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 ↓
Rich Puff Paste
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Weigh 1 pound of flour and 1 pound of butter.
Make the dough
Mix a little butter with the flour and wet it with just enough water to form a stiff paste.
Roll the dough out and layer the remaining butter in slices on top.
Fold in the ends and roll the dough thin; repeat this process twice.
Bake
Bake in a hotter oven than for short crust.
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.
-
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the structure of the dough and sets as the pastry bakes.
- Unsalted butter
- Forms separate layers that steam apart during baking, creating flakiness.
The step that matters
Layering and folding the dough. Butter must stay in distinct layers between sheets of dough. If the butter softens and blends into the dough, the layers are lost and the pastry will not puff, so keep the dough and butter cool while rolling and folding.
“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.
More puff pastry recipes
You might also like
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.