Puff the Magic Pastry: Make Puff Pastry in Minutes (Even on Your Craziest Days)

Versatile, flaky, buttery puff pastry you can make in 10 minutes using a food processor. So even when there is a celebration in the middle of one of the most chaotic weeks of your life, you can share some sweet love without completely burning yourself out.

These last couple of weeks have been pretty crazy around here. The final week of summer camps, a huge schedule shift to half-day camps with lunch and travel in between, as well as prepping my kiddo for her first big audition, followed by the first week of school. Oh, and my husband’s big 4-0 landed on “Meet the Teachers” day (very inconveniently planned on his part). Add it all up and you have the perfect recipe for overwhelm.

My kiddo struggles with transitions, and we all go a bit batty when we get off routine, so the chaos that ensued didn’t exactly leave much time or energy to create an elaborate dessert to celebrate my husband’s birthday. Oh, did I mention that my niece’s 22nd birthday was the same day as the hubby’s 40th? Yup, it was a lot.

I had planned for this week’s post to revolve around back-to-school snacks, but who the heck was I kidding? That level of prep was just outside my capacity, and I still haven’t managed to get dessert into the hands of my birthday people. Now here I am, a day late, a dessert (or 2) short, and my kid is at school with fruit and cheese.

So what to do when you want nothing more than to create something special for someone you love, but you are already burning the candle at both ends and just don’t have the time, energy, or mental capacity to plan and execute a full-blown cake? Well, first off, you find a good local bakery to make sure they have SOMETHING to celebrate with! But creating a special dessert just for them is my love language, so although I may be a day or 2 behind, I am going to make it happen.

Enter this week’s VIP (Very Important Pastry), that I lovingly refer to as Puff the Magic Pastry. I first learned about this method when interviewing for an externship as part of my pastry degree. The chef I was interviewing with told me there is so much more to learn outside of school and then asked me, “Did you know that you can make puff pastry in a food processor in 10 minutes?” Disbelieving, but curious, I sought out information about “food processor puff pastry” and sure enough, it was a thing, there were recipes, and I found a new love in the kitchen.

It’s got all the flakiness and butteriness of puff pastry, but it comes together faster than you can run to the grocery store to buy the frozen stuff, and it’s as versatile as my favorite summer sandals (that I can thank for a permanent asymmetrical tan line on my feet). I am using it to make a pithivier, a traditional French pie that consists of filling sandwiched between two discs of puff pastry. To truly celebrate the husband, I am filling it with one of his favorite things, strawberry rhubarb compote, and a rich, creamy almond frangipane. 

Here is the recipe so you can create your own kitchen magic. And check out this video to see how the pastry comes together. 

I would love to hear what you plan to make with it! I have made turnovers, quiches, tarte tatin, and more using this method, and though it doesn’t achieve the perfectly even layers of pastry when baked like a traditionally laminated puff pastry, the levels of crispness and flakiness you can achieve with 10% of the work is fully worth that sacrifice, IMO. 

Puff the Magic Pastry (Super Rough Puff Pastry)

Ingredients:

170 grams unsalted butter* (1 ½ sticks), cold and cubed

260 grams all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon fine sea salt

113 grams butter* (1 stick), cold and cubed

115 grams water, cold

Method:

1. Combine flour and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse a few times to combine.
2. Add the first quantity of butter (170 grams) and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs.
3. Add the second quantity of butter (113 grams) and pulse 3 times.
4. Open the lid of the food processor and add the water all around the bowl. Replace lid and pulse until the dough comes together. 
5. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead a few times until incorporated. 
6. Roll out to approximately 12”x18” rectangle, perform a book fold (see video here), then wrap in plastic and chill at least 1 hour before using.

Notes:

1. You can use cultured butter, or European style butter for a richer flavored pastry. Just be aware that these butters tend to be a bit softer and have a lower water content, so you may need to increase the chill time or add a touch (1-2 teaspoons) more water if the dough is looking too dry.
2. Weigh out and cube your butter quantities then stick them in the freezer for a few minutes. You want your butter and water to be as cold as possible without being frozen.
3. If you want even more flakiness, you can perform a second book fold. This can be done immediately after the first if your dough is still cold and hasn’t started to get sticky yet, or it can be done after 30 minutes of chilling.
4. Not sure what a book fold is? Watch the video!
5. This can be made up to 5 days in advance and kept in the fridge. You can freeze it for even longer (up to 3 months)! Just make sure it is double wrapped in plastic. Bonus points for putting it into an airtight container too.