Puff pastry baking from scratch is a difficult but gratifying procedure. Watching the pastry puff into thin, delicate layers is incredibly pleasurable, making it ideal for breakfast pastries and enticing appetizers. Use this recipe if you’ve ever wanted to make homemade puff pastry dough.
| Prep Time: | 1 hr 40 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 40 mins |
| Servings: | 24 |
| Yield: | 3 1/2 pounds |
Ingredients
- 5 cups bread flour
- 2 ½ teaspoons salt
- 2 cups water, or as needed
- 2 cups unsalted butter, at room temperature
Instructions
- Mix flour and salt together in a large bowl or in the bowl of a stand mixer that is fitted with a dough hook. Gradually stir in water until dough holds together enough to clean the sides of the bowl. You may not need the full amount of water. Shape into a flat ball, and allow to rest for at least 10 minutes.
- Place butter between two pieces of plastic wrap and pound into a flat disc using a rolling pin or other heavy object. Refrigerate until firm, about 20 minutes.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough into a large rectangle about 1/2 inch thick. Place the disc of chilled butter in the center and fold the two ends over it so that it is completely encased in dough. Roll out dough again, taking care not to let butter break through dough, to about 1/2 inch thickness. Fold into thirds. This is the first ”turn.” Rotate dough 90 degrees and roll out into a rectangle again. Fold into thirds. By this time the butter is starting to warm up. Place dough on a baking sheet and mark it with two pokes from your finger (two turns). Cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
- Repeat this rolling, folding, and turning two more times, then refrigerate until firm. Repeat two more times for a total of 6 turns. Wrap and refrigerate. The dough is now ready to roll out and use in any recipe calling for puff pastry.
- Roll dough out as thin as 1/4 inch to make pastries. Bake in a preheated oven of at least 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) to get the maximum puff from your pastry.
Reviews
This is my go to puff pastry recipe, I usually halve the recipe and make fruit filled turnovers or salmon tarts with it. A few times it hasn’t puffed up nicely and I think it has something to do with the butter’s temperature. When I’m rolling and folding sometimes the butter cracks into big chunks instead of rolling smoothly. Any advice? The pastry still tastes nice when this happens but it doesn’t puff up as well.
it was great made bear claw with it
This is everything puff pastry should be- light, flaky, and divinely buttery. I’ve made a few different puff pastry recipes and this one is far superior. I read that some commenters reduced the amount of butter and that’s fine, but I think it’s better as is. This will be my go to recipe from now on. Thank you!!
nice flaky crust. steak was a little medium.
Really good, I used it to make Empanadas, amazing result 🙂
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
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 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!!!
Worked great!! Did what everyone said and reduced the butter. Freezing part of the batch to try later.
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.
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!
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!
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.
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!
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.
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.
It was a great recipe to follow, and came out perfectly.
I added cumin seeds and tried… It enhanced the flavor….
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.
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.
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. 🙂