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
In a bowl, mix the flour with enough ice water to form a dough.
Roll the dough out into a sheet.
Laminate
Place the butter in the center of the dough.
Fold the edges of the dough over the butter to cover it.
Roll out the dough again and fold it over itself.
Repeat the rolling and folding process six times.
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 separate layers that puff apart as the water in the butter turns to steam while baking.
- Ice water
- Hydrates the flour to form a dough while keeping the butter cold and firm.
The step that matters
Keeping the butter cold during rolling and folding. If the butter softens and blends into the dough, it cannot form distinct layers, so the pastry will not puff. Keeping the dough cool between folds keeps the butter in solid 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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