Shortcut Puff Pastry Recipes

HOW TO MAKE EASY PUFF PASTRY RECIPE

Steps:

• Place your butter in the freezer for a minimum of 2 hours, but preferably overnight.
• In a jug, mix together your water and lemon juice and set aside.
• In a large bowl mix together the flour and salt. Now I'm going to sound like a home economics book, but you need everything to be cold to yield great pastry, so feel free to put the bowl of flour in the fridge to chill.
• On the larger side of a grater, grate the frozen butter directly into the flour mix. Stir the butter into the flour in with a knife. Frozen butter is my secret ingredient. The colder the butter the flakier the pastry. So remember, this is a shortcut shortcrust pastry, so we aren't folding and doing that whole process. I'm all for process, but if you get a great result with less work, then I'm all for that too.
• Add in the liquid, holding a little back just in case you don't need it all. Using your hand, bring your pastry together gently. You want to add just enough water to bring the pastry together. Too much water will not yield you a flakey dough.
• Bring the dough together to form a ball. Wrap in cling film and place in the fridge for a minimum of 1 hour. You can refrigerate it for up to 3 days or freeze it to use at a later day.
• Note: Once you put the pastry in the fridge and it relaxes it will get a little wetter so factor that in.
• To use your pastry: Follow the instructions required by the recipe you are making. Always bake in a HOT oven for best results.

QUICKEST PUFF PASTRY

Steps:

• Cut 8 ounces (2 sticks) butter into 1/2 to 1/4-inch dice, place on a plate and refrigerate while preparing remaining ingredients.Measure water and add salt; stir to dissolve and set aside.
• Coarsely dice remaining 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter. Place flour in work bowl of food processor fitted with metal blade; add 4 tablespoons butter and pulse until butter is absorbed -- about ten to twelve 1-second pulses.
• Add remaining butter and pulse once or twice to distribute. Add water and pulse 3 or 4 times, just until dough forms a rough ball. Do not over-process.
• Flour work surface and scrape dough from work bowl. Shape dough into a rough rectangle and place between 2 pieces of plastic wrap. Press dough with rolling pin to flatten, then roll back and forth several times with rolling pin to make a 12 by 18 inch rectangle of dough.
• Peel away plastic wrap and invert dough to floured work surface. Peel away second piece of wrap. Fold dough in thirds in the width, folding the top third down and the bottom third up, to make a 6 by 18-inch rectangle, then roll up the dough from one of the 6-inch ends, making sure to roll end under dough. Press the dough into a square, wrap in plastic and refrigerate 1 hour, or until firm.