Sourdough Puff Pastry
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You are going to LOVE this sourdough puff pastry recipe! Generally, puff pastry has reputation for being quite labor intensive and involved, but this sourdough puff pastry recipe is actually really easy!
I've created this recipe as more of a rough puff pastry, so there are no butter blocks to deal with. But as you can see by the flaky layers in the photo below, there's no compromise on the texture or flavor of this sourdough puff pastry.
Don't be frightened by making your own sourdough puff pastry, you will love the ease of this recipe and be truly rewarded with delicious, flaky pastry. Sourdough puff pastry is a great step up from making your own sourdough pie crust.
Why You'll Love This Recipe!
Easy Version - this flaky sourdough rough puff pastry is much easier to make than traditional puff pastry. There's no need for butter blocks, but you still get buttery, flaky layers!
Versatile - you can use this sourdough puff pastry for so many things! It lends itself to sweet and savory recipes and can be prepared ahead of time and kept in the fridge or frozen.
Fermented Pastry - Using 100g of sourdough discard, you can ferment this pastry in the fridge for up to 48 hours.
Ingredients
Sourdough puff pastry contains only 5 ingredients.
- All Purpose Flour - make sure you're using all purpose flour for this and not bread flour because you don't want to develop the gluten in this pastry.
- Sourdough Discard - your discard will need to come from a 100% hydration sourdough starter. Using discard that is around 24 hours old is perfect.
- Butter - the butter you use can be salted or unsalted (I always use salted). The trick here is to make sure your butter is super cold because this is what will give your sourdough puff pastry the most flaky layers.
- Water - the water you use needs to be ice cold to ensure that the butter doesn't melt when you bring the pastry together.
- Salt - just a pinch. You can leave the salt out if you are using salted butter (although I think it tastes best with both).
How to Make Sourdough Puff Pastry
Sourdough puff pastry isn't overly difficult to make, however it does require patience and precision. I highly recommend weighing your ingredients to ensure accuracy.
Before you start this recipe, make sure you have already cubed your butter. I like to cube the butter and then sit it in the freezer while I get everything else ready, this way it won't melt as much when you go to use it.
Add the salt to the all purpose flour and lightly stir together to ensure it's well distributed. Set this aside.
Pour the ice cold water into your sourdough discard and whisk together with a fork until it's well combined. Set this aside.
Now, take the flour and salt mixture and place the cold, cubed butter on top.
Using your fingertips, lightly toss the butter cubes through the flour, using the flour to break the cubes of butter up. You don't really want to rub the butter into the flour at this stage, you just want the butter to be coated in flour.
Now, add half the water and discard mixture to the flour and butter and start to bring the mixture together into a rough dough. Continue to do this, adding a little water and discard at a time, until the dough has come together in the bowl.
You need to squeeze the dough together just enough so it's cohesive, but not so much that you smooth the butter out, you still want this in big chunks. You should still have some dry flour in the bowl, so be really cautious when adding the discard mixture.
Once you're happy with the dough, tip it out onto a clean surface and push into a rough rectangle. The dough should still be fairly dry, not sticky, so you shouldn't need any extra flour at this stage.
Wrap the rectangle of dough in plastic wrap or parchment paper and place in the fridge to chill. Ideally, you should leave the pastry in the fridge for at least 8 hours.
How To Perform a Pastry Letter Fold
Now it's time to laminate your sourdough puff pastry, so you'll need to take it out of the fridge and allow it to sit for around 10 minutes so it's not super hard.
Lightly flour your counter top and place the rectangle of dough in the middle. Using a rolling pin, start trying to push the dough out into a larger rectangle. You'll need to bring your muscles for this process!
Once the dough has been pushed out a bit, perform a letter fold. Turn the dough 180 degrees and perform another letter fold. Repeat this process 4 to 6 times.
This creates the lamination that gives you the flakey layers puff pastry is famous for.
As you perform the letter folds, the dough will become smoother and more pliable.
If the butter melts too much or the dough becomes sticky, then you can place it back in the fridge at any time.
Now wrap the dough back up and place into the fridge for around 30 minutes.
At this stage, you can leave the dough in the fridge for another 24 hours if you like or even freeze it.
When you're ready to bake
Once you're ready to use the puff pastry, lightly flour the counter top and place the dough in the middle of the surface. Roll the dough out into a rectangle or square. You want the dough to be around ½" thick (this portion of dough can be rolled out to around 30cm x 42cm or 12" x 16.5").
Now your sourdough puff pastry is ready to use for whatever you like - whether you're topping a pie, making hand pies or tarts or even just cutting it into strips to top with jam and cream. I like to cut the pastry to size and add it to whatever I need and then place in the fridge for around 10 minutes before placing into the oven.
Before you place your puff pastry in the oven, give it a light egg wash to ensure it browns up. A sprinkle of coarse sugar is a nice touch for sweet applications.
