How To Make Quick and Easy Flaky Pastry. Simple to follow instructions, great for pies, strudels, turnovers, and freezer friendly too!
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!
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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!
If you enjoy sweet pastry recipes, check out our easy honey baklava recipe. It's so good!
If you'd like to learn about the types of pastry, we also have a lovely Shortcrust pastry tutorial and a French Sweet Pastry (for tarts) recipe so be sure to check those out!
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 you'll need
- Butter at room temperature
- Plain / All purpose flour (sieved)
- Salt
- Cold water
- Sugar if making a sweet dish.
See the recipe card below for quantities.
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.
If you have any flaky pastry left over, why not make these Mini Cherry Hand Pies. they're really easy!
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!
Recipe Card
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
- ¾ cup or 175 g butter at room temperature
- 1 ¾ cups or 225 g Plain / All purpose flour, sieved
- pinch of salt
- ¼-1/2 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: 8 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 271Total Fat: 18gSaturated Fat: 11gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 5gCholesterol: 47mgSodium: 158mgCarbohydrates: 25gFiber: 1gSugar: 3gProtein: 3g
Delicious Sweet Recipes Using Pastry
Here's a selection of delicious sweet recipes using pastry
French Fruit Tart With Pastry Cream is a wonderful homemade sweet French pastry (Pâte Sablée) tart case, filled with silky smooth creme patissiere and then decorated with a variety of fresh fruits. A French patisserie classic dessert and a showstopper for parties!
Mini Almond Pastries.
These Mini Almond Pastries have a deliciously smooth, sweet, almond paste filling and are wrapped in crispy, light puff pastry. Quick and easy to make, and perfect for a tea time treat.
Easy Sesame Brown Sugar French Palmier Cookies, AKA Elephant Ears. These are a very easy to make crispy puff pastry cookie, filled with sesame seeds and brown sugar. Great for the holidays!
Blueberry Crescent Roll Cheesecake Bars. An incredibly easy recipe with cream cheese and blueberry filling sandwiched between layers of pastry.
How To Make French Pastry (Pâte Sablée), easy step by step guide on making this sweet, buttery crisp tart shell. A classic famous sweet pastry dough recipe
Baklava is a Middle Eastern classic sweet treat, filled with a variety of nuts, honey, citrus, and spices, between layers of crunchy phyllo pastry. Ideal for serving at parties, or to have as a snack. An easy and simple recipe for the best baklava!
Cherry Crescent Roll Cheesecake Bars. A.K.A Sopapilla Cheesecake Bars. An incredibly quick, easy recipe with cream cheese and cherries sandwiched between layers of flaky buttery golden pastry. Popular cream cheese crescent roll dessert
Easy Vanilla Slices. Creamy custard sandwiched between sheets of crispy puff pastry make for a nice chilled treat perfect for any occasion.
Delicious Apple and Custard Strudel, serve warm on their own or add a blob of whipped cream!
Easy Apple Spiced Turnovers. Crispy puff pastry packed with apples coated in cinnamon. Delicious eaten warm or chilled with a blob of ice cream too! Easy recipe, budget friendly and freezable.
Almond Pastries. A very quick and easy recipe. Delicious almond filling wrapped in a buttery flaky pastry.
Easy Cherry Custard Pastries are perfect for serving at a tea party, or just to have for yourself! Easy to make and fun for kids to help too.
Mini Caramel Apple Pastries. Delightful mini pastries filled with caramel and apples and oh so easy to make!
Apple and Cranberry Crescent Roll Cream Cheese Bars. An incredibly easy recipe with fantastic flavors!
Strawberry Crescent Roll Cheesecake Bars. An incredibly easy and fuss free recipe with cream cheese and strawberry filling sandwiched between layers of pastry. This tastes amazing!
Coppero
says: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!
Belvedere Bailey
says:as there’s no sugar in it, the only other thing you would have to dump is the flour. I do not know if Almond flour would work.
Tip: Get to know how and why Keto works…. that way, you will be able to look at a recipe and know immediately if you can make it keto with substitutes. But basically… no carbs and no sugar.
Rob Corelli
says:Would this work for a Beef Wellington?
Rob Corelli
says: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
says:Hi Rob, you’re right, roll it as folded so as to create the flaky layers.
Lovefoodies
says: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!
Mayra Marin
says:Friends enjoy it I like the idea of making more
joe grec
says:I can’t see any difference between flaky and ruff puff. One is using the butter whole layer the other in dots.
Evelyn
says:Perfect recipe and method. I rolled and folded 3 times for more layers. Also refrigerated raw pies before baking and then straight to hot oven .
John Maxwell
says: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
Robyn
says:Oh my goodness, you made me laugh so hard! :D
Sasha Marshburn
says:Lmao
Karen
says: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
says: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
says:Can I use a butter substitute? Or Cream Cheese?
malou
says:no
Dan
says:Yes. Coconut oil is always a great substitute for butter in baking receipts.
Amanda Martin
says:It is currently cooling, but I’m nervous. The butter kept leaking but I hope it turns out okay. Anything I do wrong?
Lovefoodies
says: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
says: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
says: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
says:May I know if they are baked at 200 degrees fan?
Lovefoodies
says:Hi, yes, it’s 200C or 400F.
Happy new year!
Karen
says:They are baked at 400 degrees Fahrenheit
Jennifer Martin
says: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
says: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
says:The layers are not rising of my puff pastry.please tell me the reason.
XeRcY RuE
says: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
says: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.