By Mary 12 Comments
The Farm Girl Attempts Cheats Rough Puff Pastry Recipe from The Great British Baking Show and It Works!
I love this kitchen — I want that fridge for sure!
I don’t know about you, but I adore The Great British Baking Show. It is my favorite baking show of all time — the tent is gorgeous, the decor is totally charming, the contestants real and diverse, and the food looks to die for! Everyone is nice to each other and helpful, unlike some of the other cutthroat baking contest shows. And who doesn’t love the names of the hosts — Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry — perfect! It has become one of my comfort shows — I record it and when I’m having a bad day I watch some episodes and I feel better by the end.
What a beautiful location for the tent — the picket fence is a great touch!
Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry– what a pair!
If you haven’t watched them you can catch them online herehttp://www.pbs.org/show/great-british-baking-show/. They are worth the time.
The Farm Girl’s Attempt Paul Hollywood’s Cheats Rough Puff Pastry Recipe
Ok, so let’s talk about puff pastry. Rough Puff is a quick, light flaky pastry without all of the work of a true Puff Pastry. I found it worked great for the two recipes I used it for — pot pies and a breakfast pastry. I have always just purchased pre-made puff pastry in the frozen food section and they work great, however, it is kind of expensive if you are making a large quantity.
Making it from scratch seemed absolutely terrifying — I didn’t grow up with a mom who made pastries — with 12 kids in our farm family, a big pan of brownies was the ticket — easy, inexpensive and fast. Now that I am doing some catering at smaller weddings on our farm, I am on a mission to get good at several different pastries for appetizers and desserts. When I saw the Christmas Baking Show and Paul Hollywood making this quick Cheats Puff — I was hooked — I needed to figure out how to make it!
Being tentative about making puff pastry is not a unrealistic fear. The thought of so many things going wrong and wasting all of that lovely, butter is just one of the many thoughts running through my head. But my heroine, Julia Child would say, “The only real stumbling block is fear of failure. In cooking you’ve got to have a what-the-hell attitude.” So it’s on!
As you can see by the recipe — there are very few ingredients — it’s all about the steps. Pastry is more of an art than a science it seems to me. Science would say – 4 tablespoons of water — Art says — 4 to 6 tables spoons or until it comes together. Science gets the same answer every time if you stick to the rules — Art sometimes you are Monet and sometimes it’s an ugly ashtray only a mother could love!
Cut butter up into small cubes and keep refrigerated.
Mix the flour and salt together in a bowl. Rub in the chilled butter using your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Gradually add enough water to form a dough (about 4-6 tablespoons of water).
Dough should come together is a ball.
Roll the dough out into a rectangle on a lightly floured work surface.
One of the tricks that Paul Hollywood used in his show was mind-blowing and brilliant! After watching TV chefs pound out butter into large rectangles for the layers of puff pastry, I was awed when I saw Paul used a frozen butter stick and a hand shredder to allow the butter layer to be quickly made — so clever!
Grate frozen butter
Put half of the grated frozen butter over the bottom two thirds of the dough. Fold down the top third and fold up the bottom third as if folding a letter. — Oops sometimes you make mistakes and I put some at the top 1/3 in this picture — but it all came out anyway.
Turn the folded dough 90 degrees and roll it out into a rectangle again. Repeat the process of adding the remaining frozen butter and fold as before. Wrap the dough in cling film and leave to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes before using.
I used a square and a cut out star on top of a pot pie filling and washed with an egg wash.
The other thing I tried was to cut into about 6-inch squares. Make a cut at each of the corners. I then put a dab of cream cheese and black raspberry jam in the middle and brought each corner up to form a pinwheel. I then did an egg wash and baked at 400 for about 15 minutes or until golden brown. When cooled I sprinkled with powdered sugar. They were pretty good if I say so myself!
Today I am working on some mini-appetizers I’ll make my husband eat for supper — he kind of likes that sort of thing — so all will be good. Check out some of the other sites I listed below — there are thousands of fillings and fun things you can do with your own Rough Puff Pastry dough!
Cheats Rough Puff Pastry Recipe from The Great British Baking Show -- It Works!
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This is a great shortcut method for making puff pastry. You can use it for sausage rolls, apple turnovers, tarts, and savory pies.
Author: Paul Hollywood
Recipe type: Pastry
Cuisine: French
Serves: 5 oz
Ingredients
- 300g/10½oz plain flour = 1⅓ cups
- pinch salt
- 50g/1¾oz butter, chilled and cut into cubes = 1 oz = 2 TBS so a scant 4 TBS
- 120g/4½oz butter, frozen = 9 TBS
Instructions
- Mix the flour and salt together in a bowl. Rub in the chilled butter using your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Gradually add enough water to form a dough (about 4-6 tablespoons of water).
- Roll the dough out into a rectangle on a lightly floured work surface.
- Grate half of the frozen butter over the bottom two-thirds of the dough. Fold down the top third and fold up the bottom third as if folding a letter.
- Turn the folded dough 90 degrees and roll it out into a rectangle again. Repeat the process of adding the remaining frozen butter and fold as before.
- Wrap the dough in cling film and leave to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes before using.
Great sites to find more ways to use your Rough Puff Pastry!
- 14 Easy and Tasty Puff Pastry Recipe Ideas: Woman’s Day
- Jalapeno Popper Cups: Allrecipes
- Puff Pastry Recipes: Taste of Home
- Swedish Meatball Tartlets: Pepperidge Farm
Keep it simple, have fun and enjoy!
–Mary
