Making your own puff pastry

Method

1. Gather and weigh all the ingredients. Keep the 180 g of laminating butter separate: it is only added to the dough during lamination.
2. Make the base dough. Make a well in the flour on the work surface. Pour the cold water into the centre and place the soft 25 g of margarine and the salt on the flour rim. Gradually mix the flour into the water with your fingers. Once the mixture comes together, work the margarine and salt further into the dough. Knead briefly until you have one cohesive, slightly firm dough, with no dry flour or loose pieces. Allow approximately 5–8 minutes for mixing and kneading by hand. Judge mainly by the dough: it should hold together and be slightly elastic; prolonged kneading is unnecessary.

   Time range: choose the first timer to check progress or the last for the end of the stated time.

   Start timer · 5 min
   Start timer · 8 min
3. Leave the base dough to rest briefly, covered. Meanwhile, prepare the laminating butter. Place the 180 g of laminating butter on baking paper and fold the paper into an enclosed rectangle. Roll the butter out inside the paper into an even sheet, including the corners. Make the sheet fit two thirds of the rolled-out dough. The butter should be about as firm as the dough: butter that is too soft will be squeezed out, while butter that is too hard may tear the dough.
4. Enclose the laminating butter. Roll the dough out into a rectangle approximately 35 × 50 cm. Remove the baking paper from the sheet of butter and place the butter over two thirds of the dough. Fold the uncovered third inwards first, then fold the other third over it, enclosing the butter. This enclosing step comes before the six turns.
5. Complete turns 1 and 2. For the first turn, roll out to approximately 40 × 50 cm and fold into thirds, like a letter. Rotate the dough a quarter turn. For the second turn, roll out to approximately 35 × 45 cm and fold into thirds again. Wrap in cling film and leave to rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
6. Complete turns 3 and 4. Rotate the dough a quarter turn before each subsequent turn. For turn 3, roll out to approximately 30 × 40 cm and fold into thirds. For turn 4, roll out to approximately 25 × 35 cm and fold into thirds again. Wrap in cling film and leave to rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
7. Complete turns 5 and 6. Rotate the dough a quarter turn before each subsequent turn. For turn 5, roll out to approximately 20 × 30 cm and fold into thirds. For turn 6, roll out to approximately 15 × 25 cm and fold into thirds again. Wrap in cling film and leave to rest in the fridge for at least one hour.
8. Use the puff pastry. After the final rest, the dough is ready to roll out for your chosen preparation. The final thickness, baking time and oven temperature depend on what you make with it.