Easy Puff Pastry

This is actually an old recipe for ‘rough puff pastry’, which is just another name for a quick and easy puff pastry.  I’ve made proper puff pastry and it takes all day.  You have to refrigerate the pastry between rollings.  This recipe is much easier.  And it turned out quite nice.  I’m not sure I would use it for something that depends on the puff pastry.   But it works quite nicely for my Bavarian beef pie or tarts.  In fact, it was nicer than the frozen store-bought stuff.

Rough Puff Pastry

8 oz flour

6 oz  cold butter, cut into smallish cubes

1/2 t lemon juice

pinch of salt

cold water

Toss flour, salt, and butter together.  Make a well in the centre.  Add the lemon juice and enough water to make a stiff paste.  Roll out into a long strip.  Fold into 3, like a letter.  Make a quarter turn and roll and fold again.  Do this a total of 4 times.  Try not to use too much extra flour and if the room is too hot, you may have to refrigerate the dough to keep the butter from getting too soft.  This dough can be frozen after rolling.

I forgot to weigh the dough, but I would say it’s enough dough to make a 2 crust 9 inch pie.