The Farm Girl Attempts Cheats Rough Puff Pastry Recipe from The Great British Baking Show and It Works!
I love this kitchen — I want that fridge for sure!
I don’t know about you, but I adore The Great British Baking Show. It is my favorite baking show of all time — the tent is gorgeous, the decor is totally charming, the contestants real and diverse, and the food looks to die for! Everyone is nice to each other and helpful, unlike some of the other cutthroat baking contest shows. And who doesn’t love the names of the hosts — Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry — perfect! It has become one of my comfort shows — I record it and when I’m having a bad day I watch some episodes and I feel better by the end.
What a beautiful location for the tent — the picket fence is a great touch!
Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry– what a pair!
If you haven’t watched them you can catch them online here http://www.pbs.org/show/great-british-baking-show/. They are worth the time.
The Farm Girl’s Attempt Paul Hollywood’s Cheats Rough Puff Pastry Recipe
Ok, so let’s talk about puff pastry. Rough Puff is a quick, light flaky pastry without all of the work of a true Puff Pastry. I found it worked great for the two recipes I used it for — pot pies and a breakfast pastry. I have always just purchased pre-made puff pastry in the frozen food section and they work great, however, it is kind of expensive if you are making a large quantity.
Making it from scratch seemed absolutely terrifying — I didn’t grow up with a mom who made pastries — with 12 kids in our farm family, a big pan of brownies was the ticket — easy, inexpensive and fast. Now that I am doing some catering at smaller weddings on our farm, I am on a mission to get good at several different pastries for appetizers and desserts. When I saw the Christmas Baking Show and Paul Hollywood making this quick Cheats Puff — I was hooked — I needed to figure out how to make it!
Being tentative about making puff pastry is not a unrealistic fear. The thought of so many things going wrong and wasting all of that lovely, butter is just one of the many thoughts running through my head. But my heroine, Julia Child would say, “The only real stumbling block is fear of failure. In cooking you’ve got to have a what-the-hell attitude.” So it’s on!
As you can see by the recipe — there are very few ingredients — it’s all about the steps. Pastry is more of an art than a science it seems to me. Science would say – 4 tablespoons of water — Art says — 4 to 6 tables spoons or until it comes together. Science gets the same answer every time if you stick to the rules — Art sometimes you are Monet and sometimes it’s an ugly ashtray only a mother could love!
Cut butter up into small cubes and keep refrigerated.
Mix the flour and salt together in a bowl. Rub in the chilled butter using your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Gradually add enough water to form a dough (about 4-6 tablespoons of water).
Dough should come together is a ball.
Roll the dough out into a rectangle on a lightly floured work surface.
One of the tricks that Paul Hollywood used in his show was mind-blowing and brilliant! After watching TV chefs pound out butter into large rectangles for the layers of puff pastry, I was awed when I saw Paul used a frozen butter stick and a hand shredder to allow the butter layer to be quickly made — so clever!
Grate frozen butter
Put half of the grated frozen butter over the bottom two thirds of the dough. Fold down the top third and fold up the bottom third as if folding a letter. — Oops sometimes you make mistakes and I put some at the top 1/3 in this picture — but it all came out anyway.
Turn the folded dough 90 degrees and roll it out into a rectangle again. Repeat the process of adding the remaining frozen butter and fold as before. Wrap the dough in cling film and leave to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes before using.
I used a square and a cut out star on top of a pot pie filling and washed with an egg wash.
The other thing I tried was to cut into about 6-inch squares. Make a cut at each of the corners. I then put a dab of cream cheese and black raspberry jam in the middle and brought each corner up to form a pinwheel. I then did an egg wash and baked at 400 for about 15 minutes or until golden brown. When cooled I sprinkled with powdered sugar. They were pretty good if I say so myself!
Today I am working on some mini-appetizers I’ll make my husband eat for supper — he kind of likes that sort of thing — so all will be good. Check out some of the other sites I listed below — there are thousands of fillings and fun things you can do with your own Rough Puff Pastry dough!
- 300g/10½oz plain flour = 1⅓ cups
- pinch salt
- 50g/1¾oz butter, chilled and cut into cubes = 1 oz = 2 TBS so a scant 4 TBS
- 120g/4½oz butter, frozen = 9 TBS
- Mix the flour and salt together in a bowl. Rub in the chilled butter using your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Gradually add enough water to form a dough (about 4-6 tablespoons of water).
- Roll the dough out into a rectangle on a lightly floured work surface.
