How To Make Quick and Easy Flaky Pastry. Simple to follow instructions, great for pies, strudels, turnovers, and freezer friendly too!
How To Make Quick and Easy Flaky Pastry. Don’t go buying the shop stuff! Now there’s no need because here, we show you an easy step by step guide for how you can make some delicious flaky pastry which will take your breath away! It’s amazing!
This is a really easy and quick recipe.
Low-cost ingredients, delicious, light, crispy pastry, and a sure way to impress your family and friends!
Go ahead and try it!
People are often frightened to make pastry, or pie dough.
It can be daunting, overwhelming, tricky, and let’s face it, it can be easier to just buy ready made pastry from the supermarket, no mess, no recipe needed, just roll and use…and of course nowadays, you can get pastry that is ready rolled!
So why should I bother sharing a pastry recipe with you?
Well, once you’ve made your own pastry, it is very unlikely you will go back to the shop bought stuff.
For one thing, it’s cheaper to make your own flaky pastry, you know exactly what ingredients you are putting into your pastry, and the flavors and textures are really like no shop pastry!
Trust me, you will feel a sense of achievement, satisfaction, and a mini ego boost if you make your own pastry!
This recipe for flaky pastry is by far an easy one, even for a complete novice. All you need to do is follow the simple instructions, and let the ingredients do the work!
Flaky pastry has certain characteristics, similar to rough puff and puff pastry, in that you will end up with…..yep, flaky, light layers of pastry with a beautiful thin crisp crust.
TOP TIPS!
You have to make sure of two things when you make this pastry.
1. Cool working conditions (don’t go trying this in a heatwave!)
2. The oven MUST have reached the correct temperature, i.e. it must be hot when the pastry first goes in.
The idea of flaky pastry is to incorporate thin layers of fat between the layers of dough, encasing as much air as possible.
When the pastry is placed in the oven, this trapped air expands and lifts each thin layer of pastry separately. You get the idea…?
So…are you ready?
It’s easy, just follow the steps and hey presto! you will have learned how to make your very own quick and easy flaky pastry!
Prep Time:
15 minutes plus 30 minutes chill time
Cook Time:
20 – 40 minutes (depending on what you are using the pastry for!)
Yield:
10 servings
This recipe will make 1 sheet of pastry, 3-4 mm thick, measuring 30 cm x 12 cm
INGREDIENTS
3/4 cup or 175 g butter at room temperature
1 3/4 cups or 225 g Plain / All purpose flour (sieved)
pinch of salt
1/4-1/2 cup or 100 ml of cold water
2 tablespoons sugar if making a sweet dish.
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Mix the sieved flour and salt in a bowl. (add sugar if using)
2. Weigh out the butter and divide into 4 amounts.
3. Add one portion of the butter to the flour and using a round-bladed knife, incorporate the butter and flour, whilst slowly adding enough cold water until the mixture comes together to form an elastic dough.
4. Dust the rolling surface with flour, and turn the dough out. Roll out the dough into a rectangle shape (see photo) and keep rolling, adding more flour if necessary to stop from sticking, until the dough is about 4 mm thickness.
5. Rub any excess flour from the surface and using the next portion of butter, dot the butter (about 1 cm dots) on two-thirds of the rolled out pastry evenly. (see photo).
6. Fold the pastry into three portions, bringing the end without butter to the center, then folding down the other third. (see photo)
7. Press together pastry edges with your fingers, give the pastry half a turn and roll out lightly again until the pastry is 4 mm thick (same size before you dotted with butter).
8. Repeat steps 5 – 7 twice more, then fold into three, cover with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Whilst the pastry is resting in the fridge, set your oven temperature to 200C, 400F, gas mark 6 if using pastry as a pie with filling. Cooking time about 20 – 35 minutes.
If just cooking the pastry on its own, such as vol au vents, oven temperature should be 230C, 450F, gas Mark 8, cooking time about 8-10 minutes
*****Before placing in the oven, brush the TOP with milk and NOT the sides as this will prevent the pastry from rising.*****
Then sprinkle some sugar, spices such as cinnamon, if a sweet dish, or savory spices, like jerk seasoning, cajun spices, actually, anything that takes your fancy!
