Photographer: James Moffatt
There’s nothing quite like the flake and puff of pastry. A style that sits somewhere between shortcrust and puff, it’s best made by hand – a quietly meditative process. The butter is worked into the flour using a French patisserie technique known as fraisage, where it’s smeared across the bench with the heel of your hand. This creates thin sheets of butter throughout the dough; as they melt in the oven, steam forms and creates air pockets, which give the pastry its signature flaky lift.
A touch of vinegar is added to inhibit gluten development, ensuring a more delicate, tender crumb. And, as with all pastry, temperature is key. If the butter becomes too soft, it will over incorporate and you’ll lose those defined layers. If in doubt, return the dough to the freezer for 10 minutes to firm up before continuing. The same rule applies while rolling – cool pastry equals flaky pastry.
Use this pastry for:
- Our Thai red curry beef and mushroom pie with green coconut sambal
- Note: Marble or stone provide the best work surface as they remain cool, helping with temperature control.
- Cooking tip: We’ve used a cast-iron baking pan as our vessel. It heats up quickly and holds an even temperature, helping to crisp the base and cook the pastry through. A 26cm-diameter (base measurement), 2cm-deep cast-iron skillet also works well.
Ingredients
Method
Toss flour, butter and 2 tsp fine sea salt in a bowl to combine and place in the freezer for 10 minutes to chill.
Combine 140ml iced water and vinegar in a jug, then place in the freezer to keep chilled.
Remove bowl from freezer. Tip ingredients out onto a work surface (see note), then rub butter into flour with your fingertips until most of the butter remains in large lumps. Bring together with your hands, then with the heel of your hand, push and smear the dough away from you (this breaks down the butter into sheets but doesn’t overwork the flour).
Drizzle over iced water mixture and continue to push and smear dough until it starts to come together. Bring dough together and gently knead (don’t overwork). Divide in half, form into discs, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight to rest.
To roll out, stand pastry at room temperature for 15-20 minutes until pliable, then place one pastry disc on a lightly floured piece of baking paper and roll to a rough 4mm-thick, 36cm-diameter round, flipping pastry once or twice and dusting with a little extra flour if necessary. Using the baking paper, slide onto a flat tray, cover with another piece of baking paper and set aside. Repeat with remaining pastry disc, transfer to tray, cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate until required. Pastry can be made ahead and refrigerated for 2 days, or rolled into a log, wrapped in plastic wrap and frozen for 3 months.
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