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
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the butter
Wash the butter.
Pat the butter.
Fold the butter until no water remains.
Reserve 2 tablespoons of butter.
Shape the rest of the butter into a circular piece ½ inch thick on a floured board.
Make the dough
Work the reserved butter into the flour with your fingertips.
Moisten with cold water to form a dough.
Turn the dough onto a lightly floured board.
Knead the dough for 1 minute.
Cover the dough with a towel.
Let the dough stand for 5 minutes.
Pat the dough.
Roll the dough to ¼ inch thick.
Keep the dough wider than long with square corners.
Place the butter in the center of the lower half of the dough.
Fold the upper half of the dough over the butter.
Press the edges firmly to enclose as much air as possible.
Fold the right side of the dough over the butter.
Fold the left side under the butter.
Turn the dough halfway around.
Cover the dough.
Let the dough stand for 5 minutes.
Pat the dough.
Roll the dough to ¼ inch thick.
Lift the dough often to prevent sticking.
Dust the dough with flour as needed.
Fold from the ends towards the center to make 3 layers.
Cover the dough.
Let the dough stand for 5 minutes.
Repeat the process twice.
Turn the dough halfway around each time before rolling.
After the fourth rolling, fold from the ends to the center.
Double to make 4 layers.
Chill and store
Chill the dough in a cold place.
If the place is not cold enough, wrap the dough in a towel.
Place the dough in a dripping pan.
Surround the dough with crushed ice.
If storing for several days, wrap the dough in a napkin.
Place the dough in a tin pail.
Cover the dough tightly.
Keep the dough in a cold place.
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
- Forms separate cold layers that puff into flakes when baked, creating a flaky texture.
- Pastry flour
- Forms the dough structure that holds the layers of butter together during rolling.
- Cold water
- Moistens the flour so it binds into a dough that can be rolled and folded.
The step that matters
Keep the butter and dough cold while folding. If the butter softens and blends into the dough, the layers merge and the pastry will not puff into flakes. Chilling between folds keeps the butter 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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