Baking Hacks: How To Make Buttery Layered Puff Pastry in 15 Minutes!

A puff pastry that can be made in 15 minutes instead of 6 hours? Surely not! I promise that I am not joking here. The method to this combines two pastry methods but gives a beautifully layered buttery flakey pastry. And all in 15 minutes or less!

A friend recently told me about a 15 minute puff pastry. I thought I was mishearing things. "15 hours?" I said, thinking that 15 minutes would be way too short a time to make puff pastry. If you've ever made this maddeningly delicious but time intensive pastry from scratch you will know that it involves a lot of layering, rolling, turning and waiting. I think the average amount of time is about six hours if the weather is cold. But yes this is really a puff pastry that can be done in 15 minutes. No mishearing here ;)

Nina and I both came back from overseas holidays recently and our first session back involved a lot of catching up on each other's respective trips. She had just been to Bali for a 5 day holiday with her girlfriends and I asked her about the food situation. Because Nina is a particular eater who eats vegetarian and vegan food but happens to loathe raw vegan food.

She told me about how she was trying to order one of her special cappuccinos. She doesn't drink regular milk so she asked the waitress about milk. "Yes we have breast milk," she answered. The slightly odd comment caused the other girls in her group to stop talking. Nina asked her to clarify and she repeated, "It's breast milk." It wasn't until later that Nina realised that she perhaps meant fresh milk although she didn't end up getting milk in her coffee because she didn't want the waitress to keep repeating it nor did she want breast milk!

But back to the pastry. There is one advantage to these slightly chillier days and this is a recipe that suits both Northern and Southern Hemisphere kitchens at the moment. And it really is a beauty. I actually timed the time that it took as I was off to see Nina afterwards and I didn't want to be late. It starts off like a very buttery shortcrust pastry but through layering and rolling, you get wonderful layers and a lovely rise to it. I do use bought puff pastry because quite honestly the idea of spending 6 hours making it tires me out just thinking about it but now I think I can do it! The pastry does need to rest for a few hours because the gluten has been activated (alas nothing we can do about that) but there really is nothing like home made puff using your favourite butter. Especially if you've only taken 15 minutes to make it ;)

And here's a quick little video that shows you exactly how easy this 15 minute puff pastry is!

So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever made puff pastry from scratch? Do you have a favourite butter brand and if so, what is it? If you mishear something how many times do you ask the person to repeat it before you give up? I ask three times max before I get embarrassed!

15 Minute Puff Pastry!

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 15 minutes (plus 2-3 hours resting time)

• 2 cups plain all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 250g/8.83ozs. cold butter, cut into cubes
• 2/3 cup ice water

Step 1 - Place the flour and salt into a food processor and blitz for a few seconds to mix. Add the cubes of butter and pulse until the large lumps are gone. Add in the ice water in a thin trickle while the processor is going. Stop when you get visible chunks of butter.

Step 2 - Flour a clean surface and empty the mixture onto it and knead to bring it together to form a rectangle. Roll out to become a long wide rectangle (I used a heavy rolling pin which helps because it is a large dough). Take the bottom and fold it up four or five times.

Step 3 - Roll out again to become a long rectangle and this time roll it up like you were rolling up a Swiss roll. Cover in cling film and allow to rest in the fridge for 2-3 hours and then use flatten the roll and roll out to whatever thickness you need it. It is easier to use if you take it out of the fridge about 20 minutes before you want to roll it.