Puff pastry recipe

Learn how to make classic puff pastry with this easy recipe. This buttery, flaky pastry is great with almost anything. Minimum effort for maximum effect! This recipe makes pastry enough to feed 4-6 people and will take around 2hrs to prepare. Puff pastry is much easier to make than you may think. It takes only 5 ingredients to make this pastry classic and once you've mastered this recipe you'll want to try other pastry classics like shortcrust pastry for example.

Ingredients

• 225g (8oz) plain flour
• A pinch of salt
• 30g (1oz) lard
• 150m (5fl oz) cold water
• 150g (5oz) butter

Method

1. Sift together the flour and the salt and rub in the lard using your fingers. Stir in enough of the water to make a soft dough, wrap in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for 20 mins.
2. Put the butter between 2 pieces of greaseproof paper and flatten out with a rolling pin.
3. Roll out the dough to make a rectangle that measures 12.5 x 25cm/5 x 10in.
4. Take the butter out of the paper and put on the dough rectangle. Bring the corners of the dough together to make an envelope. Chill for 10 mins.
5. Roll out the envelope on a floured surface to make a rectangle that is 3 times longer than it is wide. Fold one third into the middle and then the other third on top. Seal the edges lightly with a rolling pin and chill for 30 mins.
6. Repeat this rolling and folding again and then chill for another 30 mins.
7. Repeat once more.
8. Now roll out and use as required.