Rough puff pastry is a version of puff pastry that is “quicker” to make. Total time including chilling is around 3 hours. Even if you’re working minimum wage, its probably cheaper to just buy store bought puff pastry. But if you like baking and want to try this yourself, here are a few tips to help make the process go smoothly.
Rough Puff Recipe Notes
The key to making rough puff pastry dough is to keep the ingredients as cold as possible. Most important is the butter, since the goal is to have layers of dough and butter to create lamination. When baked, the butter melts and creates a light, flaky pastry. If the butter is already melted, its going to incorporate into the dough. Meaning there won’t be flaky layers when you bake it. You can see pieces of butter in the rough puff dough above. That’s perfectly normal with rough puff dough.
Toss half of your butter into the freezer to chill. You’re going to be grating it so you want it as cold as possible. Take the other half of the butter and slice it into eighth-inch thick slices. Put the slices on a plate and then into the fridge to chill. Whisk the dry ingredients together in a large bowl and then put in the fridge to chill as well. Prepare a cup of ice water and, you guessed it, into the fridge to chill.
Once the butter in the freezer has hardened up, take it out and toss in the flour mixture to coat. Put the box grater over the flour mixture and grate the butter on the large holes of the grater. Toss the grated pieces of butter with the flour mixture so that each piece is evenly coated. Next take the sliced butter and add to the bowl and mix to incorporate.
More Recipe Notes
Next step for the rough puff is to take the ice water out of the fridge. Drizzle half a cup of ice water onto the flour mixture and whisk with a fork. A shaggy dough will start to form. Using your hands, knead the dough a bit until a few large clumps of dough form. Take a large piece of cling film and place on a work surface. Take the large clumps of dough out of the mixing bowl and place onto the cling film. Drizzle more ice water into the bowl, a few teaspoons at a time. Whisk with the fork and then knead by hand until all of the flour has been incorporated. The entire dough mixture will stay together when pressed but its going to be very dry, that’s okay.
Loosely fold the cling film up over the top of the dough. Next, place another piece of cling film perpendicular to the first piece of cling film. Fold the sides up. This will create a rectangular shape that you can roll the dough into. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough to the corners of the cling film, creating a rectangle. Place in the fridge to chill for 2 hours.
Folding Technique
Take the dough out of the fridge and let it rest for 5 min. Unwrap and place on a lightly floured work surface. Using a rolling pin, beat the dough all over to help make the butter more pliable. Roll out the dough, dusting the top and bottom as necessary to prevent sticking. The rough puff dough should be a long rectangle, around 3 times longer than it is wide. Fold the dough into thirds like you would with a letter. Take the bottom half of the dough and fold it up to the middle of the dough. Take the top half of the dough and fold it down to the middle of the dough. The dough is now folded up like a letter.
Rotate the dough 90 degrees and repeat the process. Roll the dough out into a long rectangle and fold into thirds. Cut the dough in half and wrap in plastic. The rough puff dough is now ready to use. The dough can be made ahead of time and stored in the fridge for 2 days or up to 2 months in the freezer. If storing in the freezer, transfer to the fridge 24 hours before using.
Rough Puff Pastry
Equipment
- Box Grater
- Food Processor optional
- Rollin pin Wine bottle works in a pinch
Ingredients
- 340 grams unsalted butter 3 sticks worth
- 455 grams AP flour
- 25 grams granulated sugar
- 5 grams kosher salt
- 226 grams ice water 1 cup
Instructions
- Place half of the butter, 170 grams, in the freezer to chill for 15 minutes. While the butter is chilling, whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt in a large mixing bowl and place in the freezer until the butter has chilled.
- Take the remaining butter, 170 grams, and slice as thinly as possible, ⅛" thick if you can. Place the slices of butter on a plate and place in the fridge. Prepare 1 cup, or 236 grams of ice water, and place in the fridge
- Once the butter has firmed up, remove from the freezer and toss in the flour mixture to coat. Next, as quickly as you can, grate the butter sticks on the large holes of a box grater. The grated pieces of butter can fall directly into the flour mixture. Use a fork to toss the butter in the flour mixture to ensure each piece is evenly coated.
- Remove the butter slices from the fridge and toss them in the flour mixture to distribute and coat. Drizzle half of the ice water, 113 grams, into the bowl and mix with a fork until a shaggy dough forms.
- Using your hands, knead the dough a couple of times to bring the large pieces together. Place a piece of cling film down on your work surface and transfer the big pieces of dough onto it, leaving the floury bits behind in the bowl.
- Drizzle more ice water into the bowl, a teaspoon at a time, tossing with the fork until the rest of the floury bits are incorporated and the entire dough holds together in a mass when squeezed. All of the dough should be on the cling film at this point.
- Fold the pieces of the cling film up over the top of the dough and then take a second piece of cling film and wrap the dough. The two pieces of cling film should be set perpendicular to each other so that when you press the dough down, it forms into a ½" thick square.
- Chill the dough in the fridge for 2 hours.
- Take the dough out of the fridge and let sit at room temp for 5 minutes. Unwrap, reserving the cling film, and place on a floured work surface. Use a rolling pin to beat the dough to make it more pliable. Roll out the dough, using flour as necessary until you have a rectangle that's three times as long as it is wide and roughly ¼" thick.
- Take the bottom of the long end of the dough and fold it up into the center. Then take the top and fold it down into the center, just like you would with a paper letter.
- Rotate the dough 90 degrees and using more flour as needed, roll out to a long rectangle again and fold into thirds again.
- Cut the dough in half and wrap each piece in the reserved pieces of cling film and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. The dough is now ready to use.
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