- Grate half of the frozen butter over the bottom two-thirds of the dough. Fold down the top third and fold up the bottom third as if folding a letter.
- Turn the folded dough 90 degrees and roll it out into a rectangle again. Repeat the process of adding the remaining frozen butter and fold as before.
- Wrap the dough in cling film and leave to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes before using.
- 14 Easy and Tasty Puff Pastry Recipe Ideas: Woman’s Day
- Jalapeno Popper Cups: Allrecipes
- Puff Pastry Recipes: Taste of Home
- Swedish Meatball Tartlets: Pepperidge Farm
Keep it simple, have fun and enjoy!
–Mary
Oh my goodness that is both stunning and you inspired me. Now I want to attempt even though I fear it will resemble some of those Pinterest fails 🙂 🙂 I will keep you posted…
I love that show! So refreshing that they’re not beating each other up to win, but are cooperative and supportive. Anyway, great post. I really do have to try this.
I highly recommend the pinwheel pastries. They taste great and make you look like a pro.
Maybe in my retirement years (grin). In the meantime, pinning and sharing!
LOL — yes I totally get that!
I tried this and the butter spilled out everywhere… maybe I rolled it too thin?
The key is keeping everything very, very cold — I used frozen butter, got it back in the fridge as soon as possible to make sure it was very cold again by letting it stay in the fridge for at least 30 minute before I did the last roll out and cut out my shape. Some people even put it back in the fridge or even the freezer one more time before they bake to ensure the butter is firm in the layers if it takes you a while to get everything rolled out and cut. The quicker you are the better. A tip if it takes you some time to get things done — divide it in half and let one 1/2 rest in the fridge while you work, then switch putting the completed items back in the fridge while you finish the 2nd 1/2. The very cold dough and butter in a very hot oven is what creates the puffs and keeps the butter from running out.
I hope you try it again…Thanks for your comments and asking…
Mary
I just tried this recipe, and the dough was so tough that I could not roll it. I tried again (maybe I measured something wrongly), but it did not change. I tried with more water, but no luck. It seems that there is very little fat or licoid in the dough and I could hardley assemble it into a coherend dough. Any ideas what went wrong for me?
Hi Elena — there are a couple of things that might contribute to the issue you encountered. First, the original recipe is using grams and conversions can be a little off, so weighing your flour is the most accurate. However, if you don’t have a scale make sure when you measure your flour you don’t scoop it, rather you should spoon it into the measuring cup and use a knife to level off the top. You will get more flour by scooping and it’s not as accurate and you wouldn’t have enough fat and water to get it to come together correctly. I do find I need to add water on the top end most often.
Another issue could be not getting your cold butter worked in enough–it has you rub the butter into the flour until it resembles bread crumbs — that is pretty small and it would help the dough come together also.
I was just thinking I’d like to make this recipe again for the holidays — I will let you know if I find any other things that would create the problem. Have a great holiday season.
THIS RECIPE IS INCORRECT. IT SAYS 50 GRAMS BUTTER CUBED. SHOULD BE 150 GRAMS BUTTER CUBED.
Thank you for your comment — I just checked out Paul Hollywood’s “Cheat Puff Pastry” recipe on the BBC site — 50 grams is the correct amount for the “Cheats puff pastry” and 150 grams is the correct amount for classic puff pastry. Here is the link to his recipe. https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/cheats_rough_puff_pastry_91549
I have made quick puff pastry with no problem – I bake a lot & a very good baker id I say so myself. There is something wrong – terribly wrong in the conversion gbbs is using . It is a disaster – I’m ready to scream – thrown out so many ingredients . Why is Paul Hollywood ( & other contestants have similar measurements of flour ) using 300 grams of flour ?? No one can make a dough with 1 1/2 tbsp butter ? That is a joke . All other recipes use vast amounts of butter ( like 14 tbsp for ex) to make the initial dough . WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THESE DIRECTIONS? And even though I agree with your 1 1/3 Cups -which would work – that isn’t an equivalent to 300 grams of flour . Can you explain please where you’re getting that to translate ? Is not the same . I’m very frustrated .
Hi Leslie,
Sorry I haven’t been on my computer for awhile. The conversion to cups is incorrect, it should be 2.4 cups and I have corrected it — the conversion from grams to ounces, however, is correct. I have been weighing my ingredients for some time and find I get more consistent results. I hope you sorted it out. Mary
Leslie…get a scale. They are cheap!!