Easy Puff Pastry

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Easy puff pastry is a shortcut method for making your own puff pastry at home. It is also called rough puff pastry or quick puff pastry.

This recipe involves folding of the dough, but no laminating of the butter and dough. The results are amazing and you can use in all your favorite recipes calling for puff pastry. 

I love puff pastry. It makes the most amazing desserts, appetizers, and pastries. But I have never loved the idea of all the steps involved in making homemade puff pastry – until now with this easy puff pastry!

Traditional puff pastry dough consists of a dough layer and a butter layer. You laminate the two together and then fold them in just such a way to create the many layers the pastry is known for.

Puff pastry is one of those recipes I kept moving to the bottom of my list to make. One day, is what I kept telling myself.

Then I found a recipe for a quick and easy puff pastry in a Williams Sonoma cookbook and thought I’d give it a try. I must admit, I was a bit skeptical at first. The results were amazing and the process really was easy!

Did I already tell you that this can be made ahead of time and frozen? Yep, no need to buy a box of frozen puff pastry from the store anymore. Just make this quick and easy puff pastry dough and pop it into the freezer and simply pull out when you are planning on using puff pastry.

Key ingredients

This recipe only uses three simple ingredients – all purpose flour, salted butter, salt and ice cold water.

Steps to make

A complete list of instructions is available below! Just scroll to the bottom!

• Combine flour and salt together in a bowl of a stand mixer
• Add cubed butter and mix on medium low speed until butter and flour form a coarse mixture

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• Add ice cold water and mix just until dough begins to come together. It will still appear dry and crumbly
• Dump dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead 3-4 times to pull dough together into a ball
• Begin rolling out dough into a rectangle about 8 x 12 inches. Use your hands or a bench scraper to keep the sides even.

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My tips

• Cut butter into small cubes. Keep butter chilled until just before using. I cubed my butter and then put it back into the refrigerator until I needed it.
• If you house is hot, chill flour before using.
• Use ice cold water.
• When rolling out dough, try to keep in a rectangular shape. You can reshape ends with your hands or a bench scraper.
• Always fold your dough the same direction so you can keep track of what you are doing.
• Wrap dough in plastic wrap and place in a zip top bag.
• Chill for at least 4 hours before using.
• Dough may be frozen for up to 3 months.
• If frozen, remove from dough at least two hours prior to using or thaw in refrigerator overnight.
• Use in any recipe calling for puff pastry.
• This dough will be a bit more difficult to roll out than store bought dough. It contains all butter. If the dough is too firm after the 4 hour chilling, let the dough rest for 5 minutes on the counter. As the dough warms, it will become easier to roll. As dough continues to warm, it will become sticky. Just pop back into the refrigerator for a few minutes until the butter firms up.

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If you make this recipe, I’d love to hear about it! Leave a comment below and snap a picture and tag me on Instagram @beyondthechickencoop

Check out all my baking recipes!

Recipe Adapted from Essentials of Baking

This recipe was originally published in October 2017.