We love puff pastry here at home, its very versatile and once. you make it you can freeze and thaw when need fairly quickly. If you don't have any however the process is a tad more involved. There are so many "quick puff pastry" recipes on the internet, but 99% involve buying a frozen pack at your nearby supermarket. Nothing wrong with that, but here is a very quick method called the rough puff which I personally think is just a simple and you make it yourself.. Its so easy you can have a batch ready in now time and ready to fill with Chocolate, Guava, ham & cheese, etc
The Ingredients
500g Bread Flour
500f Butter
200ml COLD water
2 tsp salt
The Method
Cube the butter and place the butter, cold water and bowl in the freezer for 20-30min
Combine the flour and salt in a large bowl. Add the chilled cubes of butter
You can either combine loosely by hand or use a Kitchen Aid food processor. Give it enough pulses for about 20 seconds and dump it all the cold bowl. I prefer it because I emanate a lot of heat in my Cuban latin hands I guess, its also quicker specially if we are making a “quick” puff pastry why not?
Add in cold water, a little at a time, until it comes together but don’t over add.
At this point, use your hands and create a ball then cover with cling.
Leave to rest 20 minutes in the freezer
Turn out the dough to a lightly floured area
Divide the dough in half and store one half back in the freezer as you can work one batch
Take the half of dough you left out and Knead gently with both hands and form an even thickness rectangle
Roll the dough out to about 20cm x 50cm.
Try to keep the edges straight and even
Don’t over work the dough which will combine the butter too much.
We are looking for a marbling effect
Fold the top third down to the center
Fold the bottom third up and over the previous fold
Give the dough a quarter turn in either direction
Roll out again to a 20cm x 50cm rectangle
Fold the top third down to the center
Fold the bottom third up and over the previous fold
cover with cling film and chill for at least 20 mins
Take out the other half of the dough ball from the freezer and repeat the same process.
Wrap tightly and you can store in the freezer until you are ready to use!