Easy Homemade Puff Pastry Recipe
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Leave those frozen sheets of puff pastry on the store shelf! This Homemade Puff Pastry is tender, flaky, and full of buttery flavor. Best of all? It comes together with just four simple ingredients and a few easy folds. There are no special tools and no complicated laminating process.
If you're baking savory tarts, sweet turnovers, or breakfast pastries, this shortcut puff pastry delivers that light, crisp texture we all love. Once you try it, you may never go back to store-bought again!
Table of Contents
- Here's Why You'll Love This Recipe
- Ingredients You'll Need
- In Photos: How To Make Homemade Puff Pastry
- How To Use Puff Pastry
- Puff Pastry FAQ
- Storage and Freezing Tips
- More Recipes To Try
Puff pastry is the kind of thing that makes it feel like a special occasion. All those light, flaky layers and that rich buttery flavor!
But it's not the kind of thing you'd think to make yourself. I mean, it's just an ingredient you buy from the freezer section at the grocery store. Right?
Wrong! What if I told you you could make homemade, all-butter puff pastry sheets from scratch in your kitchen? And it only takes four ingredients and comes together in about 15 minutes?
It's true! This is the most delicious puff pastry you'll ever taste, and the best part is it's SO EASY to make. You'll never buy store-bought puff pastry again! This will become one of your favorite recipes!
Most puff pastry recipes tell you to start by combining softened butter with a bit of flour, then form it into a square encased in dough. There are a lot of steps: chilling, measuring, rolling, and folding. It can get very specific and precise, and to be honest, that stresses me out. I like it when things are a bit simpler and more intuitive.
I have cut back the number of steps and the time needed to make this easy homemade puff pastry.
The first time I made it, I couldn't believe how amazing it tasted, even though it was so easy to prepare. In other words, this is a shortcut recipe.
The result is almost identical to authentic puff pastry made the fancy French way, but the prep time has been cut down to about 15 or 20 minutes.
Here's Why You'll Love This Recipe
- No fancy equipment needed: Just a bowl, rolling pin, and a little counter space.
- Comes together in minutes: Only 15 minutes of active prep, plus chill time.
- Super buttery & flaky: Every bite melts in your mouth with rich, layered textures.
- Make ahead & freeze: Keeps beautifully in the fridge or freezer for whenever inspiration strikes.
Ingredients You'll Need
The recipe card at the bottom of the post contains the full list with all of the amounts. Refer to that when you're cooking.
- All-Purpose Flour: You'll need 2 cups. When measuring, be careful not to pack the flour. To avoid this, spoon the flour into the measuring cup and use a knife to level off the top. Here's more info on the best way to measure your ingredients: How to Measure Ingredients for Baking. A gluten-free flour blend that can sub 1:1 for regular flour should work just fine if you'd like to make gluten-free puff pastry.
- Salt: Salt carries the flavors and intensifies them. The end result won't taste salty, but it will make everything so much more flavorful! I like kosher salt best because it doesn't contain any additives (table salt usually contains iodine, which can leave a bitter taste), so the flavor is pure, and it's very inexpensive and easy to find.
- Unsalted Butter: Make sure that the butter is cold. This will create excellent lamination. Cold butter also helps to reduce the time and steps involved in a traditional recipe. Without cold butter, your pastry will not flake into all those beautiful layers. I like to use unsalted butter because it lets me control the amount of salt in the pastry. For vegan or dairy-free puff pastry, use a plant-based butter that can substitute for dairy butter 1:1.
- Cold Water: Use cold water so the butter doesn't melt too quickly.
In Photos: How To Make Homemade Puff Pastry
Step 1: Mix the Dry Ingredients
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour and salt to evenly distribute.
Step 2: Add the Butter
Slice cold butter into ¼-inch pieces and toss with the flour mixture to coat. Don't overwork it! You want visible chunks.
Step 3: Bring It Together
Stir in the cold water until a shaggy dough forms.
Step 4: Shape and wrap
Shape into a ball, then flatten into a disk.
Wrap tightly and chill for 1 hour in the fridge, or 20 to 30 minutes in the freezer.
Step 5: Roll & Fold
Unwrap the dough and place it on a lightly floured surface. Roll into a rough rectangle. Fold into thirds like a letter. Rotate 90 degrees, then repeat the roll-and-fold process. Do this 2 to 4 times in total for lots of flaky layers.
Step 6: Chill Again
Wrap the dough tightly and chill for at least two more hours, or overnight.
Helpful Tips and Tricks
- Keep everything cold: Cold butter = flakier layers. If the dough gets too soft, pop it back in the fridge.
- Don't overwork the dough: You want to see chunks of butter - that's where the puff comes from!
- Egg wash before baking: A quick brush with beaten egg and water gives the pastry a glossy, golden finish.
- Hot oven, cold dough: Always start with a fully chilled pastry and a preheated oven for the best rise.
How To Use Puff Pastry
Savory Recipes
- Cut the pastry into long strips, sprinkle with grated cheese, twist, and bake for cheese straws.
