Rough Puff Pastry

I don’t normally post mid week, but this one is specially for Mr Fitz! Everything this man makes and posts makes me hungry. He cooks MY sort of food!

I made rough puff at the pastry course I completed recently. Once again I only have a couple of the ‘after photos’ of how this looks, thanks to my glorious failing sd card! Grrrrrrgggghhhh

Ingredients :
200g strong flour not plain flour
a pinch of salt
150g cold diced butter proper butter
125ml ice cold water
Squeeze of lemon juice

Method:
Sieve the flour and salt together. Then mix do not rub the butter in. You want lumps to remain in the mixture.

Make a well in the centre and add some of the water to the bowl to form a fairly stiff dough using your hands. Don’t add it all at once, because you may not need it.

Turn out the pastry on to a floured table and roll into an ablong strip about 30cm x 10cm keeping the sides square. It should be about 1/2cm thick. Squeeze lemon down the middle of the pastry. Turn over and fold the top putter edge in to the middle and then do the same with the bottom edge. This should look like three layers.

Put a thumb print in the top this signifies your first turn, wrap in cling film and pop it in the fridge.

Every half hour do it again; turn the pastry 90°, roll it out and turn the edges in, and thumb print.  You should always be rolling out in the opposite direction from the last time….. I did 5 turns altogether!

This pastry was amazing and so versatile. I made a ham and veggie pastry puff out of it. I sweated off some onion and some vegetables (I had peppers, garlic, aubergine) with salt and pepper. Then I added in a tin of chopped tomatoes and left to simmer for 15 minutes. Finally I threw in some ham and fresh basil at the end.

Once it had cooled a little, I placed a large dollop into the centre on the puff measuring a 4″ square. I folded it over and crimped the edges to give it a pasty look! I popped a few cuts/holes in the top for the steam to escape. Finally, I brushed the pasty with egg and place in a preheated oven at 200°C for 15 mins.

It’s time consuming, but well worth it. Rough puff is a great staple to have up your sleeve.

Melissa xx