If you've ever wanted to make authentic puff pastry from scratch, this is the recipe. Puff pastry puffs into thin delicate layers as it bakes, making it perfect for breakfast pastries, beef wellington and tempting appetizers.
This is a great recipe for puff pastry. I agree that the butter can be cut by 6 tablespoons per 2 cups of flour. Also, putting the dough in the freezer for 10-15mins. between turns made the process quicker and easier, esp. if you are cooking in the kitchen which adds for additional heat. Another tip is to put the rolling pin and cutting board in the freezer between turns. Finally I worked the dough on parchment paper so I could just wrap it in the paper and place it in the freezer. This cut the entire process down to about an hour with amazing results.
Read Moremine turned out tough... It was also hard to keep the butter inside...
Read MoreThis is a great recipe for puff pastry. I agree that the butter can be cut by 6 tablespoons per 2 cups of flour. Also, putting the dough in the freezer for 10-15mins. between turns made the process quicker and easier, esp. if you are cooking in the kitchen which adds for additional heat. Another tip is to put the rolling pin and cutting board in the freezer between turns. Finally I worked the dough on parchment paper so I could just wrap it in the paper and place it in the freezer. This cut the entire process down to about an hour with amazing results.
Great recipe, but you must follow it exactly to get the desired result. Because you have to refrigerate the dough between turns, the recipe takes time and you must allow for that. If you decide that the recipe is too time consuming, try a butter-based pie crust recipe. Avoid the vast majority of frozen and refrigerated puff pastry because they are usually made with cheap hydrogenated fats instead of butter, and this makes a HUGE difference in taste and texture, which is what puff pastry is all about.
This was the closest that I could find to my old recipe. Keeping the butter ice cold is extremely important. The butter melting while baking is what puffs it up. My hands are always hot so I only do a turn at a time, then place in the freezer for 10 minutes. I also keep a frozen bag of peas that we use for an ice pack on the table between turns to keep it cold as well. Great recipe.
revision (2/22/10): one tip that i've discovered is to make the butter disc pretty thin (1/2") so that when you wrap it with the dough, it's easier to roll out. refridgerating helps a lot with the butter breaking through... i used a pie edge cutter to trim the edges, and it made the end result even prettier. Original (1/10/10): i've made this recipe twice now,and both times it has been very easy to follow with great results. there are a few reviewers who have said that it needs to be followed exactly -- well, i have to disagree, because i've been lucky to have it look amazing without having the success of rolling out the dough expertly. the butter kept breaking through the flour mixture, and i forgot to refridgerate it, but it's puffed up like a star! clearly beginner pastry chefs should start here :)
I made this recipe 2 weeks ago for use in a recipe that called for puff pastry. It came out AWESOME, seriously, INCREDIBLE! I totally looked like a gourmet pastry chef and everyone asked for the recipe! I had found my new "signature" recipe. Since then, I have attempted to make it again, and not once has it come out as well. I'm giving the recipe 5 stars because I know it is great when it works, and that it is "operator error" on my other attempts.
I tried this yesterday, the hardest part I found was the rolling out, if you have bad arthritis in hands or wrist stay away from this recipe and go to your local store. The recipe does not indicate how many "sheets" it makes. So by doing some investigative work it should produce 6ish sheets. So I cut my big chunk of pastry into smaller peices and froze them. I did use small amt for testing, it is ok, but think I really prefer the store packages, it saves me alot of work and pain! I did as exactly as recipe said and changed nothing. As I was a bit skeptical about this I did a youtube search to make sure I did the turns and rolls properly. I don't mind hard work on recipes or even things that are a bit time consuming, but personally with my RA I think it is easier on me to buy it.
It is a good recipe, I made some kind of "hot pocket" things with the dough, and they have served me well for lunch food so far. Will make again but I might try to add some herbs to the dough, just to flavor it up a bit more.
This was much more authentic than the other puff pastry recipe that called for sour cream. However, I thought it used too much butter. 1 1/2 might be plenty. I used this in the puff pastry salmon recipe and blackcurrent pastry tart recipe on this site and they were great. Gave a really gourmet presentation too.
