Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Puff Paste
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the water and butter
Scald a large bowl, fill it with ice water, and let it chill thoroughly.
Add the butter to the chilled bowl and work it with your hands until soft and elastic.
Press the water into the butter until it looks waxy and is tough like putty.
Take a piece of butter the size of an egg and pack the rest into a flat cake under ice water.
Make the dough
Heap the flour in the center of a marble slab and make a hollow space.
Add the egg-sized butter, sugar, salt, and egg white into the hollow and work together lightly.
Add ice water and flour gradually until mixed, saving about 2 tablespoons of flour for kneading.
Knead until smooth, then roll into a long roll and cut in half.
Laminate and rest
Sprinkle flour on a square foot of the slab and roll each half into a sheet ½ inch thick.
Dry the butter, place it in the center of one sheet, dredge with flour, and cover with the other sheet.
Flatten lightly with a roller, then roll into a long, thin sheet, keeping edges even.
Fold the sides and ends evenly, turn the paste so folds run to and from you, roll again, and fold as before.
Wrap in a floured towel and refrigerate for 15 minutes.
Repeat the rolling and folding process two more times, refrigerating for 15 minutes each time.
Allow to rest in the refrigerator overnight before use.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Cold solid fat layers separate the dough into flakes that puff apart when baked.
- Pastry flour
- Forms the gluten structure that holds the thin layers of dough together.
- Ice water
- Keeps the butter cold and hydrates the flour so the dough stays workable.
- Egg white
- Adds protein that strengthens the dough and helps it hold its shape.
The step that matters
Keeping the butter cold and firm during folding. If the butter warms and softens into the dough, it blends in rather than forming separate layers, so the pastry will not puff. Chilling between turns keeps the fat in distinct sheets.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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