Quick and Easy Flaky Pastry Recipe

Quick and Easy Flaky Pastry Recipe is really a cheat’s version of puff pastry that doesn’t entail turning and rolling numerous times. With our flaky pastry, there’s no chopping, rubbing, or blending required just a quick grate of the butter into the flour, add water and mix with a knife! Yes, that’s correct, a knife is preferred for mixing the butter into the flour because the knife mixes the butter easily allowing the grated butter to be coated with flour without forming clumps. It doesn’t get any easier than this…..🥰

Believe it or not, it doesn’t take a lot of skill, or time to get a pastry with a crisp, flaky texture and great buttery flavour. Just follow our ridiculously easy recipe to make our Quick and Easy Flaky Pastry Recipe.

Quick and Easy Flaky Pastry Recipe

At a Glance This Is What You Need To Make Our Quick and Easy Flaky Pastry Recipe

Is Flaky Pastry The Same As Puff Pastry?

Flaky pastry is similar to, but different from puff pastry. There’s no leaving agents used to make either flaky or puff pastries. Both pastries rely on the creation of layers of flour and fat to trap steam and make the pastry rise.

And this is where they start to differ …..

The ratio of fat in flaky pastry to flour is lower than with puff pastry which can be as high as 1 part butter to one part flour.

Flaky pastry is a quicker pastry to make than puff pastry which requires numerous rolling and folding steps to create the many layers.

Flaky pastry doesn’t reach the lofty heights of a great puff pastry. That’s where the tradeoff is between time spent rolling and folding, or trapping steam using a different process and still achieving a crisp, many layered pastry.

Flaky pastry is also known as rough puff quick pastry, and blitz, in reference to the quick preparation time.

How Is Flaky Pastry Made?

Most recipes for flaky pastry require rolling and folding, but to a lesser degree than puff pastry. In this recipe for easy flaky pastry those steps are gone and the whole process takes only minutes to complete.

The idea is to incorporate thin layers of fat encased in layers of pastry, trapping as much air as possible. The trapped air expands and lifts each thin layer of the pastry as it bakes.

By grating ice cold butter into flour, then adding cold water and mixing with a knife to preserve the butter pieces, mini layers are created. No folding, no rolling, and no special equipment required! 😃

Let’s Make Pastry

What Can Flaky Pastry Be used For?

Really any recipe that uses puff pastry can be substituted with flaky pastry, just remember the rise will be a little less, but the pastry will be just as yummy.

Any of these recipes are great with flaky pastry

Pumpkin Blue Cheese and Pine Nut Pie
Quick Peach Frangipane Tart
Cheats Gourmet Sausage Rolls
Prize Winning Homemade Cherry Pie Recipe
Beef Pot Pie Recipe with Mushrooms (Easy)
Cheats Rich Beef Bourguignon – Beef Mushroom and Red Wine Casserole

Quick Tips To Make This Easy Flaky Pastry Recipe

• Don’t try to work with pastries when conditions are hot, it’s a nightmare. 🥵
• Ensure that the pastry is well chilled before placing in the oven
• Because the pastry relies on steam to create the layers it’s IMPORTANT that the oven is at the correct temperature (HOT) befor the pastry goes in.

Remember the principle behind flaky pastry, is layers that trap steam to create rise and layers and this can’t happen if the oven is not hot enough……

Remember Ice Cold Water

Can You Freeze Flaky Pastry?

The recipe can easily be doubled or tripled so go ahead and make a big batch to freeze ready to bake up something delicious in no time. The pastry freezes extremely well, you just need to defrost it thoroughly and let it come back to room temperature before using.

Watch How To Make Our Quick and Easy Flaky Pastry

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Yield: enough for a 20cm (8 inch) pie top and bottom

Quick and Easy Flaky Pastry

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Inactive Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes

This pastry is incredibly easy to make. The trick is to freeze your butter for an hour or so and grate it into the flour using a box grater. You simply use a knife to toss the butter with flour, and trickle in some cold water to mix, and finally bring it together using your hands. It rolls like a dream, and is flaky and buttery. We hope you love it as much as we do.

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Ingredients

• 150g salted butter, frozen in foil for an hour (5 ounces) - see notes below
• 220g  plain flour / all purpose (8 ounces)
• a pinch of salt
• fridge cold water - we used 6 1/2 tablespoons of water

Instructions

• sift flour and salt into a large bowl
• take butter from freezer and peel back most of the foil, leaving enough to hold the butter with
• dip butter in the flour / makes it easier to grate
• holding the grater over the flour, rub the butter using long strokes to give you long curls of butter. Use the largest holes on the grater
• using a dinner knife gently mix the butter into the flour, coating all of the butter pieces individually with flour (don't use your hands yet)
• sprinkle 2 tablespoons of cold water over the pastry and using the knife mix well until evenly distributed - repeat twice more using the remaining water
• start to bring the pastry together now using your hands to gently squeeze the pastry into a ball
• watchpoint: if you need a little more water just dab some on your fingers - the pastry should come together leaving the bowl fairly clean with no loose bits of butter or flour
• shape pastry into a flat disk
• wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes before using (pastry can be frozen at this point)
• pastry should have pieces of butter visible - it will appear motley (this is good)

NOTE: bake pastry at 220c (430f) on bake, not fan

Notes

This is enough pastry for a 20 cm (8 inch) pie, top and bottom

1. holding the frozen butter with a piece of tinfoil while grating stops your hands warming the butter, and making the butter melt and the dough oily
2. the amount of water used can vary depending on your location and weather
3. you are looking for a soft, but not wet pastry
4. pastry freezes well

Nutrition Information

Yield

16

Serving Size

1
Amount Per Serving Calories 117Total Fat 8gSaturated Fat 5gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 2gCholesterol 20mgSodium 70mgCarbohydrates 11gFiber 0gSugar 0gProtein 2g

Nutritional information provided here is only intended as a guide.

Cooper

Green frog tormenting Cooper yet again!