Home » Baking School » Baking Techniques » Quick Puff Pastry
by Baker BettieJanuary 31, 2022
Quick puff pastry bakes up with all of the buttery flakiness of traditional puff pastry, but is much faster and easier to make! Also known as rough puff, easy puff, or blitz puff pastry, this dough can be used as a pie crust, for turnovers, galettes, and breakfast pastries!
Overview
- Skill Level: Intermediate
- Techniques Used: Laminating Dough, Cutting In Butter
Puff pastry is a type of laminated dough, meaning that fat (typically butter) is folded into the dough over and over again creating alternating layers of dough and fat. When the pastry is baked, the layers of butter melt in the oven and the liquid in the butter evaporates out. The steam from the evaporation causes the pastry to puff up rapidly, which is what creates the flaky texture of a laminated pastry.
Quick puff pastry is also known as rough puff pastry, quick puff pastry, or blitz puff pastry. It simplifies the process into a much more manageable technique, especially for those who have never made a laminated dough. Instead of folding an entire block of butter into the dough, as you do with traditional puff pastry, you work a large amount of butter into the dough and then fold the dough multiple times to create layers.
This rough puff technique creates a pastry that is just as buttery and almost as flaky, but it does not puff up quite as high as regular puff pastry does. It works beautifully for breakfast pastries or even as a pie crust!
How to Make Quick Puff Pastry
Rough puff pastry is essentially a combination of a traditional pie crust mixed with the method of laminating. It is a great starting point to get your feet wet with making laminated dough and will show you it isn’t quite as intimidating as you might think!
The best part is that it can be made with just about 30 minutes of hands-on time and an hour and a half of chilling time. This is so much quicker than traditional puff pastry which is typically made over a 2 day period.
Step 1: Combine the Dry Ingredients & Toss the Butter to Coat
Whisk the dry ingredients together and then toss the cold cubed butter into the flour.
Step 2: Work the Butter into the Flour
Press down on each piece of butter until it is a flat sheet. You do not need to work it in any more than that! Your mixture will look very chunky.
Step 3: Toss the Water into the Dough
Add ice-cold water a little at a time to the mixture and use your hands or a rubber spatula to toss it until large clumps start forming.
Ice cold water will keep the butter solid which will create a flakier pastry.
Step 4: Chill the Dough
Press the dough together on a work surface into a rectangular shape and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes to firm up and to allow the flour to fully hydrate.
Step 5: Roll & Fold the Dough to Create Layers
Roll the dough out into a skinny rectangle and then fold it in thirds over itself.
Rotate the dough 90 degrees, then roll and fold it a second time.
Do the process a total of 4 times, always rotating 90 degrees in the same direction. this is creating layers in the dough which will puff up in the oven.
Step 6: Chill the Dough Before Use
Once the dough has been rolled and folded, wrap it in plastic wrap again and place it back in the refrigerator. Ideally, you want to chill it for at least an hour before using it.
Raw rough puff pastry can be kept in the refrigerator for 48 hours or in the freezer for up to 2 months when wrapped well.
Uses for Rough Puff Pastry
Quick puff pastry can be used for a variety of things! I love to use it to make beautiful breakfast danishes that are filled with cream cheese filling. It also works really well as a pie crust for something like a Classic Apple Pie or for Fruit Turnovers!
Yield: About 2 1/2 lbs of dough
Quick Puff Pastry
Prep Time30 minutes
Chilling Time1 hour 30 minutes
Total Time2 hours
This is a base recipe for quick puff pastry, also known as rough puff, easy puff, or blitz puff pastry. The dough resembles traditional puff pastry in its flakiness and layers once baked, however it does not puff quite as high as traditional puff pastry. This dough works very well for shaped pastries such as pinwheels and hand pies, pastries such as napoleons, as well as a pie crust or galette crust.
Ingredients
- 240 grams (2 cups) all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 225 grams (1 cup, 2 sticks) unsalted butter, cold and cubed
- 120 - 140 milliliters (8-10 tablespoons) water, ice cold
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl whisk together the flour (240 grams / 2 cups) and salt (½ teaspoon).
- Add the cold cubed butter (225 grams / 1 cup) to the bowl and toss it throughout the flour.
- Press down on each piece of butter with your fingertips until each one is flattened out. Do not work the butter in as much as you would do with a pie crust. Keep the pieces very large, just flatten them. (see step-by-step pictures in the post).
- When all of the butter has been flattened start adding the ice-cold water a few tablespoons at a time and use your hands to toss the water throughout the mixture. Keep adding the water until most of the flour is moistened and the mixture starts forming large clumps.
- Press the dough together on the counter into a rectangular shape and then wrap in plastic wrap. Place in the refrigerator to chill for at least 30 minutes and up to 2 days.
- After the dough has chilled, flour a work surface and roll the dough out into a skinny rectangle about ½- centimeter or ¼-inch thick.
- Fold the dough over itself in thirds and then rotate the dough 90 degrees to the left. Roll out and fold the dough 3 more times (for a total of 4), always rotating 90 degrees in the same direction between each fold.
- Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate before using it. Ideally, 1 hour is best before rolling it out. The dough can be refrigerated for a total of 48 hours between this chilling time and the first.
- This dough can be wrapped well in plastic wrap and frozen for up to 2 months. Let thaw in the refrigerator overnight before using.
Notes
Note: If the dough feels too warm, feels rubbery, or is shrinking back a lot while rolling out to do your folds, let it rest in the fridge for 10 minutes to relax the gluten and to let the fat firm up.
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Kayle (The Cooking Actress) —Reply
YOU. ARE. MY. HERO!!!!
I love homemade puff pastry but hate the time commitment, this recipe is about to change my liiife
Baker Bettie —Reply
Hooray! Happy to be of service, Kayle! 😉
Trish —Reply
Step 7 says “This is called a “double turn” (see picture below). “Double Turn” ” – but I don’t see a picture. Can the post be updated to include it?
But my main question is: would this dough work for making pain au chocolat (aka chocolate ‘croissants’)?
Baker Bettie —Reply
Thanks for letting me know! I will take a look at updating the post. Yes, this dough can definitely be used for that.
Neem —Reply
Hello, thanks for the recipe. Over here butter comes in 200g packs, can I just use that or do I have to open up a second pack of butter to get the extra 25g in there?
Baker Bettie —Reply
Hi, I’m sorry you’ll need the whole 225 grams for the recipe.
Kasey McClymonds —Reply
Hello!!
I used your puff pastry recipe for these blueberry hand-pies, but whenever I baked the handles at 350F for 18 minutes, all of the butter melted out and they were a flat soggy mess.
What am I doing wrong?! :'(
I would appreciate any advice you have to give.https://thebusybaker.ca/best-ever-blueberry-hand-pies/
Thank you,
Kasey McClymondsMichelle —Reply
What temperature do you bake it and how long?
Jenave —Reply
Can you use margarine for this recipe? Crisco?
Kelly Barton —Reply
your recipe calls for 1 cup butter (2 sticks) but in your directions you say to mix in 1/2 cup – what do I do with the other 1/2 cup?
Baker Bettie —Reply
You should use the entire 1 cup (225 grams, 2 sticks) amount. I will fix the typo. Thanks for letting me know!
