Rough-puff pastry & other laminated pastries

I love the process of achieving those buttery, light layers that melt in the mouth, especially with rough-puff pastry, a much simpler cousin to puff pastry. In this post I give the recipe for a fool-proof rough-puff pastry, along with recipe ideas for using the pastry.

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In this post I look:

• The differences between rough-puff and puff pastries
• Types of turn: book & envelope
• Flavour additions to the pastry
• Top tips for laminated pastry
• Recipe for rough-puff pastry (with photographs of each stage)

Rough-puff pastry is the easiest of the laminated pastries and is the pastry is the pastry I make more than any other. It is usually my pastry of choice for bakes such as sausage rolls, Cornish pasties, cream horns and many pies or tarts.

TO JUMP STRAIGHT TO THE RECIPE: click here

As well as the standard rough-puff recipe, I have also given flavour variations, as well as making brief reference to full-on puff pastry and for yeasted variations (used for croissants, pains au chocolat and Danish pastries). There are links to croissant doughs at the bottom of the post.

Cherry, walnut & maple syrup pastries with a liberal dusting of vanilla icing sugar

While rough-puff does not flake up to the heights that puff pastry does, for the vast majority of pastry bakes that call for laminated pastry, it works brilliantly.

Chicken & roast onion pithivier

The all-butter puff pastry you can buy in the shops really IS a God-send, though, but it has to be the all-butter pastry: the puff pastry that does not contain butter often leaves a claggy after-taste in the mouth.

Beef and ale pasties

The difference between rough-puff and puff pastries

Puff pastry is for me the king of pastries: a pastry that rises to a good height when it is baked, with hundreds of crisp, very clearly defined wafer-thin layers that melt in the mouth. A truly majestic pastry.

Rough-puff pastry also has crisp, buttery layers but not as many as puff pastry, and it doesn’t rise up as much as puff pastry. However, it is significantly quicker and easier to make than puff pastry.

A batch of very good rough-puff pastry can be made up in about 20-30 minutes (plus at least half an hour chilling in the fridge afterwards before use). For the most outstanding results it does benefit from a little chilling once the initial dough is formed and between each turn.

dark chocolate & raspberry vol-au-vents

Puff pastry, however, takes many hours to make, although for most of that time the pastry is chilling in the fridge: it needs to in order to relax the dough, making it easier to roll out: if you don’t rest it, the dough gets resistant to rolling out so you end up putting more pressure on it, thereby risking crushing some of the layers already created.

The approach for both pastries is the basis for croissants: the key difference being the addition of yeast in the dough. I have given links for recipes for yeasted laminated pastries at the bottom of the page, including the rough-puff version of yeasted laminated pastries for short-cut croissants.

Quicker croissants with home-made strawberry jam

It’s how you add the butter!

With puff pastry, a dough is made without the butter initially, and the butter is then incorporated in one thin slab. This gives thin sheets of butter amid the layers of the dough, resulting in the very clearly defined layers in the baked pastry. With puff pastry the dough has to chill a lot after every one of the many stages (typically 6-7 turns).

puff pastry: slab of butter placed on dough

With rough-puff, the butter is added into the flour in small pieces at the start, formed into a dough and then rolled out in a similar way to puff pastry but with fewer turns (typically 3 turns). It doesn’t have to be chilled quite as much between each turn, although I tend to chill it in order to get the best layering.

rough-puff: the butter incorporated in pieces

As the butter is not added in one thin piece, you end up with pockets of butter within the dough, rather than the full layers of butter you get with puff pastry, so you won’t get quite such defined layers. But you certainly get a pretty decent layers, as you can see from these photos of some rough-puff off-cuts:

rough-puff pastry off-cuts baked: you can see the layers clearly

spiced rough-puff pastry (curry powder and turmeric)

Or use grated frozen butter!

You can make an even quicker version of rough-puff, using grated frozen butter rather than pieces of butter, making the dough and then the 3 turns in one go, without chilling apart from at the end.

It is not as well layered as rough-puff, but it is a very good alternative, as you can see from the photos of some of the off-cuts from the rough-puff pastries above, made with lumps of butter, and the photo below that was made with grated butter:

made with frozen grated butter

Two types of turn: book & envelope

The “turns” give the layers. Essentially, you roll out the dough and fold it up, repeating this several times.

