Quick Puff Pastry

1 scant cup of flour (a cup minus 2 tablespoons

¼ teaspoon of salt

1 stick of unsalted butter chilled and chopped

¼ cup of ice cold water.

In a medium mixing bowl whisk together the flour and salt. Add the chilled butter and use a pastry cutter to cut the butter into the flour. In a warm kitchen you might refrigerate the bowl for 20 minutes before getting started. Add the ice cold water and mix quickly with a dough whisk or sturdy wooden spoon.

Once it comes together in a rough mass, shape it into a ball. Flour your work surface (wood works best in my experience) and flatten the dough slightly. Dust the dough and your rolling pin with flour and roll out the dough into a rectangle about 12” x 8”. Don’t worry about getting the dimensions exact—as  you fold and roll in the following steps, the edges were straightened out.

Using a slightly damp pastry brush, brush off the excess flour. Fold the top third of the dough towards the center, like folding a letter, and brush off the excess flour again. Fold the bottom half up and press lightly. Give the dough a quarter turn and repeat the same steps at least three more times. I’ve done it up to five times for extra flaky results. The dough will become increasingly smooth with each turn. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes to an hour before using.

Notes

--All-purpose flour works just fine for this recipe.

--Why unsalted butter if you’re going to use salt? Because salted butter usually has a higher fat content, perfect for pastry. If all you have is salted butter, reduce the salt to 1⁄8 teaspoon.

--This makes roughly the equivalent of a single sheet of boxed puff pastry, a nice small batch for a few treats. Start to finish, you can have this done in 15 to 20 minutes, plus chilling time.

--This may be used for a number of Valentine's Day Treats--check the tag for recipes.