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
Make the dough
Combine 1¼ pounds of flour and rub in ½ pound of softened butter with your hands in a clean bowl.
Gradually mix in ½ pint of cold water until well combined.
Knead the dough.
Let the dough rest on a floured surface for 15 minutes.
Laminate the dough
Roll the dough out thin.
Place ¼ pound of butter in small pieces on top of the dough. Sprinkle a little flour over the butter. Fold the dough over.
Roll the dough out thin again.
Place another ¼ pound of butter in small pieces on top. Sprinkle a little flour over the butter. Fold the dough over.
Roll the dough out thin again.
Fold the dough again.
Rest and use
Let the dough rest in a cool place for 1 hour.
When ready to use, roll it out to your desired size.
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).
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 gluten network that gives the dough its structure.
- Unsalted butter
- Forms solid layers that separate the dough, creating flakiness as it bakes.
- Cold water
- Hydrates the flour to form a dough that can be rolled and folded.
The step that matters
Keeping the butter in distinct layers. If the butter softens or melts into the dough during rolling and folding, the layers blend and the pastry loses its flaky rise. Keeping the dough cool between folds helps the butter stay solid.
“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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