I was so tempted to get some store-bought puff pastry to make the Portuguese egg tarts. Really, there’s nothing wrong with that too. I personally think it’s okay to use some short cuts when you want to. I didn’t end up getting the store-bought puff pastry though. I thought I could “learn” how to do it on my own, kinda a challenge for myself. I’m really not a baker. Yes, I’ve said it million times. If I could pull this one off, believe me, you can do it too. It’s really not as intimidating as I thought.
This is a simplified version of puff pastry often called rough puff that I got from Home Baking cookbook by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid. I love these folks and I have cooked with lots of their recipes and they always work wonder! Even to such a beginner in baking like myself. As mentioned in the cookbook, the traditional puff pastry, a strong dough is folded over layers of butter, then folded and rolled out six times. This results in hundreds of fine layers of dough, separated by the thinnest of layers of butter. When this is baked, the steam given off as the butter melts makes the layer separate and the dough puff up. That’s what we often said “Gosh..how flaky and airy this pastry is”
In rough puff, it started out with a richer basic dough and make fewer folds. The resulting pastry is flaky and puffed, but not as high. Rough puff is great for simple tarts, both sweet and savory. It’s lush to bite into and airy in the mouth and it’s a very useful and practical item to have in the freezer.
HOW TO MAKE ROUGH PUFF PASTRY FOR SWEET AND SAVORY TARTS/TARTLETS
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour plus more for dusting
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ lbs frozen unsalted butter (2 sticks) , divided
- 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 6 Tbsp ice water , or as needed (Have more ready as you may need more to pull the dough together)
Instructions
- Grate the 1 stick of butter and chill in the freezer. Mix the flour, salt, frozen grated butter and rub the butter into the flour to resemble coarse crumbs. Add the lemon juice and ice water, one tablespoon at a time until you can form a dough that is not sticky
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly flour surface and knead briefly, until evenly moist and smooth. Place in a plastic bag, flatten to a disk, and seal well. Chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes (you can store this up to 3 days if you're not going to proceed further yet)
- When ready to proceed, place the dough on a lightly floured surface. You want to flatten it out to a rectangle about 16 inches long and 10 inches wide (The dough might be moist after being chilled, you can lightly dust some flour to keep it from sticking to the surface and your hand)
- Use a lightly floured rolling pin to flatten the dough, then roll it out, rolling from the center outward. Use a dough scraper as necessary to unstick it from your work surface. Set aside, lightly covered with a clean kitchen towel
- Use a sharp knife to cut the remaining 1 stick frozen butter into thin slices. Put in a food processor and process until the butter stops making banging noises against the sides (about 30 seconds). Stop and feel the texture of the butter. If there are still lumps, process another 30 seconds and test again. It should feel like a smooth paste like a spreadable thick cream cheese. Pulse again and test again until you get the right texture (up to 2 minutes total)
- Place the dough with a short end facing you. Use a long metal spatula to spread half the butter onto the bottom two-thirds of the dough rectangle, leaving 1-inch margin at the bottom and sides. Fold the top third over, toward the center, then, like folding a letter, fold the bottom third over that. Dust very lightly with flour and rotate 90 degrees, so that once more a short end is facing you. Roll out, rolling from the center outward, until once again the rectangle measures about 16 inches long and 8-10 inches wide
- Spread the remaining butter evenly over the bottom two-thirds of the rectangle again, leaving a margin as before, and again fold over first the top third and then the bottom third
- Lightly dust the dough with flour, rotate it 90 degrees, and roll out to the same-sized rectangle you did before. You need to do two more foldings as you did before, not to enclose any more butter, but just to create more layers
- Fold the top third of the dough over the center, then fold the bottom third over that. If the dough is starting to get springy and resist more, you may want to let it rest for 5 minutes; cover and refrigerate it any time you let it rest. Rotate and then roll out and fold the dough for the fourth time. Wrap in a plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes before using
- You can refrigerate the dough for up to 3 days or in the freezer for up to one month. Just make sure the dough lies flat and that the edges do not get bent over. To thaw, place frozen pastry in the refrigerator
When ready to use it:
- Dust the work surface with a little flour, because the dough will be moist. Use a lightly floured rolling pin to flatten the dough, then roll it out, rolling just to the edges, not over them
- Just before baking, trim each edge with sharp knife to create a clean edges so the pastry can puff as it should
2 comments
How much total butter in above recipe? 1 stick for dough making then other for Step 5? My 1st step has the dough already a fait accompli!
Hi Linda, somehow the early steps of the recipe instructions were not there after I converted my recipe to a different platform. Anyway, I have updated it accordingly and I hope that helps to clear some confusion.