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Dessert

Plain Flaky Pastry

A dough made from flour, lard, salt, and cold water, folded to create flaky layers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Plain Flaky Pastry

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dough

  1. Divide the lard into three portions.

  2. Rub one portion into the flour, add salt, and mix to a stiff paste with cold water.

Laminate

  1. Roll out the dough into a long piece.

  2. Place one portion of lard over the dough in small pieces, sprinkle with flour, and fold in thirds.

  3. Turn the dough half round and roll out again.

  4. Add the remaining lard and flour, fold, turn, and roll as before.

Rest and finish

  1. Set aside for 30 minutes, then roll out twice more and use as needed.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Forms the stiff paste and the sheets that hold the layers of dough.
Lard
Forms solid fat layers between dough sheets, which separate during baking for a flaky texture.

The step that matters

Folding in the lard. Keep the dough and lard cold while rolling and folding. Solid lard stays in distinct layers; if it softens and melts into the dough, the layers blur and the pastry turns tough instead of flaky.

“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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