Name: Quick & Easy Homemade Puff Pastry
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 30 min
Ingredients: 1 1/4 cup very cold butter (salted)*; 1/2 cup very cold water; 1/4 teaspoon salt*; 2 cups all-purpose flour; 6-8 slices cooked Ham; 1 1/4 cups Gruyere or cheese of choice shredded; 1/2 - 1 pear sliced (not too thick/firm but ripe); 1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts; 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips; 1 egg; 1 tablespoon water; 1/4 - 1/2 cup shredded cheese fontal or gruyere; 1/4 - 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan Cheese; 1-2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian Parsley; 3 tablespoons brown sugar; 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon; 1 apple peeled, cored and sliced thin

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This Homemade Puff Pastry, is so quick and easy and so much better than store bought puff pastry sheets. You will wonder why you didn’t do it sooner! Learn how to make it and use it in all your recipes that call for flaky, buttery pastry.

I have been dying to make puff pastry for years, since the first time I saw my sister-in-law make it. Unfortunately, I kept putting it off and putting it off because it was always just too much work and time consuming.

I was lucky enough to find this recipe on the Food Network website called the quickest puff pastry recipe. Now this was an amazing discovery. I can make puff pastry and save myself so much time and effort. Yeah, I like that!

This pastry is flaky, crispy and buttery, just like the classic puff pastry which takes time and lots of rolling. Another bonus point is, that you can fill it with any filling that suits your tastes, from savory to sweet.

Ingredients

Very cold salted butter cut into cubes, do nut use margarine
Very cold water
Salt
All-purpose flour

Puff pastry folded on a wooden board with a rolling pin.

How to Make Puff Pastry

I used my food processor to bring this puff pastry dough together and it was so easy, a few pulses and you are ready to go!

Place the flour and some of the butter cubes in the food processor. Pulse until the butter is worked into the dough. Add the rest of the butter and pulse just a few more times. Adding the butter in batches ensures it is worked evenly through the flour.

Add the cold water and pulse several more times or until the dough forms a ball. It’s very important to not over process the dough at this point – it should only take four to five more pulses for this step.

At this point, your dough will have bits of butter throughout but don’t worry, that is what makes this dough flaky.

Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface. One thing I noticed is you have to make sure to keep your surface lightly floured all the time, gently form into a compact ball.

Dough moved to board and gentled kneaded to form a ball.

Lightly flour your rolling-pin, roll the dough out to a rectangle approximately 12×18 inches (30×45 cm).

To create all the flaky layers, fold the rectangle in half and then in half again.

Fold it one more time in half and then wrap it in plastic wrap and chill it for one to two hours. Once your puff pastry dough is chilled it’s ready to use!

Storage and Freezing Tips

Store the homemade puff pastry in the refrigerator for several days. Be sure it is sealed in plastic wrap.
You can also freeze it. Wrap it well in plastic wrap and place in a freezer-safe bag or container, it will keep in the freezer for up to a month.
Before using the frozen dough, leave it folded and wrapped and thaw it in the fridge overnight.

How to Use It

There are countless ways to use your puff pastry sheets, both savory and sweet. Here I’m sharing two different pastry recipes that you might like to try!

Savory Filling

With the first part, I rolled the dough into a rectangle, lined it with slices of Cooked Ham and Shredded Gruyere Cheese, although any cream cheese would work.

I rolled it up as tight as possible, wrapped it in plastic and refrigerated it for about 20 minutes.

Making the ham & cheese pinwheels, rolled and placed on a cookie sheet for baking.

Then with a very sharp knife I made 1/4 inch slices, placed them on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet, sprinkled a little more shredded cheese and baked them for about 20 minutes

They make the perfect appetizers and were gone in minutes!

Sweet Filling

The remaining dough I rolled the pastry into a circle and made 8 triangles, on each triangle, on the bottom (large part) I placed one or two thin slices of pear, some chopped walnuts and a sprinkling of chocolate chips.

I then rolled them up starting at the bottom (large part) and placed the on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.

Dough rolled & cut, stuffed to form crescents, ready for baking on a cookie sheet.

I brushed them with an egg wash and baked them for about 10-15 minutes. Let them cool and a little dusting of Powdered Sugar is all they need.

Baked crescents dusted with powdered sugar on a wire rack.

If pears aren’t to your liking, then you could fill them with 2-3 apples slices tossed with a little brown sugar and cinnamon.

If you have any leftover dough you could always make some double cheese savory twists. They would be perfect with a big bowl of Soup or Stew.

I hope you decide to give this 10 Minute Homemade Puff Pastry a go. Let me know what you think and how you filled yours. Enjoy!

Thanks to the foodnetwork.com.