It's not difficult, it just takes time...

Puff pastry is the queen of doughs. It’s not a difficult one to make, not when you can be patient, when you know some tricks and tips and when you understand the idiosyncrasies of her majesty, the Pâte Feuilletée. 

This dough requires time - time to rest. It requires cold - cold hands, cold working area. It requires a good rolling pin and a little elbow grease. It will consume you for half a day, you need to pay attention to it, but while it is resting in the fridge, you’ll get a rest too and have the chance to tend to other things. And then, you can enjoy the glory of its hundreds of layers, the puff, the rise, the buttery goodness.

Puff pastry is not for the faint-hearted. If you love making doughs, then you’re going to love making this one too. If you’re not one to shy away from a pastry challenge, this one’s for you.

Pâte feuilletée, the French word for puff pastry which translates to layered dough, is made with flour, water and butter and it does not contain any kind of leavening agent.
It is made up of three parts: the basic dough [détrempe], the butter block [beurrage] and the packed dough [pâton] (formed by combining the first two parts). The butter block is incorporated into and dispersed throughout the basic dough through a number of rolls and folds, named turns [tours], and the result is a laminated dough, a dough that has alternating layers of dough and butter pressed together. The layers of butter are those that make the dough 'puff' in the oven.

French Puff Pastry (Pâte Feuilletée)

Below you’ll find useful tips for making puff pastry that will make your life easier. Take care to read through carefully and comprehend them before making the pastry and make sure to refer back to them while making it. The various notes throughout the recipe are terribly important as well.

• Puff pastry needs cold (cold kitchen, cold work surface, cold hands) and it’s easier and quicker to make puff pastry during the winter rather than in the summer when the temperatures are high. For example, when I make puff pastry in the winter, the dough only needs to stay in the fridge for 30 minutes between each turn but during the summer it needs at least 1 hour. 
• You need to rest the dough in the fridge for two reasons. The first is for the gluten in the flour to relax, and the second for the butter to chill and set. Both make rolling out the dough easier and you also minimize the risk of tearing the layers and of the butter escaping through them. 
• The resting times in the recipe apply to winter temperatures. Adjust resting times if you’re making it during the summer or in a warm environment. Also, use your common sense. If you realise your dough is not as cold as it should be and the butter starts to ooze out or break through the layers, then return it to the fridge. 
• Don’t forget to flour your work surface and dough before rolling it out and don’t neglect brushing off the excess flour when you fold it.
• The best way to keep your hands cold while handling or rolling out the dough is by washing them under cold water.
• Puff pastry does not require a lot of hands-on time but because of the resting periods, you need to be available to go in and out of the kitchen at regular intervals. So arrange to make puff pastry when you know you have that time.

Ingredients:
Basic dough

• 500 gram strong white bread flour 
• 200 gram unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into small pieces 
• 10 gram sea salt
• 15 ml (1 Tbsp) lemon juice, freshly squeezed
• 200 ml cold tap water 

Butter block 

• 250 g very cold unsalted butter 

Extra flour (either bread or all-purpose) for sprinkling over work surface and dough

Special equipment: rolling pin (it needs to be long, don’t use a short rolling pin), pastry brush, dough scraper, plastic wrap

Method:Basic dough

1. Mix the flour and salt in a large bowl and add the butter
2. Mix either with your hands or a fork until the mixture resembles coarse meal (breadcrumbs)
3. Add the water and lemon juice
4. Mix with your hands until you have a rough dough
5. Empty it onto a floured surface and knead for a couple of minutes until you have a pliable and smooth dough. Don’t over-work the dough. You should have a dough that’s pliable and that it’s not sticking to your hands; if it’s ever-so-slightly sticky though, don’t alarm yourself, it’s okay
6. Shape it into a ball and then press to create a 15-16 cm flattened square
7. Using a blunt knife or a dough scraper, cut a cross halfway through the dough. Wrap it in plastic wrap and place it in your refrigerator for 1 hour

Butter block

1. Take the cold butter and place it between two large pieces of plastic wrap
2. Using a rolling pin, beat the butter into a 15-16 cm square, the size of the basic dough
3. Place the butter block the refrigerator for 1 hour

Note 1: The basic dough and the butter block need to be really cold before you move on to combine them and make the packed dough. They also need to be of almost equal hardness otherwise it will be difficult to incorporate the butter block into the basic dough.

