Why it works: Butter and flour 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. No. 1
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the butter
Knead the butter in cold water for 5 minutes.
Work the butter until dry and flexible.
Chill the butter in the refrigerator until cold and hard.
Make the dough
Sift the baking powder with the flour.
Add one-third of the butter to the flour.
Mix the butter and flour by rubbing between your hands until smooth.
Add enough ice water to make a stiff dough.
Roll the dough out to about ½ inch thick.
Add more butter in walnut-sized pieces.
Sprinkle the dough with flour.
Press the butter into the dough with your palm.
Fold the paste over from all four sides.
Roll the dough out again to about ¼ inch thick.
Add the remaining butter.
Sprinkle the dough with flour.
Fold the dough as before.
Roll the dough out a third time.
Fold the dough up.
Press the dough into a cake.
Chill the cake until ready to 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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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour 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
- Provides fat that separates dough layers, creating flakiness as it melts and steams during baking.
- Flour
- Forms the gluten structure that holds the thin dough layers together.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas to help the pastry rise and lighten.
The step that matters
Keep the butter cold while rolling and folding. If the butter softens and blends into the dough, the separate layers are lost and the pastry will not puff properly. Chilling between rolls keeps the fat in distinct pieces.
“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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