1,478 easy and fully explained recipes, with +66K photos and 78 videos

Puff or flaky pastry (pâte feuilletée)

Puff pastry is an incredible assembly of thin layers of butter enclosed in thin layers of dough. After cooking this give a succession of thin crisp pastry leaves that produce exceptional desserts or pies. It's a jewel of French patisserie.

Making your own puff pastry is not very difficult, it's just a little work with a good recipe (like this one!). This recipe is for quick puff pastry ("feuilletage rapide") perfect for beginners.

451 K 6× 4.3/5 (63 reviews)

2 hours 45 min. difficulté

Average

3.35 €

1 kg 100 g

6 Ingredients

Last modified on: January 19^th 2011

For this recipe: I want to make it (367×) I made it (360×) Comment Send to a friend Ask a question Follow Printable Diaporama Vidéo

For 1 kg 100 g, you will need:

1 500 g flour
2 200 g butter
3 200 ml water
4 1 teaspoon white (spirit) vinegar (optional)
5 1 teaspoon fine (or table) salt
6 200 g butter
Total weight: 1,110 grams

Change these quantities to make:

550 g 1 kg 100 g 2 kg 200 g 3 kg 300 g

Change measures:

Metric

Metric weight Metric volumes

Times for this recipe

Preparation: 45 min.

Resting: 2 hours

All in all: 2 hours 45 min.

When should you start or finish this recipe?

If you start now, at , you will finish around : ?.Change start time

To finish around 7pm, you'll need to have started before: .Change end time

Step by step recipe

Stage 1 - 5 min.

Mix 200 ml water and 1 teaspoon fine (or table) salt, if possible add 1 teaspoon white (spirit) vinegar to prevent dough from turning grey.

Stage 2 - 5 min.

In a mixer bowl, pour 500 g flour and 200 g butter cut into pieces.

Knead on low speed for one minute, then add the water+vinegar+salt mixture.

Stage 3 - 1 hour

Stop as soon as dough is smooth, this dough is called a "détrempe" (soaked or softened).

Form it into slab, cover with plastic film, and put in the fridge for one hour.

Stage 4 - 5 min.

After this time, remove dough, unwrap it, then roll it out on your work surface into a large rectangle.

Stage 5 - 1 min.

Measure length of rectangle, and make a small mark with your finger at the 2/3 point.

Stage 6 - 5 min.

Put 200 g butter between two sheets of plastic film, and hit it with your rolling pin...

Stage 7

...until you get a butter "sheet" which is a little narrower than the dough and 2/3 the length.

Stage 8 - 5 min.

Lay the butter sheet on the dough, starting at the small mark you made before.

You should now have butter on 2/3 of the dough, 1/3 empty.

Stage 9

Fold up this 1/3 on top of the butter.

Stage 10 - 5 min.

Then fold over again onto the final 1/3.

You have done "one simple turn", which means that you now have 2 butter layers inside 3 dough layers.

Stage 11 - 1 min.

Turn the pastry a quarter turn.

Stage 12 - 5 min.

Roll out into a long regular strip.

Stage 13 - 1 min.

Remove any excess of flour with a Short-handled brush or a pastry brush (we do this because too much flour can hinder the layering of the pastry).

Stage 14 - 2 min.

Fold strip in from both ends to meet in the centre.

Stage 15 - 5 min.

Then fold this in half.

You have done "one double turn" or "wallet turn".

Stage 16 - 1 hour

Cover pastry with plastic film and leave to rest in the fridge for one hour.

This sequence of "double turn" + 1 hour rest, needs to be done twice more to get: 1 simple turn and 3 double turns.

Stage 17

Your puff pastry is now ready to use. Cut into three pieces (of about 300g) and wrap each in plastic film until use, or freeze (see below).

Remarks

Puff pastry should not be kept in the fridge for too long (in spite of the vinegar), 2 or 3 days maximum. But it can easily be frozen, in which case don't do the final double turn and freeze at this stage. When needed, remove from freezer, leave to thaw in the fridge overnight, and do the final double turn just before use.

You wonder how-many layers there are? Here is the solution: after the first turn there are 2 butter layers between 3 dough layers, and each double turn multiplies by four. So after the first one we get 12 layers, 48 at the second, and 192 at the third.

How does it work? In the heat of the oven, the layers of pastry cook and turn brown and crisp, at the same time the butter melts (helping pastry to brown) and the water inside turns to steam. This steam in trapped in the pastry, so the entire pastry inflates to become puff pastry.

