1,529 easy and fully explained recipes, with +66K photos and 78 videos

This site uses only a few technical cookies necessary for its operation. By continuing to browse, you accept their use.
To find out more...

Puff or flaky pastry (pâte feuilletée)

Name: Puff or flaky pastry (pâte feuilletée)
Prep time: 2 h 45 min
Total time: 2 h 45 min
Yield: 1 kg 100 g
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: 500 g flour; 200 g butter; 200 ml water; 1 teaspoon white (spirit) vinegar; 1 teaspoon fine (or table) salt; 200 g butter

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.

472 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 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

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.

Puff or flaky pastry (pâte feuilletée) : Stage 1

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.

Puff or flaky pastry (pâte feuilletée) : Stage 2

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

Puff or flaky pastry (pâte feuilletée) : Stage 3

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.

Puff or flaky pastry (pâte feuilletée) : Stage 4

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

Stage 5 - ⌛ 1 min.

Puff or flaky pastry (pâte feuilletée) : Stage 5

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

Stage 6 - ⌛ 5 min.

Puff or flaky pastry (pâte feuilletée) : Stage 6

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.

Puff or flaky pastry (pâte feuilletée) : Stage 8

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.

Puff or flaky pastry (pâte feuilletée) : Stage 10

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.

Puff or flaky pastry (pâte feuilletée) : Stage 11

Turn the pastry a quarter turn.

Stage 12 - ⌛ 5 min.

Puff or flaky pastry (pâte feuilletée) : Stage 12

Roll out into a long regular strip.

Stage 13 - ⌛ 1 min.

Puff or flaky pastry (pâte feuilletée) : Stage 13

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.

Puff or flaky pastry (pâte feuilletée) : Stage 14

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

Stage 15 - ⌛ 5 min.

Puff or flaky pastry (pâte feuilletée) : Stage 15

Then fold this in half.

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

Stage 16 - ⌛ 1 hour

Puff or flaky pastry (pâte feuilletée) : Stage 16

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=10 %	370 RDI=30 %	340 RDI=40 %	4,740 RDI=180 %	19,850 RDI: 180 %
Per 100 g	4 RDI=1 %	30 RDI=2 %	30 RDI=3 %	430 RDI=20 %	1,790 RDI: 20 %

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 73

Yvetot Douillons

This dessert, named after a small town in Normandy, consists of a pear filled with confectioner's custard (French pastry cream), which is wrapped in a pancake and puff pastry, then baked. The "douillon" part of the name comes from a warm coat, the "douillette", of former times.
90 K4.3 1 hour 3 min.

Avocado "tarte fine"

The French "tarte fine" (pronounced "feen") is a literally a thin tart, made on a precooked flat base of puff pastry. This delicious, crisp, savoury tart is topped with cream cheese, slices of avocado, a trickle of lime juice and fresh coriander.
64 K 60 min.

Little caramelized peach tarts

This is an elegant summer dessert: a thin base of puff pastry, topped with caramelized peach slices. For a delicious contrast of hot and cold, serve with the reduced caramel and citrus sauce poured over over hot and, at the last minute, a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top, .
67 K3.8 1 hour 15 min.

Ham "friand" pie

A "friand" (the word means "fond"!) is a sort of French pasty. This pie-style version has two layers of puff pastry filled with a mixture of cheese, ham and bechamel sauce.
102 K4.2 1 hour 5 min.

Thin tomato jelly and avocado tart

For this sophisticated recipe, we'll be preparing a disc of tomato jelly to sit on a puff pastry base. This is topped with slices of avocado in a lime dressing.
47 K 5 hours 20 min.

This recipe uses (among others)

Other recipes you may also like

Real custard sauce (crème anglaise)

Real custard or vanilla sauce consists of egg yolks beaten with sugar and cooked slowly in vanilla milk. It is the base or the accompaniment for many desserts.

January 17^th 2018437 K 24.3 45 min.

Marzipan (almond paste)

Very easy to do if you have a food processor which can slice or grate a lot of things.

December 19^th 2021647 K 34.5 15 min.

Fruit coulis (fruit purée)

Contrary to what people usually think, coulis is not just a simple fruit purée with sugar. Of course, this is the general principle, but it's possible to make something much better and more refined. This recipe is for a strawberry coulis (see below for other fruits): how to make it, but also how freeze it.

October 20^th 2012794 K 43 25 min.

Stewed apple (compote)

Here is a very basic but delicious recipe, and the pitfalls to avoid.

November 8^th 20172.46 M 14.8 1 hour 15 min.

Baked Camembert with Walnuts

Camembert can be melted in the oven, like this hot box cheese, but here it has the added delight of toasted chopped walnuts, served on a bed of hot potatoes.

March 13^th 201667 K3.8 60 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.