- Wrap strips around sausages or mini hot dogs for the best sausage rolls/pigs in a blanket.
- Cover a small wheel of brie or camembert with pastry for a brie en croute, aka baked brie.
- Make little tarts or cut rounds and top with mushrooms, spinach, and/or onions for a savory appetizer or pizza.
- Use to top a chicken pot pie.
Sweet Recipes
- Cut into squares, top with apple pie filling, and fold into apple turnovers.
- Bake puff pastry dough and sandwich it around whipped cream, pastry cream, and fruit for Napoleons.
- Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and brown sugar, roll into a tight "C," cut into slices, and bake the elephant ears, aka palmiers.
- Roll around a fruit/cheese filling to make a strudel of sorts.
- Sandwich around jam for homemade Pop-Tarts.
- Cut into rings and fry in hot oil for the most incredible donuts!
Puff Pastry FAQ
Anything from sweet treats like turnovers and tarts to savory recipes like hand pies or cheese straws.
Absolutely! Wrap it tightly and freeze for several weeks. Thaw in the fridge before using.
This makes roughly 24 ounces (685g) of dough, about the same as two standard store-bought sheets.
Nope! This recipe is designed to be made by hand, keeping it simple and accessible.
Yes, there are four different types of puff pastry: half, three-quarter, full, and inverted. The different types are based on the proportion of fat weight to flour weight. Full is equal parts fat and flour. Three-quarters denote three-quarters of the weight is fat, to one-quarter flour. Inverted puff pastry is when the dough is encased in the butter, rather than the butter encased in the dough, which is the traditional way.
Storage and Freezing Tips
- Make the puff pastry at least a day before serving it.
- Puff pastry kept in the refrigerator will keep for several days.
- Keep it in the fridge tightly wrapped in plastic wrap.
- To freeze it, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and place it in a sealed freezer bag.
- It will keep in the freezer for up to one month.
- When ready to use the frozen pastry, transfer it from the freezer to the refrigerator to thaw overnight. Keep it folded together and wrapped in plastic wrap while thawing.
More Recipes To Try
- Baked Brie in Puff Pastry
- Apple Galette
- Caramel Apple Cream Puffs
- Cream Puff Cake
- Challah Bread
- Baklava
Ingredients
- 2 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 ¼ cups (283.75 g) unsalted butter, (2 ½ sticks), cold
- ½ cup (118.29 ml) cold water
Instructions
- Place the flour and salt in a large bowl and whisk to combine.
- Cut the cold butter into ¼-inch slices and add to the flour mixture, tossing to coat.
- Stir in the cold water until a thick dough forms.
- Gather the dough into a ball, flatten it into a disk-shape, and wrap in plastic wrap.
- Chill for 1 hour in the fridge, or 20 to 30 minutes in the freezer.
- Unwrap the dough, dust the work surface with flour, and roll the dough into a rough rectangle shape.
- Fold the dough in thirds, like a letter.
- Turn 90 degrees, roll and fold again.
- Repeat about 2 to 4 times, wrap the dough in plastic wrap, and chill for 2 hours or overnight.*
Notes
- Brush the pastry with an egg beaten with a couple of teaspoons of water before baking for a beautiful sheen.
- When you're ready to bake the pastry, make sure it is COLD and the oven is HOT.
- Bake times will vary based on exactly what you are making, so follow your recipe!
- The dough can also be frozen. It will keep for several weeks in the freezer, tightly wrapped. Thaw in the refrigerator.
- This recipe makes approximately 24 ounces, or 685 grams, of dough.
Can I mix the dough in my kitchen aid mixer instead of by hand?
That would probably be ok but just be careful not to overmix. The dough comes together pretty quickly after just a few strokes.
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe and for the video, which was a great help to me. I have tried to make puff pastry at home quite a few times and it never turned out right. However, I made mini chocolatines and mince puffs following your recipe and they turned out fantastic. My son who is a fussy eater actually asked me to make him so more..... that is how amazing they turned out. Thanks again!!
Oh wow! I know how huge that is when a picky kid wants more of something you made. Such a great feeling! My kids are picky too so I get it. So glad you were happy with the recipe! Thanks for the 5-star rating!
Thank you for simplifying this recipe, I just found your website,I am so ready to try this. And again thank you.
My pleasure Kathy! I hope you enjoy it!
Well I guess I am one of those people the recipe didn't work for. I found it odd that cold butter, flour and water would somehow make a ball as the directions stated. So I watched the video to see how said ball was made. Well the video skips over that part, only showing the first 5 seconds. Well i ended up trying to shape it into a ball with my hands. Put said ball into freezer for the right amount of time. And now that i am rolling it out, the ball is just falling apart into a whole bunch of pieces. This is saddening as I have already came this far, and now, no pinwheels for dinner.
Hey Janessa- it sounds like you were maybe a little too heavy on the flour, or too light on the water. The dough should come together all on it's own, just by stirring. If yours was too dry to come together, a little more water would have probably helped. Also keep in mind that it's best to shape the dough into a disk before chilling. It would be really hard to roll out if it was in a ball. Sorry you had trouble, but hopefully this is helpful.