Cooking times will vary depending on what you are using the pastry for. As a rough guide, 8-10 minutes for something small, 20-35 minutes for larger pies, or until the pastry takes on a nice golden brown color.
We’d love to hear from you and what you thought of our quick and easy flaky pastry recipe. Did you make any changes or add some other goodies? Let us know in the comments below. Thanks for reading and happy cooking!
Here are a few more recipes where you can use flaky pastry. So delicious!
Mini Chicken Stroganoff Pot Pies
Cherry Cream Cheese Crescent Roll Bars
Light and Crispy Apple Strudel
Sausage and Red Onion Chutney Rolls
Quick and Easy Flaky Pastry
How To Make Quick and Easy Flaky Pastry. Simple to follow instructions, great for pies, strudels, turnovers and freezer friendly too!
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup or 175 g butter at room temperature
- 1 3/4 cups or 225 g Plain / All purpose flour, sieved
- pinch of salt
- 1/4-1/2 cup or 100 ml of cold water
- 2 tablespoons sugar if making a sweet dish.
Instructions
- Mix the sieved flour and salt in a bowl. (add sugar if using)
- Weigh out the butter and divide into 4 amounts.
- Add one portion of the butter to the flour and using a round bladed knife, incorporate the butter and flour, whilst slowly adding enough cold water until the mixture comes together to form an elastic dough.
- Dust the rolling surface with flour, and turn the dough out. Roll out the dough into a rectangle shape (see photo) and keep rolling, adding more flour if necessary to stop from sticking, until the dough is about 4 mm thickness.
- Rub any excess flour from the surface and using the next portion of butter, dot the butter (about 1 cm dots) on two thirds of the rolled out pastry evenly. (see photo).
- Fold the pastry into three portions, bringing the end without butter to the centre, then folding down the other third. (see photo)
- Press together pastry edges with your fingers, give the pastry half a turn and roll out lightly again until the pastry is 4 mm thick (same size before you dotted with butter).
- Repeat steps 5 - 7 twice more, then fold into three, cover with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Notes
Note the prep time includes 30 minutes of chill time
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
8Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 271Total Fat: 18gSaturated Fat: 11gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 5gCholesterol: 47mgSodium: 158mgCarbohydrates: 25gFiber: 1gSugar: 3gProtein: 3g
Karen Wiltshire
Can this pastry be frozen before it’s cooked?
Lovefoodies
Hi Karen, yes. If you freeze it after you have folded it, wrap tight in plastic wrap then it will be fine. Allow to defrost in the fridge before rolling out when you’re ready to use.
Samantha
why has my pastry become a cookie
Samantha
it became a cookie and didnt rise. what happened?
i used this recipe for a crossaint
Erika
A truly unintimidating recipe to follow that yielded a scrumptiously buttery result. Thank you. I was done so quickly, I now considered myself converted and can think of no reason to use store-bought pastry again. I did opt out for refrigerated as opposed to butter at room temperature. Hoping to achieve an even more flaky crust next time round and have a smaller overlap for the seam of my pie roll.
Karen Wiltshire
Can this pastry be frozen before it’s cooked?
Vitani
Do you have to melt the butter when adding it to the flour?
Lovefoodies
Hi Vitani, no the butter must be chilled and cut into all cubes.
Lauren
Am I supposed to have extra butter or was I supposed to mix it in as I was folding and rolling because I don’t know what to do with it.
Lovefoodies
Hi Lauren, no, you shouldn’t have any butter left over. You need to divide the butter amount in to 4 portions. The first portion goes in with the flour at the start to form the dough, and the remaining 3 portions are dotted when you are folding the pastry. You need to fold and roll the pastry, and inbetween each folding, dot the butter, the. Fold, roll, dot the butter and so on.
If you have got some left over (I expect it might be one portion of butter), it sounds like you are missing one more fold and rolling out, so don’t worry too much. The pastry will still be flakey, just not as buttery.