Packed dough

1. Take the basic dough out of the fridge, unwrap it (keep the plastic wrap to re-use it) and place it on a lightly floured work surface
2. Dust the basic dough with flour and, using your rolling pin, roll out the four pieces of the cross you made, making sure the centre is not rolled out so a mound remains
3. Take the butter block out of the fridge, unwrap it and place it in the centre of the basic dough, on top of the mound, and press it gently
4. Fold each rolled out piece on top of the butter block, making sure it covers it completely and also pinching the basic dough around it so that the butter block is encased properly in it. What you have now is the packed dough
5. Using your pastry brush, brush off the excess flour from the packed dough, wrap it with plastic wrap (re-use the one you had wrapped the basic dough with) and place it in the fridge for 30 minutes

Turns
From this point on what you need to do is make 6 turns; roll out and fold the dough 6 times in total. The dough needs to rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes between each turn so that the butter solidifies and does not melt inside your dough thus ruining the layers you’re trying to accomplish.

Note 1: Traditionally, classic puff pastry needs to be rolled out and folded 6-8 times but 6 times is the usual.

Note 2: Before you start, keep in mind that you need to act quickly. The more the dough stays out of the fridge, the more the butter melts and the dough softens, making it difficult to roll out. I don’t want to make you panic, just be aware that you need to be quick.

1st turn

1. Take the packed dough out of the fridge and unwrap it
2. Lightly flour your work surface and keep the flour at hand because you may need to dust your surface with more flour while you’re rolling out the dough
3. Dust the top of the packed dough with flour
4. The best way to roll out the pastry is by first making indentations using the rolling pin, in three places, two always being towards the far edges of the pastry. This will help keep the rectangle shape of the dough but also push and distribute the butter throughout more evenly
5. Make more indentations between those first ones. It will make rolling out the pastry easier and you won’t need to put much pressure with your hands
6. Roll the dough out in one direction (do not roll out the sides) into an elongated rectangle with a thickness of 1 cm (approximately 45 cm long and 20-22 cm wide). Remember to flour as you roll when you feel the dough is sticking to your work surface, otherwise the butter will peep out of the dough and your layers will be ruined. Also, if butter does leak out of the dough, then put it back in the fridge
1. Furthermore, while rolling the dough out, always try to maintain a rectangle and an even shape
7. Dust the flour off the dough
8. Fold the rectangle into thirds. Visually, divide the dough into thirds and fold one third over the middle, dust the flour off and then fold the opposite third over, much like you would fold a business letter. Brush off the excess flour, making sure to also brush off the flour from the bottom of the dough, and wrap it in the plastic wrap. Place the dough in the fridge for at least 30 minutes

Note 1: Make sure you dust off the dough every time you fold it, otherwise it will dry out. 
Note 2: Between turns, before rolling out the dough, you need to always scrape the butter and flour off your work surface otherwise the dough will stick to it. Have your scraper always at hand.

Note 3: If you are making puff pastry during the winter and you realize that after one turn your dough is still cold and firm enough, you can do two turns back to back before you return the dough to the fridge. However, do not get carried away and try to do more than two turns at one time, because your dough will most probably tear, you’ll lose your layers and all your hard work will go to waste.

Note 4: If you want to keep track of how many turns you have done, the classic way when making pâte feuilletée, is by marking (the corner of) the dough by pressing with the tip of your finger(s), making as many indentations as turns you have completed. Don’t press too hard though, you don’t want to tear the layers (see photo below).

2nd turn

1. Take the dough out of the fridge and unwrap it. Lightly flour your work surface and place the dough, seam-side up, with its spine on your left (if you were to unfold the dough, it should open to your left, like how you open a book) and dust the top with flour
2. Make indentations on the dough just like you did on the previous step and then roll it out again to a 1 cm thick elongated rectangle (just like you did on the previous step)
3. Continue rolling and folding the dough just like in the 1st turn to complete the 2nd turn

3rd – 6th turn

1. From this point on, you need to repeat the same exact process 4 more times, completing 6 turns in total (see photo below for all six turns, including how to make the packed dough)

This recipe yields about 1.2 kg of puff pastry, which is a lot, so you can cut it at this point into 2 or 4 pieces, cover them with plastic wrap and keep them in the fridge.

If you want to use the pastry right away, you need to put it in the fridge for 30 minutes after the 6th turn and then roll it out again, but this time more thinly, depending on what you are making. For example, if you want to make a tart, you should roll it out 0.3-0.4 cm thick.

You can keep the puff pastry in the fridge for 4-5 days but I find that you get a better result i.e. a higher puff, when you use it within the first couple of days.

You can also store it in the freezer, wrapped well with plastic wrap, for one month. 

As they say in France:

Apprécier les résultats

Or, in English

Enjoy the results.