Jacob's Rough
Puff (Pastry) Dough

Summary: I’m not exactly sure where I first learned how to make "rough puff" dough. All I know is that I’ve been making it for years now and that it is a truly versatile recipe. Not only can puff pastry be used for fantastic cookies of multifarious flavors, it can be utilized for crusts of pies whether savory or sweet and even as a base for a one-of-a-kind pizza. Though the process has become something “by feel” for me, I have done my best to include accurate ingredient quantities and simple instructions.

Ingredients:

• 8 oz. (2 sticks) frozen Kerrygold salted butter

• 1 ½ cups chilled flour (semolina works well, but all-purpose is fine)

• 2 tbsp Splenda / preferred non-sugar sweetener

• 1 tsp salt

• ~ ½ cup carbonated water (or ~ ½ cup chilled plain water)

Instructions:

1. Mix the dry ingredients together in a plastic / wooden bowl.

2. Grate in the frozen butter. You can coat that butter with the chilled flour to create a barrier between your hand’s warmth and the butter.

3. Gently add ~ ½ cup of chilled carbonated water (chilled normal water also works, but carbonated water seems to allow better distribution of moisture).

4. Let the dough rest in the fridge for about 30 minutes. This allows the moisture to soak evenly into the flour.

5. Flatten the dough with a rolling pin and fold it in envelope-fashion. Repeat this process once. Use additional flour as needed to prevent the dough from sticking to the counter and rolling pin.

6. Allow the dough to rest for at least 30 minutes.

7. Preheat the oven to 400 F.

8. Split the dough, and then, working one batch at a time, flatten the two sheets on a floured surface.

9. Lightly distribute your flavoring of choice across the surface of the flattened sheets. You can use anything ranging from jams & jellies to peanut butter to a no-sugar-added variant which only uses Splenda and cinnamon.

10. Roll up the dough and cut it into segments about ¾” thick. This creates raw puff pastry pinwheels.

11. Lay the segments horizontally on a sheet pan lined with foil and parchment paper, and then place that pan in the oven.

12. Allow the puff pastry to bake at 400 F for five minutes before reducing the temperature to 335 F. At 335F, the puff pastries can cook anywhere from 25-45 minutes; this depends on browning preference. I like 35-40 minutes.

13. Take out the puff pastry, let it cool, and enjoy.