Flaky Pastry Bites make perfect treat any time of day. Enjoy it with some butter or jam along with a cup of coffee in the morning or after dinner for dessert.
You could use this base flaky pastry dough and can make and enjoy sweet or savory pastries.
Using this quick and easy flaky pastry dough recipe, we can get rid of those trans hydrogenated fat which is used in making commercial puff pastry sheets and from those preservatives present in them.
This small batch flaky pastry dough is made completely from scratch in a very simple and easy method.
WHAT YOU WILL LOVE ABOUT THIS EASY FLAKY PASTRY BITES RECIPE
We can make this flaky puff pastry dough in less than ten minutes of work time.
It is so easy to make this quick puff pastry dough and the ingredients are very basic.
In this easy puff pastry recipe we use very little butter as compared to making real puff pastry.
We can get rid of all those trans fat and preservatives found in the store bought puff pastry sheets.
You will be surprised to see those flaky, crispy, fine layers of these pastry bites.
We can adjust the sugar of pastry crust according to the sweet or savory filling.
The thickness of the flaky pastry sheet can be adjusted by rolling it thin or thick.
We can make amazing Apple turnovers using this same flaky puff pastry dough.
INGREDIENTS FOR MAKING FLAKY PASTRY DOUGH
- All-purpose flour : 270 g or 2 cups loosely packed
- Salt : 3 g or 1/2 teaspoon
- Unsalted butter, chilled, cut into small pieces:85 g or 6 tbsp
- Sugar: 12.5 g or 1 tbsp
- Baking powder :4 g or 1 tsp
- Milk :150-165 ml or 3/4 cup -1 tbsp
HOW TO MAKE FLAKY PASTRY BITES
Before preparing the flaky puff pastry dough,
Slice very cold butter into small cubes.
Use a knife to slice butter and then a butter knife to detach the butter (try not to touch the butter as it may start to melt)
To keep the butter solid, I like to keep the small butter cubes in freezer, while we mix the dry ingredients.
1.PREPARE THE EASY PUFF PASTRY DOUGH
Into a bowl, add in the flour, sugar,salt and baking powder.
Stir and combine everything together using a whisk until all our ingredients get evenly distributed in the flour.
Now get the cold butter cubes out of freezer and add into the flour mix.
Toss the butter in flour.
And now you can easily squish the butter and they will get separated into small butter cubes.
Now we get small pea sized butter pieces homogeneously distributed in the flour.
We can either use a pastry cutter to do this; or slice them thin and add to the flour, as we did while making Easy apple turnovers from scratch.
Add cold milk, little by little into the flour mixture and, using a fork, gently toss and stir together until large lumps form and almost all of the flour has been moistened.
We need to be careful while adding milk..if we add more milk, the pastry will become tough and hard.
So it is better to add milk little by little and stop when the dough can be squeezed and be pressed to form dough.
We don’t want all our butter to get dissolved into the dough..and it is a good sign to see the butter pieces in between the dough.
2.BUILD THE FLAKY LAYERS
Transfer the dough on to a lightly floured work surface.
Using hands, squish the dough from sides and form a dough ball.
Again squish and pat from top to form a flat square sheet.
The dough may be slightly crumbly ,but we don’t want it to be doughy in texture.
Now using a bench scraper, cut the dough into 4 equal parts.
Stack them one over the other.
Squish and pat again to form a rough square.
Again cut into 4 parts and stack them one over the other and then form a flat sheet of approximately 1/2 inch thick.
3.CUT THE FLAKY PASTRY BITES
We can use cookie cutter of different shapes to cut the dough and make flaky pastries.
I used a small 2 1/4 inch round cookie cutter.In this way, we can make around 10 flaky puff pastry bites in total.
We can stack the remaining pastry dough ,squish and pat again to form pastry sheet.
Place the cut pastries on a non stick tray or a parchment lined baking tray.
Keep the tray covered in freezer for 5-10 minutes.We need the butter to be cold and almost solid while we take it into the oven for baking.
WHY DO WE NEED TO REFRIGERATE THE PUFF PASTRY BEFORE BAKING
The cold temperatures will firm up the pastry, meaning that the butter in the dough will melt more slowly.If we place soft butter into a hot oven, the first thing that might happen inside the oven, is the melting of butter than the cooking and we will end with a pool of butter and the pastries will not turnout good, they cannot hold its shape.
