How to make puff pastry

Despite what the title of this post may suggest, this is not an expert definitive guide... I've never attempted to make puff pastry before and was tempted to buy Jus-Rol for the recipe I wanted, but decided to have a go at making it from scratch! Be warned though, it's a long process...

I had a look online for some instructions and basically this is what I did:

170g plain flour
170g butter, slightly softened
150ml cold water
1 tsp lemon juice
pinch of salt

Mix 30g of the butter into the flour and salt to make a breadcrumb like texture. Then stir in the water and lemon juice and mix to form a soft dough

Turn onto a floured surface and knead

Wrap in clingfilm and put in the fridge for half an hour. This is my kitchen timer :-)

Next, take the softened butter and shape into a rectangle - or more like a line - that's about an inch thick. Roll out the dough into a rectangle that is three times the length, and a bit wider than the butter. Place the butter in the centre of the pastry.

Fold in a third of the pastry from the left to the centre, and a third from the right to the centre.

Roll out again - you can just see the butter merged into the pastry below. Fold in the same way again, turn a quarter turn clockwise and roll out again, and repeat the process.

Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes then repeat the folding and rolling process again twice

Apparently folding the butter into the dough like this creates a thin layer of fat between each layer of pastry; when it is cooked in the oven, the butter melts, boils and creates steam, which makes the layers of pastry rise.

Check out my next post to see what the cooked pastry looks like....