All week long for some reason I felt like making puff pastry. Actually I wanted to make a Rough Puff pastry. Can you tell I’ve just finished watching Season 5 of the Great British Bake Off? I searched on-line for a recipe to make. I found Paul Hollywood’s but just reading his name was too intimidating. So I went with Epicurious: Rough Puff Pastry Dough.

This is mostly butter. Lots of butter. In looking at PH’s recipe there seems to be less butter to the same amount of flour. Interesting. This, of course, I note in hindsight. I have made “real” puff pastry before quite a long time ago so I do not recall the difference. That will mean another internet search sometime.

• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 stick, plus 5 tablespoons of butter frozen
• 5-6 tablespoons of ice water

The metal bowl is to be chilled but I did not want to wait. I somehow do not have a box grater so I started out with that small hand held one and ended with working the butter into the flour with my hands. I keep butter in the freezer so that was readily available.

First sift the flour and the salt. Then grate the frozen butter into the flour. With a box grater this would have been easy. Not so much with the itty-bitty one I have. I became concerned that the butter parcels would be too small so I chopped up the remaining stick of butter with a chef’s knife and rubbed it into the flour with my fingers. Then sprinkle the flour/butter mixture with 5 tablespoons of iced water and stir with a fork until it comes together. It should hold together without crumbling when squeezed with your hand. If not, add a little bit more water. At this point my hands are covered with butter and flour. Form this into a 5 inch square. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes.

So Hubby and I find an intriguing movie to watch on Netflix. We pause this every 30 minutes for me to go roll out the dough.

Roll out dough into a 15 x 8 inch rectangle. Epicurious says to fold in thirds. But I think I remember PH liking the four fold, fold a fourth on each small end to the middle and then fold over. So this is what I did. Cover in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes. Do this two more times. Now chill the finished product for at least one hour. I leave the dough in the refrigerator overnight.

Now what to do with this? Nothing too original. Tarts made with a nice all-fruit jam. Roll out the dough into a rectangle 24 x 8 inches. Cut into 6 smaller rectangles. Place a helping of jam on one half. Brush edges with an egg wash made of one beaten egg and a few teaspoons of milk. fold into your turnovers. Use a fork to seal the edges and to poke through the top crust. Brush tops with egg wash and sprinkle with sugar. I chilled these for an hour or two or three as Hubby and I were busily cleaning and de-cluttering our kitchen for a bit of remodeling. I baked these at 375 degrees F for 30 minutes. We’re still working in the kitchen and Hubby asks “What’s burning?” I guess that means my oven may need cleaning or he did not expect to smell the baking heat.

So here is our tasty treat. No soggy bottom. Hubby declares it “a good bake”. Melt in the mouth buttery and flaky.

I would make this again. Maybe tackle PH’s recipe. Or I will buy the stuff from the grocery store freezer and keep it handy to use. I guess it depends on how much I want to get my hands into the action!