Rough Puff Pastry
Rough Puff is a puff pastry that’s slightly more work than a pie dough, but much less than a true puff pastry. There are several ways to make it, many involving grating or use of machinery, but a pastry cutter will also do. If you don’t have a kitchen scale, Renee Nicole lists some American measurements. She’s also full of chilling advice. (Chilling is the most important factor.) It is sometimes known as blitz puff pastry or indicated by other adjectives.
For a more traditional puff pastry method, see my recipe for Pastéis de Nata. For an even cheatier pastry, see my blitz puff recipe.
You can keep the dough in the refrigerator for 3 days, or for some time in the freezer. If frozen, defrost before using.
Makes about 24 4" squares of puff pastry per half-pound of butter.
Ingredients
- the desired weight of butter
- an equal weight of all-purpose flour
- about ¼ tsp. salt per c. (5 oz.) of flour (optionally less or none if using salted butter)
- at most ⅓ c. cold water per c. (5 oz.) of flour
Directions
- Mix flour & salt.
- Cut butter into flour with a pastry cutter. Aim for very small pieces.
- Optionally chill.
- Add water to dampen the dough and form into a mass as with pie crust.
- Chill ½ hour.
- Roll out the chilled dough and fold into thirds about six times, chilling in between steps if the dough gets too sticky or crumbly.
- Chill again until ready to use, at least an hour but preferably overnight.
- To use, optionally divide down to 1/2lb. chunks of dough and roll out thin on a lightly floured board into a rectangle about 12" x 16". (If you have more space, feel free to roll it all out at once.)
- Slice into 4" squares or other preferred size. If filling 4" squares into triangles, use a scant tablespoon of your desired filling.
- Seal with water and/or a fork and brush with egg or water before baking on parchment paper (15–20 minutes at 400°F).
Variants
Most recipes prefer grating or processing the butter. Some prefer folding some or all of the butter into the dough later in a more traditional way.
Some recipes, such as Bon Appetit’s, include milk or sugar.
Cheating on rough puff pastry, such as I did with my Blueberry Turnovers and blitz puff recipes, involves using sour cream and baking powder.
I wrote down this recipe in order to fill it with feta.