I am wondering if you or any of your followers has tried this recipe using gluten free all-purpose flour? If not, do you have an opinion as to whether it would work? Thanks for your response:)
I have not tried it but maybe someone else can chime in here?
nice recipe
Thank you!
Fantastic recipe! Made it and result was spot on. Used the pastry for Ragout Fin. Only one tip...add just a tad more cold water. And as per instructions, keep this dough COLD. Once warm, you can not work with it....will peel apart if too warm. Thank you so much for this recipe!
My pleasure Mark! So glad you had such great results and thank you for the excellent tips!
I've been making my puff pastry for the last 35 years. I tried yours out and it was almost a duplicate to what I make. Very good recipe. I always freeze some to have when needed
I'm so glad to hear it Mary! I love keeping some in my freezer too. So nice to have on hand! Thanks for the great feedback!
How much does this yield in comparison to store-bought puff pastry sheets?
Hey Johnny! You should have enough puff pastry to make 8 turnovers with this recipe. I roll the pastry to a thickness of 1/8-inch, and I'm able to cut 8 squares that are about 3 to 4 inches on each side. Here's the recipe: https://bakingamoment.com/apple-turnover-recipe/. There's a video in the recipe card, so that should give you a rough idea of what that looks like in terms of size. Hope this is helpful!
Hi, I am thinking about using this recipe for making Palmiers and was wondering if the recipe could be cut in half due to what is limited in my pantry. Thanks again for this very simple article it will help a lot later on.
Hi there! Yes I think that should work for you just fine. Good luck!
Allie I read everything you wrote. I loved the information and the video. Simplifying the steps made this a win win for me. So thank-you! Where you placed the recipe didn't matter, high low left right, there is this technique called scrolling? Everyone should learn it, it is amazing ~ 🙂
Haha thank you Susan! I'm glad to know you don't mind scrolling, and glad to know the info and the video were helpful to you. Thanks so much for the sweet comment!
Holy cannoli, this really worked.
It is Christmas eve and i went to three stores where puff pastry was sold out! So I googled on how to make my own puff pastry and this recipe was the first one that came up. When I tried it, the butter stuck all over the counter. I had to use parchment paper both under and over the dough to roll it. I was really despairing as I thought it was too much butter. But I tried out a few strips of dough just now. I let the over heat up for 20 minutes while the pieces of dough were in the freezer on a little cake tin. Then I popped in the oven and in 20 minutes they rose up so beautiful and flaky and had so many layers, it does not look like I made this! I know the galette I am making tomorrow will be great!
Thanks for this recipe. It saved my Christmas dessert.
You're so welcome Ila! I'm so happy it worked for you, in spite of the butter sticking a bit. Parchment is totally a baker's best friend though, and it sounds like that was the perfect solution for you!
Hi thanks for this lovely recipe..I m looking forward to trying this tomorrow can u give me the flour n butter measurements in grams.. thank you
Please click the "metric" button below the list of ingredients.
I used this recipe to make ham and cheese pinwheels. The puff pastry layers came out very nice but the dough produced way too much grease when baking (the pinwheels were drowning in liquid butter during the baking process and this didn't come from the cheese or ham). Is this normal? The baked product also tasted quite heavy in terms of butter (too heavy for my taste, frankly). Would the puff pastry layers still be good if the butter is noticeably reduced (maybe to a cup or less)? I have used another home-made puff pastry recipe in the past (the type that takes much longer to make) and I don't recall such a problem with extreme greasiness.
Marina, that is usually an indication that either your pastry has not been chilled enough, or that your oven is not hot enough.
There seem to be a problem if you choose the metric version of the ingredients in your recipe. According to Google 2.5 sticks of butter = 283 grams, whereas your metric version give it as 458.54 grams?
Another issue is that 1 cup flour (250 ml) weighs in at 145 grams?
Maybe Marina used those measurements which is way too much butter for the amount of flour?
My mix of dough is chilling in the refrigerator at the moment. I used the correct amounts of ingredients, ie 290 g flour and 28 g butter.
I can confirm what Manu replied.
I used the metric measurements and the butter was double what it was supposed to be!
Thank God for Manu. I saw his comment when i just put my dough in the freezer and came back out to save it. Thanks Manu! You are an absolutely life saver.
I am very confused. My pastry ended up being too buttery as well. Could you write the amount in grams please?
Click the "Metric" button below the list of ingredients.
Just too good and too easy. Best pastry I have ever made!
So glad to hear that! Thank you so much for the awesome feedback Allan!
I absolutely adore your recipe. One question.... will it matter at all if I use salted butter? (It's all I have on hand). Thank you!
Hi there! You can use it but it will come out saltier if you do. Might be a good idea to cut back on the salt, although I can't say for sure by how much. Good luck and I hope you enjoy!
I did it!! Your puff pastry recipe is perfect. I split the dough, baked one (results OK) but leaving the other half refrigerated overnight produced BIG puff in second half. Thanks!!
Awesome Teresa! I'm so happy it worked well for you! Congrats!