A lot of work, but altogether simpler than I expected. I followed the suggestions of others and used the freeezer instead of the fridge for the cooling part of the process but otherwise stuck to the recipe. Maybe I screwed up some of my first "turns" because when it baked up it only puffed a little even though I had turned it about 8 times or so. I think I may have forgotten the "turning" part and just done a bunch of folding at first, or something silly like rolling the wrong direction in relation to the folds... Oh well! The presentation was professional looking and the texture and flavor were also spot-on for my expectations of deliciousness. An awesome recipe, my go-to for anything involving puff pastry!
Was really easy to made and the result was great, I filled some "pockets" with ragú (bolognese sauce) and Bechamel sauce and were amazing, next time I'll try it with salmon and bechamel. Can't belive how puffy it was!
Fantastic! Better than store-bought and definately worth the work! Thanks for posting!
Fabulous result, with delicate puffy layers of pastry that complimented the recipe I was making perfectly!- even though it seemed daunting, after watching a you tube video for some tips (how to fold and turn, how to brush the flour off each layer with a pastry brush etc.) I did 5 or so fold and turns, my first few folds were all wrong, but it didn't seem to effect the end result which was light, flaky and delicious. I didn't change the quantities the first time and I was happy with the outcome, but I am making my second batch a week later and I have reduced the butter to 1.5 cups to see whether it works as well (for health reasons, not because I thought the full amount was too dense or buttery!). I will let you know how the reduced butter turns out. For Australia day (living in the U.S.)I wanted to make sausage rolls (ground pork and spices rolled in puff pastry and sprinkled with sesame seeds). The puff pastry available at walmart was so small and expensive I thought I would give this recipe a go. SO glad I did, the pastry was far better than the store bought, it was light and flaky and buttery. My husband enjoyed them so much he has requested I make them on a regular basis. It made approx 25 sausage rolls, using 2lbs of ground pork with a little left over pastry.
This was a great recipe for someone with no pastry making experience. It was so much easier than I thought it would be! I used the pastry to make cream cheese crowns, and they turned out beautifully. Thanks for the recipe.
I tried thie recipe 3 times and they never puffed and were greasy rocks coming out of the oven!! I have no clue what I did wrong as I followed the instructions to a Tee...They seemed to work for everybody else. I did find another recipe that called for butter and they came out light and fluffy. The recipes were almost identical, but this one was with shortening, and the other was with butter, the others only cooked for 22 minutes and were done...But it was fun experimenting and that is why I only gave it two stars. I am not blaming the recipe, just saying it did not work for me...Lucky you, for those it did work for.
This recipe worked great for me. At first I didn't know if it would turn out because I can be a very impatient baker, and all the waiting in between rolling the dough seemed like it would be a little annoying. To cut down on time, I made the initial butter disc with chilled butter instead of soft butter and placed the dough in the freezer for 15 minutes in between rolling, so it took less time to make than the recipe says but still turned out very flaky and wonderful. I made some crescent rolls by mixing soft cream cheese and a little vanilla and powdered sugar together and spreading it on the dough before rolling the pieces into crescents. they made a great morning treat.
This turned out great! I have never made any kind of pastry and I was sure this puff pastry would turn out wrong, but it was perfect! Have to agree with a few other reviewers though- less butter!
Excellent puff pastry recipe. It tourned out brilliantly all who ate my sausage rolls were well impressed! Making them again today! Perhaps less butter.
Really good recipe but it came out VERY crispy, is it supposed to be that way. I thought it might be used for croissants but it can't. Did I do sth wrong or is it supposed to be that way and that flaky. It's almost like Filo/Phyllo pastry
I loved this. I used it for making toaster strudels. I used 3 and a half sticks of butter rather than 4 and it was plenty butter. I think next time I will try just 3 sticks.
It didn't turn out for me at all! I followed the recipe and the suggestions but turned out flat and a little tough.
