Oh yes, I promise you it’ll be quick: all ready to roll out in an hour! And what’s more, you’ll like it better than the long-version of flaky pastry. For the uninitiated, flaky pastry or rough puff pastry or blitz pastry is similar to puff pastry: it’s rolled and folded but you don’t land with thin sheets of (great) pastry, you get feathery flakes.
Imagine doing away with all that time and effort and getting sensational results! Don’t be intimidated — this is a perfect start to to the world of pastry. And you’ll fall in love, I guarantee; the flakes are so light, that they melt in no time to make way for whatever goodness lies atop — you really don’t miss the height that a long-version flaky pastry or puff pastry offer. These buttery, flaky, light yet crispy delights are a perfect for galettes, tarts and pies, or even cheese straws or cream horns.
Whatever may be the secret? You’ll have to GRATE the butter. Yes, grating cold, moderately frozen butter yields a pile of cold and tiny pieces of butter that you then proceed to simply distribute throughout the flour, instead of going through all the fuss that involves making it the loooong way. And that’s that. There, now that you know, do not tarry — make it sooooon!
And then, you’ll get to enjoy this wonderful delight: french onion tart.
I’ve adapted this recipe from Easy Cooking | Baking. And no, there are no affiliate links here.
You’ll fall in love, I guarantee; the flakes are so light, that they melt in no time to make way for whatever goodness lies atop. And it's quick!
- 175 g flour (6 oz)
- 125 g butter (4 oz)
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons (+ 2 tablespoons if required) chilled water
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Place the butter and a mixing bowl with the flour and salt sifted in it, in the freezer for 40 minutes.
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Take them all out and grate the butter atop the sifted flour using the course side of a grater. Dip the butter in the flour every now and then to prevent the butter from sticking to the grater. You could hold the end of the butter with gloves or mittens if the weather is warm and humid.
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Using a knife or two, mix the butter into the flour — work towards getting all the butter coated with flour.
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Add 3 tablespoons of chilled water and continue to mix with the knives.
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Then, adding very little water at a time (if needed), mix with your hands till the flour leaves the bowl.
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Press it to form a ball and wrap the pastry in plastic wrap and place it in the fridge for 30 minutes.
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Once it has chilled in the fridge for 30 minutes, you can take it out and roll it out in any shape you want. Dust your rolling surface and the rolling pin with flour, and roll it out lightly and gently.
You can freeze the quick flaky pastry for later use. Let it thaw before you roll it out. If you have pastry flour in your pantry, you can use that.
Related Links:
Flaky Pastry (Wikipedia)
Difference Between Flaky, Puff and Filo Pastry (DifferenceBetween.com)