Hope that explains a bit for you?
Ellie
If I leave this in the fridge overnight, do I roll it out when I’m ready to use it or use as is ?
Lovefoodies
Hi Ellie, if in the fridge, leave it covered in plastic wrap or an airtight bag folded. Then roll out when you’re ready to use
Ellie
Thank you !! The recipe was super easy to follow and I’ll see how it looks and tastes when I bake it today.
Marc
How much is 1 portion of 3/4?
Lovefoodies
Hi Marc, I think you’re referring to the flour measurement? if so, it is one and three quarters cups of flour, i.e 1 & 3/4 cups. Hope that clears any confusion for you!
Samantha
It’s easier to calculate 1/4 of 175gms which is about 44 grams or 1 1/2 ounces.
Human tembo
That’s a great that’s a nice one, will always want to know about pies
Anne
Made this for a bacon and egg pie. It was perfect – wouldn’t hesitate to make it again.
Coppero
How would I make this Keto? What would I change in the ingredients? I know Almond flour but how much and what else would I change? Thank you so much for sharing!
Rob Corelli
Would this work for a Beef Wellington?
Rob Corelli
One other thing – when you bring the folded-into-three pastry from the refrigerator and let it warm up, do you unfold it before rolling it to 1 mm or do you just roll it and thereby create three times as many flaky layers?
Lovefoodies
Hi Rob, you’re right, roll it as folded so as to create the flaky layers.
Lovefoodies
Hi Rob, yes this will work with Wellington, just remember to wrap the beef in some mushroom pate and crepes so the pastry doesn’t go soggy!
joe grec
I can’t see any difference between flaky and ruff puff. One is using the butter whole layer the other in dots.
John Maxwell
Looks great. Unfortunately my version was not in anyway resembling this, still, the one I made didn’t go to waste, I took the dog to the park with my homemade frisbee and stopped off at the local chippy on my way home
Karen
You don’t include how to put the feeling into the pastry I’m wanting to make turnovers but do I use the raw dough or bake the pastry first?
Lovefoodies
Hi Karen,
This recipe is for how to make flaky pastry so it can be used for a variety of different things. For turnovers, you would add the filling to the raw pastry. We have a recipe for apple turnovers which uses our flaky pastry recipe. You can take a look here for the full instructions https://lovefoodies.com/easy-apple-spiced-turnovers/
Hope that helps!
Kelly Ganson
Can I use a butter substitute? Or Cream Cheese?
malou
no
Dan
Yes. Coconut oil is always a great substitute for butter in baking receipts.
Amanda Martin
It is currently cooling, but I’m nervous. The butter kept leaking but I hope it turns out okay. Anything I do wrong?
Lovefoodies
Hi Amanda, so long as the butter was chilled when you were rolling out the pastry it should be ok. You can expect the bitter to squish out a bit when you’re folding the layers and rolling, so don’t worry!
Dee
Lived up to its name–flaky, buttery and yum. I usually make shortcrust pastry and was wary of anything more complicated, but this was easy. Thank you.
Monica
As someone who has NEVER made my own dough/crust, never even used a rolling pin successfully, but is a decent cook; I would love a quick video!
Zynthia Lim
May I know if they are baked at 200 degrees fan?
Lovefoodies
Hi, yes, it’s 200C or 400F.
Happy new year!
Karen
They are baked at 400 degrees Fahrenheit
Jennifer Martin
I would like to try this recipe: Quick and Easy Flaky Pastry
I would like to know if this dough would be good to make a Tourtier(meat and potato pie ). The tourtier would be 18”x12”x5”. The dough is put in the pan first and a meat,potato, and broth filling is added then it is topped with more dough and baked for 6-8 hours. What I need to know is if this type of dough will react the same in this type of baking method. -thank you
Adrianna
Just made this for turkey pot pie and I’m so thrilled with how amazing this turned out! So flakey, so tasty and so easy!
Sonal goyal
The layers are not rising of my puff pastry.please tell me the reason.
