Easy flaky pastry

delicious. tips

1. Start with butter/lard straight from the fridge, but allow it to warm up and soften slightly for the folding and rolling – but don’t let it get so warm it melts.
    
   Cut the fat into thin pieces. If the fat is added to the dough in thick chunks, it is more likely to break through the layers of dough during rolling rather than spreading out between them. Keep them thin and this won’t be an issue.
    
   Ridge then roll. If you start rolling at one end of the pastry, you run the risk of squeezing and pushing all of the fat forwards. Instead, ‘ridge’ the pastry with your rolling pin first to get things going. Simply press the pin into your pastry gently a few times, evenly spaced up the pastry to create a wavy ridged effect. It will then be easier to roll out neatly.
    
   Apply even pressure when rolling. Evenly rolled dough will have straight sides. Not only will this mean the layers of fat are equally spread within the dough, but it will also mean you can fold the dough straight on top of itself to continue with more even layers. If your pastry begins to curve you’re probably pressing down more on one side than the other. Practice makes perfect so don’t worry about this too much when you first try, but a simple way to ensure an even pressure is to use a rolling pin with thickness guides.

2. Once the pastry is made, you can wrap and freeze it for up to 3 months.

3. Flaky pastry is made by rolling little chunks of fat in between the layers of pastry, which create little pockets of space which allow the air to expand and ‘puff up’ between the layers. This is known as lamination, and is what gives things like croissants its wonderful flakiness (instead of the crumbliness of shortcrust). Good lamination is easy to achieve when you keep in mind these four simple things…