There are several types of turn, with envelope turns and book turns being the most common. An envelope turn, which I explain in the recipe below, along with pictures of each stage, gives you three layers each time. A book turn gives you 4 layers each time.

It is quite common to start with a book turn (to build up more layers early on) and then a sequence of envelope turns, but I often go for the envelope turn each time: there is not really much discernible difference in the finished pastry.

spiced rough-puff pastry ready to use

Sticking with three envelope turns, you get 3 x 3 x 3 =27 layers.

With a book turn followed by two envelope turns, you get 4 x 3 x 3 =36 layers.

smoked mackerel pastries

Flavour additions to the pastry:

Depending on what I want to use the pastry for, I love to add extra flavours to the dough at the initial mixing stage. For a batch using 250g flour, about 1 rounded tablespoon of any of the following carry enough of a flavour, but this can be increased or decreased:

• ginger powder
• cocoa powder
• raspberry or other fruit powder
• turmeric
• smoked paprika
• curry powder
• onion powder
• fennel powder
• mustard powder

Spiced lamb in a turmeric and curry powder rough-puff pastry

Top tips for laminated pastry

• Keep everything cold: the water, the dough, even the flour!
• Keep the edges as straight as possible so you get clear rectangles when you roll out at the first turn: you can gently pull the corners to achieve this. If they are straight at the first turn, it is easier to maintain this in the subsequent turns.
• I don’t tend to slavishly measure the dough at each rolling out, but the batch I did here went to about 20cm wide and 50cm long.
• 3 turns with rough-puff gives enough lightness and flake for most bakes. You can just about do the 3 turns one straight after the other without chilling the dough in between each turn, but if the kitchen is warm or the dough feels slightly warm (or at all sticky) pop it in the fridge or even the freezer for about 20 minutes. Either way, you do need to chill the dough for at least 30 minutes after the final turn (ie: before you are ready to use the pastry).
• Similarly, if the pastry is resisting while being rolled out at any stage, fold it back up again loosely and chill it for 20 minutes or so before continuing: you will notice that it will have relaxed significantly, allowing you to roll it out with ease.
• Don’t go mad and try to fit in too many turns: the more turns you do, the more you risk putting pressure on the dough, and too much pressure can cause the layers to squash together!

Recipe for rough-puff pastry: makes about 600g

• 250g strong plain flour
• 200g chilled unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
• 5g fine sea salt
• 140-150ml cold water to mix
• about 1 rounded tablespoon of powdered spices (optional)

(1) Mix the flour and salt together. If going for a flavoured rough-puff, stir in the dry spices/flavours being used. Stir in the chopped butter and coat with the flour mixture to stop the butter clumping together.

rough-puff: the butter incorporated in pieces

(2) Stir in most of the water with a knife to form a soft but not sticky dough, adding the remaining water if necessary.

mixing to a soft dough

(3) Bring together to a ball without kneading it. You can chill it at this stage for about 30 minutes or proceed without chilling it.

bring the dough together

(4) Roll out the dough on a floured surface to a long rectangle about 20cm by 50cm. The dimensions do not need to be precise – just long and thin will do! The dough will look streaky to begin with but the streaks will disappear with later turns.

roll out to a long rectangle

(5) Fold the bottom third into the middle

bring bottom third up over the middle

(6) Bring the top third over the centre. This is the first turn. Now if the dough is feeling at all warm, particularly if the kitchen is warm, chill the dough for about 20 minutes before carrying on.

bring top third over the rest of the dough

(7) Repeat two more times. NB: it should roll out quite effortlessly without the need to put much force onto it. If, for the third and final turn the dough is resisting, chill it for about 20 minutes to relax the dough and continue.

you get a smoother dough after the third & final turn

(8) After the final turn, you do need to wrap the dough in clingfilm and chill for at least 30 minutes – or freeze it at this stage.

rough-puff pastry ready to use

Links for my recipes using laminated dough, including yeasted laminated pastries :

• Short-cut croissants
• Traditional croissants
• Chicken and roast onion pie (pithivier)
• The very best sausage rolls!
• Chorizo and fennel sausage rolls
• Simple chicken and asparagus tart
• Smoked cheese and onion pasties 

 

Links for making other pastries

• Shortcrust pastry and fool-proof baking blind
• Choux pastry