Easy Rough Puff Pastry

 

 

I would have only been a very young woman in my early 20's when I first came across rough puff pastry.   We were living on an Army Base in Southeastern Alberta.  It also happened to be a British Army Training base in Canada.

I belonged to a ceramics club, and one of the other members, a lovely British girl named Sheena brought in some homemade Eccles Cakes one day for us all to enjoy.

 

 

I have always been crazy about anything in a crust, but I fell totally in love with the flaky pastry that she had made on that day. I had to learn how she did it. I had never tasted anything like it.

She very generously invited me over to her house to learn how she had made it. Although a bit time consuming, it was very easy, and a lot less work to make than regular puff pastry.

 

Rough Puff pastry is also often referred to as quick pastry. It's very popular with home and professional bakers because the results are so amazing. You end up with a bakery-style puff pastry without all the precision required by shaping and laminating butter with the dough. 

It's not that hard to do really, requiring that you work pieces of cold or frozen butter into dry ingredients and then mixing in ice water. Some bakers use large chunks of butter, but you can also grate frozen butter into the flour. 

Some also use a food processor to do this, but I don't really recommend doing so as you risk a tougher end result.

 

 

You really don't want to overwork the dough, or you will end up losing all of the flaky layers you are working towards creating. 

You also don't want to use a pastry cutter. Again, you risk losing all of the flaky layers.  As with any pastry, a light touch is what works best of all. Less is more.

 

It's important to use really cold butter, otherwise the butter melts into the flour and you end up with a greasier finish. You want the butter to stay cold. This creates little air pockets in the dough, which in turn cause the dough to puff up as the butter melts and steams in the heat of the oven.

I hope that explanation makes sense to you. I don't know how else to explain it.  If the butter melts before you bake it, you lose the flake.

 

WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE ROUGH PUFF PASTRY

There is nothing extraordinary required.  Just simple everyday baking ingredients. Four simple ingredients. 

• 1 1/4 cups (175g) all-purpose plain flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup + 5TBS (187g) butter, frozen
• 5 - 6 TBS ice water

 

There is no real need to buy special flour for this recipe. I know Chef Ramsay uses bread flour which does contain more gluten, but regular all-purpose flour works very well.

I use salted butter. As I have said before I can't afford to keep both salted and unsalted butter in my kitchen. I often cut back on the salt required in a recipe to make up for that.

Make sure your water is really cold and iced. You can place it into your freezer for about half an hour before you start, or you can add a bunch of ice cubes to water. It's your choice.

HOW TO MAKE EASY ROUGH PUFF PASTRY

You will be really surprised at how very easy it is to make this pastry! It is a bit time consuming, but it's well worth it.

1. Sift the flour and salt into a chilled bowl. Set your grated in the flour and then coarsely grate the frozen butter into the flour, gently lifting the flour and tossing everything together to coat the butter.
2. Drizzle 5 TBS of the ice water over the flour evenly. Stir in with a fork to incorporate. Test mixture by gently squeezing a small handful. If it is ready, it will hold together without falling apart. If it is too crumbly, add the remaining water. Try not to overwork the dough or add too much water, or you risk a tough pastry.
3. Gather the mixture into a five-inch square. Wrap tightly in cling film and chill in the refrigerator until firm, about half an hour. (The dough will be lumpy and streaky.)
4. Roll the chilled dough out on a lightly floured surface, using a lightly floured rolling pin. to a rectangle which roughly measures 8 inches by 15 inches.
5. Place dough with short side nearest you and then fold the dough into thirds. Bottom third up, top third down. Rewrap and chill for another 30 minutes until firm.
6. Repeat this process 2 more times, rolling, folding and chilling.
7. Brush off any excess flour, wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill for at least an hour prior to using.

 

I used some of it today to make some cherry breakfast puffs. Really easy.  Just cut into squares.  Place a dollop of cherry pie filling on half of the pastry and fold the top half over in a triangle shape.  Seal the edges with water or beaten egg.

Cut some slits to vent and sprinkle with coarse turbinado sugar and bake.  374*F/190*C/ gas mark 5 for 10 to 15 minutes until golden brown and flaky.  I left them to cool and then dusted them liberally with some confectioners' sugar. Delicious!

 

You can wrap this pastry tightly and freeze it for using later on. Simply thaw in the refrigerator overnight and proceed as per your recipe.  It makes a fabulous topping for meat pies such as this Turkey and Ham Pie. 

It makes beautiful Sausage Rolls. Tis the season and all that!

Use it to make the most delicious Eccles Cakes, or Banbury Cakes.  

This is a pastry recipe that is sure to come in handy no matter how you choose to use it.  Best of all you can be really proud that you have actually made this yourself, and other than it being time consuming, it really wasn't that difficult at all!

Yield: 1 pound

Author: Marie Rayner

Easy Rough Puff Pastry

Prep time: 3 H & 30 MTotal time: 3 H & 30 M

Fabulously buttery and flaky. A much easier make than regular puff pastry.

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups (175g) all-purpose plain flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup + 5TBS (187g) butter, frozen
• 5 - 6 TBS ice water

Instructions

1. Sift the flour and salt into a chilled bowl. Set your grated in the flour and then coarsely grate the frozen butter into the flour, gently lifting the flour and tossing everything together to coat the butter.
2. Drizzle 5 TBS of the ice water over the flour evenly. Stir in with a fork to incorporate. Test mixture by gently squeezing a small handful. If it is ready it will hold together without falling apart. If it is too crumbly, add the remaining water. Try not to overwork the dough or add too much water, or you risk a tough pastry.
3. Gather the mixture into a five-inch square. Wrap tightly in cling film and chill in the refrigerator until firm, about half an hour. (The dough will be lumpy and streaky.)
4. Roll the chilled dough out on a lightly floured surface, using a lightly floured rolling pin. to a rectangle which roughly measures 8 inches by 15 inches.
5. Place dough with short side nearest you and then fold the dough into thirds. Bottom third up, top third down. Rewrap and chill for another 30 minutes until firm.
6. Repeat this process 2 more times, rolling, folding and chilling.
7. Brush off any excess flour, wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill for at least an hour prior to using.

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