and place it in fridge.
Repeating Layers
29)Continue the above step for 3 more times. This way you will get lots of flaky layers
The below picture is how the dough looks after a 4 times of doing the steps above. In total you are folding it for 8 times, because each time you are doing it for 2 times. This creates hundreds of layers in your puff pastry.
30)Roll the dough into a rectangle.
31)Trim off the ends using a sharp knife to expose the layers.
32)Cut the dough into squares and use.
33)You can use this puff pastry sheet to make any of your favorite recipes.
Expert Tips
- The first thing you should remember is always keep the dough cold while making the entire process. If you feel like the dough and butter is getting warm, put that in fridge till it gets firm and cold.
- Make sure the puff sheet is cold before putting it in the oven. This will make it rise better and make it flaky.
- Ensure you do the folding and rolling at least 4 to 5 times to create the layers and flaky texture.
- Use good quality butter and shortening for making puff pastry.
Storage
Puff pastry dough can be stored in fridge for at least 3 to 4 days wrapped in plastic wrap.
Puff Pastry Baking Temperature
Once the puff pastry is made. Roll it into rectangle. Cut it into squares. Fill with your favorite filling, fold it and brush with an egg wash. Now Bake at 220 degree C for 20 to 25 mins.
More Homemade Pastry & Dough
📖 Recipe Card
Puff Pastry | Puff Pastry Sheets | Puff Pastry Recipe (THREE WAYS)
Puff pastry is a laminated dough with layers of butter which puffs and crisps up as it bakes. Here I have shared three version of puff pastry recipe.
Servings: 12 servings
Ingredients
Puff Pastry with Shortening
Instructions
Puff Pastry with Shortening
Video
Notes
- The first thing you should remember is always keep the dough cold while making the entire process. If you feel like the dough and butter is getting warm, put that in fridge till it gets firm and cold.
- Make sure the puff sheet is cold before putting it in the oven. This will make it rise better and make it flaky.
- Ensure you do the folding and rolling at least 4 to 5 times to create the layers and flaky texture.
- Use good quality butter and shortening for making puff pastry.
Storage
Puff pastry dough can be stored in fridge for at least 3 to 4 days wrapped in plastic wrap.
Puff Pastry Baking Temperature
Once the puff pastry is made. Roll it into rectangle. Cut it into squares. Fill with your favorite filling, fold it and brush with an egg wash. Now Bake at 220 degree C for 20 to 25 mins.
If you have any questions not covered in this post and if you need help, leave me a comment or mail me @[email protected] and I’ll help as soon as I can.
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