4.BAKE THE FLAKY PASTRY BITES
Before taking them into the oven for baking, to make the crust shiny and golden ,we can give an egg wash (which is optional) .
In a small bowl, whisk an egg for the egg wash.
Remove the chilled pastry from the refrigerator, and lightly brush with the egg wash.
If you want, you can sprinkle the top with some granulated sugar as well.
Place the baking tray on to 425 degrees F or 220 C Preheated oven and bake for 16-18 minutes or until they turn golden brown on top.
FOUR MOST IMPORTANT THINGS FOR MAKING THE BEST FLAKY PUFF PASTRY
- Use Cold Ingredients and try to keep the dough cold all the time
- Don’t Overwork the dough
- Don’t add too much milk while preparing the flaky pastry dough
- Work as fast as you can while working with the dough
WATCH THE VIDEO : HOW TO MAKE FLAKY PUFF PASTRY BITES
If you want to experiment with another super easy homemade puff pastry dough,I hope this Easy croissants recipe will help you.
Flaky Pastry Bites (with quick and easy puff pastry dough)
Ingredients
- 270 g All-purpose flour or 2 cups loosely packed
- 3 g Salt 1/2 teaspoon
- 85 g Unsalted butter, chilled, cut into small pieces or 6 tbsp
- 12.5 g Sugar or 1 tbsp
- 4 g Baking powder 1 tsp
- 150-165 ml Milk or 3/4 cup -1 or 2 tbsp
Instructions
Before Preparing the flaky pastry dough
- Before preparing the dough, Slice very cold butter into small cubes.Use a knife to slice butter and then a butter knife to detach the butter (try not to touch the butter as it may start to melt)To keep the butter solid, I like to keep the small butter cubes in freezer, while we mix the dry ingredients.
PREPARE THE FLAKY PASTRY DOUGH
- Into a bowl, add in the flour, sugar,salt and baking powder.
- Stir and combine everything together using a whisk until all our ingredients get evenly distributed in the flour.Now get the cold butter cubes out of freezer and add into the flour mix.Toss the butter in flour.And now you can easily squish the butter and they will get separated into small butter cubes.Now we get small pea sized butter pieces homogeneously distributed in the flour.
- Add cold milk, little by little into the flour mixture and, using a fork, gently toss and stir together until large lumps form and almost all of the flour has been moistened. We need to be careful while adding milk..if we add more milk, the pastry will become tough and hard.So it is better to add milk little by little and stop when the dough can be squeezed and be pressed to form dough.We don’t want all our butter to get dissolved into the dough..and it is a good sign to see the butter pieces in between the dough.
BUILD THE LAYERS
- Transfer the dough on to a lightly floured work surface.Using hands, squish the dough from sides and form a dough ball.Again squish and pat from top to form a flat square sheet.The dough may be slightly crumbly ,but we don’t want it to be doughy in texture.Now using a bench scraper, cut the dough into 4 equal parts.Stack them one over the other.Squish and pat again to form a rough square.Again cut into 4 parts and stack them one over the other and then form a flat sheet of approximately 1/2 inch thick.
CUT THE FLAKY PASTRY BITES
- We can use cookie cutter of different shapes to cut the dough and make flaky pastries.I used a small 2 1/4 inch round cookie cutter.In this way, we can make around 10 flaky puff pastry bites in total.We can stack the remaining pastry dough ,squish and pat again to form pastry sheet.
- Place the cut pastries on a non stick tray or a parchment lined baking tray.Keep the tray covered in freezer for 5-10 minutes.We need the butter to be cold and almost solid while we take it into the oven for baking.
BAKE THE FLAKY PASTRY BITES
- Before taking them into the oven for baking, to make the crust shiny and golden ,we can give an egg wash (which is optional) .In a small bowl, whisk an egg for the egg wash. Remove the chilled pastry from the refrigerator, and lightly brush with the egg wash. If you want, you can sprinkle the top with some granulated sugar as well.
- Place the baking tray on to 425 degrees F or 220 C Preheated oven and bake for 16-18 minutes or until they turn golden brown on top.
Video
Notes
FOUR MOST IMPORTANT THINGS FOR MAKING THE BEST FLAKY PUFF PASTRY
- Use Cold Ingredients and try to keep the dough cold all the time
- Don’t Overwork the dough
- Don’t add too much milk while preparing the flaky pastry dough
- Work as fast as you can while working with the dough