Keeping: 1 or 2 days in the fridge, folded in a plastic film.

Source: After Gaston Lenôtre.

Nutritional information

	Proteins (gr)	Carbohydrates (gr)	Fats (gr)	Energy value (in k-calories)	Energy value (in k-joules)
Whole recipe	50 RDI=20 %	370 RDI=40 %	340 RDI=50 %	4,740 RDI=240 %	19,850 RDI: 240 %
Per 100 g	4 RDI=2 %	30 RDI=3 %	30 RDI=5 %	430 RDI=20 %	1,790 RDI: 20 %

The % figures are calculated in relation to the Recommended Dietary Intake , or RDI of 2,000 k-calories (or 8,400 k-joules) per day for a woman Change to a man

Possible allergens in this recipe: Gluten, Milk, Sulfites

How much will it cost?

For 1 kg 100 g : 3.35 €

Change currency:

Note: Be careful, these prices are only an estimate, you can consult the table of prices by ingredients used for this estimate.

Some other recipes using this recipeSee them all 72

Cochelin d'Evreux

This cochelin, from the town of Evreux in Normandy, is a sort of giant apple turnover, flavoured with vanilla. It is served in slices, like a cake.
78 K5 2 hours 2 min.

Rustic chicken and mushroom pie

This homely looking pie gets back to what good, old-fashioned pies are all about: it's round, deep and has both a proper bottom and lid. The one small concession to modernity is the use of puff pastry for a lighter, crisper crust. The filling combines mushrooms, leeks and diced chicken in a cream...
70 K 1 hour 35 min.

Two-cheese quiche

This extra-tasty quiche is made with diced ham and a combination of two cheeses: Comté and Cheddar.
61 K4 1 hour 2 min.

How to cook caramelized puff pastry well

When puff pastry is caramelized to use in patisseries like millefeuille, French chefs call it a "feuilletage" (which means "lamination" or "leafing"). This is baked on its own before being assembled with cream, fruit, etc. The baking needs to be carefully managed: the pastry should puff into layers,...
275 K 24.9 40 min.

Mushroom tart

Puff pastry, cream and mushroom "duxelle" are the perfect combination to create an elegant savoury tart with a crisp, flaky base.
30 K 55 min.

This recipe uses (among others)

Other recipes you may also like

Herb salad

Herb salad is a small salad made with leaves of all kinds of aromatic herbs, it's highly flavoured, and should be considered almost as a condiment. It really is a salad, the leaves are not chopped.
October 13^th 2010228 K4.6 25 min.

Parisian-style chocolate custard tart

You may well already have met the classic French custard tart, with its vanilla filling. Here is a delicious chocolate-flavoured version.
July 13^th 202254 K 1 hour 8 min.

Marinated tuna with herbs

Here is a very simple recipe, preferably for a barbecue or plancha, but could be made in the kitchen. As for any summer-barbecue-backyard recipe, all proportons can be varied according to taste.
February 21^th 2011269 K4.3 1 hour 25 min.

How to peel a garlic clove easily

Here are, in a video, how to from a head of garlic to clove ready to be used.
August 8^th 2013137 K 24.3 5 min.

Creamy risotto with vegetables

Risotto is one of the many delights of italian cooking... Here is a version with vegetables cooked separately, and their stock used to cook rice. Delicious, as you will see...
June 12^th 2011387 K5 2 hours 55 min.

News list of cooking-ez.com

Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.

The 6 comments already posted on this recipe

You're right, there was a mistake in the recipe, but now fixed.
Thank you.
Posted by jh may 14^th 2020 at 11:27 n° 6
Step 1, you wrote "Mix 500 g flour" but the photo shows 1 or 8 (I don't know the unit) water, and, on step 2, it seems that the water, rather than the flour had been used in step 1...
Posted by Henri may 14^th 2020 at 08:36 n° 5
Using a knife.
Posted by jh january 19^th 2011 at 07:28 n° 4
How do i cut my dough?
Posted by Anonymous january 18^th 2011 at 20:09 n° 3
That's the case of all pastry with butter inside, without going to the fridge butter will be soft, too soft, and so your dough rather impossible to roll out.
Posted by jh june 6^th 2010 at 07:43 n° 2
Why does it need to be rested in the fridge?
Posted by Anonymous june 5^th 2010 at 23:07 n° 1

Follow this recipe (as 7 people already do)

If you are interested in this recipe, you can "follow" it, by entering your email address here. You will then receive a notification immediately each time the recipe is modified or a new comment is added. Please note that you will need to confirm this following.