I was intimidated to try this, and doubted my ability to pull it off, so I halved the recipe. I wanted to be sure I was understanding the rolling and turning process correctly, so I watched a video on You Tube. In that video, the lady added 6 tablespoons of butter to the dough itself, and therefore used less to make the disk with. She also suggested allowing the dough to rest overnight in the fridge. I followed that, but followed the rest of this recipe as written. My kitchen was warm, so I was only able to do one turn at a time, putting the dough back in the fridge for a half hour between each turn. In the video I also learned to use a pastry brush to brush off the excess flour as you are folding it. I am not sure of the importance of this step, but thought I would pass on the tip. To my utter amazement I had absolutely no problems with this recipe at all- the dough rolled beautifully, and the butter rolled right along with it, without breaking through. It is time consuming to be sure, but I did not find it difficult. I used half of it right away to make the Praline-Pumpkin Mousse Cornucopias from this site. I put it in the oven, and waited with bated breath. My heart nearly skipped a beat when I saw that my pastry did in fact puff! Total, rockin' success! Buttery, flaky, delicate perfection! Thank you "your mom" for the recipe- I love it :)
Great recipe! I agree with some of the others that you could take out a few tablespoons of butter. I felt like the extra butter made the dough get soft pretty quickly when I worked with it, so I put it back in the refrigerator when I thought it was getting to hard to work with. Overall though, it was a great recipe and came together beautifully in my KitchenAid mixer. I'll definitely be using this one again!
I performed all the turns, rolled out the dough then filled it & used a baking stone...once I put it in the oven the butter melted then began to burn and set off the smoke detectors...any ideas what I did or didn't do?! Did I just not get the butter incorporated sufficiently?? HA! Thank goodness my husband was here to help with the clean up!! I have now put my supper in a 9 x 13 glass pan - we'll see how it turns out...to be continued! : - ) Gave 3 stars because I don't know how I'll like it but can see the lovely, flaky pastry beginning to take shape!
I’ve made this recipe twice and have received rave reviews both times. The first time I used a mixer to prepare the flour salt and water but the second time I did it by hand per a French friend’s recommendation. She was right—a mixer works the dough too much so the pastry is a little tough. This basic pastry was delicious in both savory and sweet pastry recipes. Definitely a keeper!
I’m in the process of making now. So far so good but I don’t see a baking time. I see 400’ but no time. I’m going to just go with my gut but would be helpful to have a guideline there. I will update once finished!
Recipes like this require patience & being able to follow directions! The first time plenty of time & focus will help accomplish the Puff Pastry goal! I made Mexican Orejitas which is a cookie that is made during winter holidays.
I did follow the directions to the T but I agree there might be too much butter in this. I had trouble with it breaking thru and when baking one batch, it did lose butter. Having never worked with puff pastry or made it that might be my problem but this is one time when the store bought was better. Normally, I check many recipes when unfamiliar but I had a stellar appetizer at an open house that I wanted to recreate. Mine will be ok but I was really hoping for stellar. Will try making the pastry again after more research.
This is amazing, I was able to freeze and use a little at a time, puffed up nice and beautiful. I made some with apple filling, choc. chips and cream cheese with raspberries, will keep making. Thank you so much for sharing
I tried this recipe for the first time today and my family loved it!!! It was so flaky, just the way it should be. I did use extra butter, but I think it would be fine just the way the recipe is written. Thank you!!
Followed the recipe word for word...awesome! I will never buy frozen puff pastry again. Yes it takes time, but most of that time is chilling the dough in between turns. Which is fine...i had other things to do during the wait times. The rolling and turning is pretty easy...the dough holds together well. I made cream cheese and raspberry filled pastry flowers...perfect! It puffed up beautifully, and was light and crispy, not tough at all. And oooh that buttery flavor! Store bought pastry dough doesn't have that.
The first batch didn't puff up as much as i would have liked. I left the 2nd batch in the fridge for 2 days and it was perfect. I will definitely use this recipe again!
This recipe for puff pastry was amazing! Better than the stuff from the store. I filled the finished pastry with cream cheese filling and a can of cherry pie filling, braided the top, and when it was completely cooled after being baked, I drizzled powdered sugar icing on top. I was able to make two big Danishes with one recipe. My dad said it was a better cheese Danish than a store bought one!
