You can buy frozen, prepared puff pastry — I often do — and it’s fine. But if you have a little time, it’s easy to prepare this rough-puff recipe and it’s so much better!

A lot of recipes tell you that you can roll, fold, roll, fold, etc. without letting the dough rest at all, but I find it much easier to work with if I let it chill in the fridge for half an hour between each turn/roll. That half an hour break gives the dough time to relax and rest and it then lets you roll the dough out without it bouncing back at you.

You can make this and freeze it for using later — I like to wrap it in plastic a couple of times and then store it in a freezer bag. If you want to use it ‘immediately’, remember that it will need to relax and chill for about 2 hours before using. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do!

Ingredients:

• 454 grams all-purpose flour
• 290 grams butter, grated and frozen
• 7 1/2 mL (1 1/2 tsp.) salt 5 mL
• (1 tsp) white vinegar
• 200-300 mL ice cold water

Freeze the flour and grated butter (I use a freezer bag for each) for at least two hours before you start mixing. I typically know I’m going to make this the day before, so put the flour and butter in the freezer the night before.

In a large mixing bowl, use a fork to mix the flour and salt together. Add 90 grams of butter and use the fork to mix and coat the butter with flour.

Add the vinegar and about 150 mL of ice water to the flour and use the fork to mix through. Slowly add more water and mix until all of the flour has been incorporated. I use my hands to bring the dough together.

Turn the dough out on a lightly floured counter and knead for 1-2 minutes, just to form a ball.

Flatten the dough into a disk and wrap in plastic or place in a freezer bag. Refrigerate for 1 hour, giving it time to relax.

On a lightly floured counter, roll the dough into a large rectangle. Sprinkle half of the remaining 200 grams of frozen butter over two-thirds of the dough, leaving a one-third section on the end free of butter. Gently pat the butter down a little, pushing it into the dough.

Fold the section of the dough that doesn’t have butter on it over the middle one-third section of dough, then carefully fold the other one-third section over, forming three layers of dough, separated by layers of butter.

Turn the dough 90 degrees and roll it into a large rectangle and repeat the same process, sprinkling butter over two-thirds and folding in three. Place the dough back in the plastic bag and refrigerate for half an hour.

On lightly floured counter, roll the dough into a large triangle, then fold in three. Chill for half an hour and repeat the rolling and folding two more times. All of the rolling and folding creates lots and lots of layers of dough layered with butter. When it bakes it will puff up and create lots of thin, crisp layers. Refrigerate for a minimum of two hours before using.

(Video shows how we made bourekes with this dough.)