XeRcY RuE
Made sausage rolls and the pie crust was easy to make and flakier and delicious than the store bought kind. Thank you for the best and eqsy recipe.
Em
I’m going to make this again but add salt to the dough. I put a pinch of salt in twice and it was still very bland. Are you using salted butter ? Otherwise I did end up with flaky layers.
Terry
Thanks so much! I was skeptical at first but it really did only take 15 minutes to prepare. I just applied this recipe, cut the dough into rectangles, sprinkled some cinnamon and sugar on top, added some hashes with a knife for design, and it’s in the oven right now! Smells great.
Gina
Not sure what I did wrong but mine came out like a regular dough and not pastries. 🙁
DJ
Can a food processor be used for the first 3 steps of this recipe?
Lovefoodies
Hi there, yes, you can start off with the food processor. Just be sure you don’t over mix!
Blythe
I want to use this recipe to make turnovers for breakfast in a couple of days. But the kids wake up pretty early. So I was hoping to make the pastry dough the night before. I know it says to chill it for 30 minutes, but will it mess it up if I leave on the fridge overnight?
Lovefoodies
Hi Blythe, yes, there’s no problem to chill overnight. You can even make it and freeze. If frozen, simply defrost in the fridge or at room temperature before you roll it out for baking.
Blythe
Great! Thanks for letting me know! Very excited to try out the recipe!
Shawn
Scared to try this..
Sandy
When u take it out of the fridge should unfold it, should I roll some more ,how much filling should I put in the raspberry filling ,it’s canned.
steven
Whayt about the remaining butter???
Gina
I think the extra butter you use when you do the other 2 folds. She says repeat steps and that step is dot with butter.
Ed Figueroa
I thought all dough requires some yeast in oder to rise. No mention in this recipe of any.
Yoshi
This seems to be like a cross between a pie crust dough and viennois, mixing the techniques. Folding butter in like viennois but no yeast like a pie crust. Should theoretically result in a richer more layered pie crust-like result, which doesn’t sound bad as an alternative.
Hulluk1
This is pastry not dough – light and flaky – so doesn’t include yeast?
Dany
After the 30 minutes then I roll again, can I freeze it for later use?
NiQue Williams
Are there any suggestions for using this recipe for a Two-Crust pot pie???
William
What happens after it comes out of the fridge?
Do I roll it out thin again?
Sandy
When u take it out of the fridge should unfold it, should I roll some more ,how much filling should I put in the raspberry filling ,it’s canned.
Lovefoodies
Hi Sandy, yes you’ll need to roll it when it comes out Of the fridge (let it come down a little to room temperature for about 20 minutes before rolling as it will be a bit stiff from being cold).
You need to roll so it is about 1 cm thick, and all an even thickness. I’m not sure what you’re making, if it is like a strudel with the filling, I would suggest making a rectangular shape pastry and then using about 1 1/2 cups of pie filling all along the middle, fold over and brush with some milk, sprinkle a bit of sugar on the top and bake. Make sure all the edges are sealed down (I just use the back of a fork and push down all along the edges so. I filling leaks out.
If you’re making a pie, then you’ll need to fill the pie dish about 2/3 full and pop on a baking tray incase of any over spill whilst baking.
I hope that helps!
alan
Is this the correct pastry for vanilla slices ?
Hulluk1
Yes ?
Cthulhu0818
Mmmmm….now I have malicious plans for those hand picked frozen blueberries in my freezer! Muah ha ha!
lovefoodies
ooooh yes! Blueberry turnovers would be super yummy! A tip for you, if using frozen fruits, don’t defrost them first as they will make the pastry go soggy! Use them straight from frozen!
Happy blueberry baking! I’m so jealous you have home grown ones!
doninkansas
I think I will be trying this sometime next week.
lovefoodies
That’s great to hear! Please enjoy!
Karen @BakingInATornado
What a great tutorial. You were so specific I bet even I could do this. I’m certainly going to give it a try!
lovefoodies
why thank you! You should try it for sure, it’s easy, freezable and cheap to make!!