Sensational! Hubby said it was the best meal I've ever cooked. I put some chicken with a cream cheese/tomato sauce in it with some spreadable cheese. Make no mistake though, it is WILDLY labor intensive and time consuming!! The sticker is he wants me to make it weekly. Whew, I'm bushed.
had so much fun making this dough! it works wonderfully for an apple pastry i like to make. i'm not used to working with puff pastry, so i wasn't quite sure when it was done baking. just make sure it is thoroughly puffed and browned! it'll be quite doughy otherwise. thanks for this gem!
The recipe was fairly vague about how to add in the water, but we followed our interpretation of it. The dough was rather wet, so I had to add in more flour than in the recipe to make it any sort of workable, but not too much. Did flake fairly well. We used it in a beef wellington, ended up with a soggy bottom, but that wasn't the dough's fault.
Way too much butter! The butter formed chunks when I tried to do turns and spilled out of the pastry in the oven. This might have worked better with half the butter. update: it is so incredibly mushy and tasteless. I couldn't eat it.
I halved the recipe because I only needed a top and it worked great. Very flaky. My only problem was that I only had salted butter so I skipped adding the salt to the flour. When ready, it seamed the pastry could have used some additional salt.
This was so easy to follow and the pastry turn out perfect. I followed the recipe exactly as written and was able to make a dozen of pain au chocolat, and two large tomato pesto and mozarella tarts. Everyone raved about the pastry. :)
Worked great!! Did what everyone said and reduced the butter. Freezing part of the batch to try later.
This recipe is a lot more forgiving than you may think. I was ecstatic when my pastry puffed! Because I absolutely refuse to buy pre-made, who knows what they put in that stuff! I did add 6 tbs of the butter to the dough, and put the rest in the middle. The amount of butter used doesn't have to be exact either. Great recipe for beginner pastry makers!
This recipe turned out great! I can't agree enough that there was too much butter though, no matter what I did when rolling the butter broke through and when it finally went in the oven, my sausage rolls (English pork wrapped in puff pastry) were swimming in butter! Could have reduced it by at least half a cup. Great recipe though, will be using it again! Only with 1 -1/2 (or 1/4) cups butter.
Made this just like it says and it turned out great. I will make this many more times in the years to come it's a keeper.
I expected something completely different, the end product did not look like any danish or puff pastry I have seen in pictures or bakeries. With that being said, I did learn the rolling technique, which is fun if you get a good rhythm.
I halved the recipe, 3 cups flour 1 cup butter. Did a book fold. Only 3 times. I hr rest between 2nd and 3rd overnight before using. It it's a winner. Definitely a learning experience on how to roll and fold fast. But not it's so easy!!!
I needed to add an additional cup of flour to get enough for the 3.5lbs Beef Wellington I was making. It turned out great! There were many compliments on the pastry.
Wasted all my ingredients, way too much butter for this recipe. Created a greasy mess in the oven
It was time consuming and a lot of rolling. But it turned out nicely and was perfect for the recipe. It makes a large batch.
This is at least twice as much salt as needed. It was salty to the taste when baked as well, Additionally, you really need 2 hours between each turn. 30 minutes doesn't get the butter firmed up enough to ensure you get nice flaky layers when baked. Good puff pastry can take the better part of a day to bake
I am a freshman in high school and I made these for my Spanish class (I was making miguelitos). They came out perfect! They taste fabulous with chocolate filling and powdered sugar sprinkled on top, but they are good plain too. They have the exact taste and texture of a croissant, so they are a great recipe to use if you don't want the fuss of making an actual croissant.
This was an excellent recipe! I cut the dough and laid the pieces between wax paper when finished and froze. My only regret was making only a half batch and thawing the dough daily. (this is too good) resulting in three days of pastry breakfast and desert.
I made this twice now. The first time I made it, I followed the recipe as written. I felt it was too much butter so, I made it again and cut the butter back to 1 1/2 cups. This was perfect this way.
My first try at making puff pastry and the result is beyond delicious, I don't think I will ever buy any more store made pastry. It is light and you can see the layers beautifully.
Not sure where I failed! The pastries look great. They puffed up really nicely. They are way too buttery. I might try it again and cut the butter in half.
I love this recipe! My oven only heats up to 480 degrees but it still puffed nicely. Next time I will use a little less butter as it did start to come out the sides on the first turn. Filled them with custard and topped with a strawberry. They were delicious
