It’s been so hard to find puff pastry the past year!  I love the store bought refrigerated puff pastry so much more than the frozen, but it’s been like going on a scavenger hunt to find it, and at the holidays?  Forget about it!  It’s not even worth looking.  The lack of finding it on the shelves is what encouraged me to try to make my own.  This is an easy recipe for rough puff pastry dough and it makes the equivalent of two sheets!

It only takes three ingredients to make puff pastry, all purpose flour, salted butter and icy cold water, but it does take a little elbow grease!  That is because you have to roll it out, fold it, then repeat like 6 times.  That is what gives you the buttery layers.  It then needs to chill out in the refrigerator for at least an hour to get cold again before you roll it out to use it.

This puff pastry is pretty easy to throw together and definitely takes a lot less time than driving around to 15 different stores trying to find it, so I’m sharing it here for you too!  You can be making aaaaalllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll the puff pastry desserts and appetizers year round with this simple recipe!

A couple of tips for making this recipe:

• You have to plan ahead when making this dough, so a good rule of thumb is to make it the day before you want to use it.  I will throw it together the night before so it’s ready to use any time the next day!
• Your ingredients have to be SUPER cold.  That starts with the butter.  I always keep sticks of butter in the freezer so I can make biscuits (and now puff pastry too.)  When it’s time to make your recipe, you can pull it out of the freezer, grate it quickly on a cheese grater, then return the plate to the freezer to keep it nice and cool until you need it in the recipe.
• Make sure you use icy cold water for this too!  Just half fill a cup with ice and cover with water and let it hang out for a minute or two till it’s nice and cold.  Then remove any remaining ice and measure out what you need when it’s time!
• I like to freeze up my hands a little bit prior to touching dough too – just run them under super cold water and dry before bringing your dough together.
• You can absolutely do this in a food processor – just pulse the flour and butter together, then pulse in the cold water until the dough comes together!

Ingredients:

• 2-1/2 cups AP flour
• 1-1/4 cups frozen salted butter, grated (equal to 2-1/2 sticks)
• 2/3 cup icy cold water

Instructions:

1. Place the flour in a large mixing bowl
2. Add the frozen, grated salted butter and stir with a fork until everything is well combined and you have lots of little pea size pieces of butter coated in the flour
3. Add the icy cold water and stir with the fork until it ls all mixed together
4. Sprinkle your hands with flour and get in the bowl and knead the dough together with your hands until it forms a ball.
5. Empty the ball out on to a lightly floured surface
6. Sprinkle some flour on your rolling pin and roll the dough out in to a large rough rectangle.  Fold the dough in to thirds, turn a quarter turn, then roll out in to a rectangle again.  Fold the dough in to thirds again, turn a quarter and repeat that process six times.
7. Divide the dough in to two pieces, wrap each tightly in plastic wrap, place in a Ziploc bag and let rest in the refrigerator for at least an 1-2 hours, but up to 48 hours before using it.
8. When ready to use, let dough sit on the counter for 15-20 minutes before rolling out.