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 ↓
Fenilletage, or Puff Paste
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Place the flour on a clean surface and make a hollow in the center.
Add 1 ounce of butter, ice water, and salt to the hollow, then mix well.
Set the dough aside in a cool place for 5 minutes.
Laminate
Prepare the remaining 15 ounces of firm butter and sprinkle a small amount of flour on a square foot of the surface.
Roll the dough to ½ inch thick.
Place the butter in the center.
Fold the edges over to enclose it.
Flatten the dough lightly with a rolling pin until it is 2 inches thick.
Cool for 10 minutes.
Roll the dough lengthwise.
Fold it in four.
Let it rest for 5 minutes.
Repeat this process two more times.
Roll in opposite directions each time.
After the final resting period of 5 minutes, the puff paste is 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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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 and holds the layers.
- Butter
- Forms separate solid layers that turn to steam in the oven, lifting the dough into flaky sheets.
- Ice water
- Keeps the dough cold and hydrates the flour so it stays workable without melting the butter.
- Salt
- Adds flavor to the dough.
The step that matters
Keeping the butter and dough cold while folding. If the butter softens and blends into the dough, the layers are lost and the pastry will not puff. Resting the dough between folds keeps the butter firm and the layers distinct.
“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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