Bake sourdough puff pastry at 220C (430F) for around 30 minutes (depending on how large a piece it is).
Tips For Success
- For best results, place pastry in the fridge for at least 10 minutes before baking. This allows the butter to set and gives you the most flaky sourdough puff pastry.
- Don't add too much liquid to your sourdough puff pastry dough. This will make your dough too sticky to work with and won't allow you to easily laminate the dough to create layers of butter.
How To Use Sourdough Puff Pastry
This sourdough puff pastry is so versatile! You can use it for sweet and savory applications. Here are a few ideas for using your sourdough puff pastry to feed your family and friends:
- Use this sourdough puff pastry to top this sourdough chicken pot pie, instead of a short crust pastry.
- Give this sourdough apple pie a flaky crust by replacing the top with a portion of sourdough puff pastry.
- Create delicious hand pies filled with your favorite jam or other fruit fillings.
- Use your pastry to create delicious sourdough sausage rolls.
- Use the this cinnamon roll filling and create sticky cinnamon twists, the perfect portable dessert!
Baking Timeline
| TIME | PROCESS |
|---|---|
| 7.30 AM | DAY 1 Cube butter and place into the freezer. Mix iced water into sourdough discard. |
| 7.45 AM | Mix initial sourdough puff pastry dough. Wrap and place into fridge. |
| 7.00 PM | Take dough out of the fridge and perform 4 to 6 letter folds |
| 7.15 PM | Re wrap dough and place into the fridge to chill. |
| 7.30 PM | Roll out the sourdough puff pastry into a large rectangle. |
| 7.45 PM | Lay puff pastry over your chosen pie filling. |
| 8.00 PM | Place pie in the fridge to chill overnight (optional) |
| 9.00 AM | DAY 2 Bake sourdough puff pastry pie. |
How To Store + Freeze
Before Baking - the unbaked sourdough puff pastry can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 48 hours after you've performed the letter folds and gotten it to "pre rolling" stage.
After Baking - unfilled, baked puff pastry can be stored in an airtight container for up to three days. I like to store between layers of paper towel to ensure moisture doesn't settle on the pastry and soften it. You can gently warm the pastry in the oven again if you want to.
Freezing Pastry - unbaked sourdough puff pastry can be stored in the freezer for up to 6 months. Wrap portions of pastry dough tightly in plastic wrap and then in aluminum foil. Allow frozen dough to thaw overnight in the fridge before rolling out as necessary. You can also roll pastry out into more manageable sheets before freezing between sheets of parchment paper.
Sourdough Puff Pastry
Equipment
- Kitchen Scale
- Rolling Pin
Ingredients
- 200 g All Purpose Flour
- 5 g Salt (you can reduce if using salted butter)
- 40 g Water (ice cold)
- 100 g Sourdough Discard (unfed sourdough starter)
- 225 g Butter (cold, cubed - salted or unsalted)
Instructions
- Before you start this recipe, make sure you have already cubed your butter. I like to cube the butter and then sit it in the freezer while I get everything else ready, this way it won't melt as much when you go to use it.
- Add the salt to the all purpose flour and lightly stir together to ensure it's well distributed. Set this aside.
- Pour the ice cold water into your sourdough discard and whisk together with a fork until it's well combined. Set this aside.
- Now, take the flour and salt mixture and place the cold, cubed butter on top. Using your fingertips, lightly toss the butter cubes through the flour, using the flour to break the cubes of butter up.You don't really want to rub the butter into the flour at this stage, you just want the butter to be coated in flour.
- Now, add half the water and discard mixture to the flour and butter and start to bring the mixture together into a rough dough. Continue to do this, adding a little water and discard at a time, until the dough has come together in the bowl. You need to squeeze the dough together just enough so it's cohesive, but not so much that you smooth the butter out, you still want this in big chunks.You should still have some dry flour in the bowl, so be really cautious when adding the discard mixture.
- Once you're happy with the dough, tip it out onto a clean surface and push into a rough rectangle. The dough should still be fairly dry, not sticky, so you shouldn't need any extra flour at this stage.
- Wrap the rectangle of dough in plastic wrap or parchment paper and place in the fridge to chill. Ideally, you should leave the pastry in the fridge for at least 8 hours.
- Now it's time to laminate your sourdough puff pastry, so you'll need to take it out of the fridge and allow it to sit for around 10 minutes so it's not super hard.
- Lightly flour your counter top and place the rectangle of dough in the middle. Using a rolling pin, start trying to push the dough out into a larger rectangle. You'll need to bring your muscles for this process!
- Once the dough has been pushed out a bit, perform a letter fold (see above for fully illustrated instructions on how to perform a letter fold). Turn the dough 180 degrees and perform another letter fold. Repeat this process 4 to 6 times. This creates the lamination that gives you the flakey layers puff pastry is famous for.
- Now wrap the dough back up and place into the fridge for around 30 minutes.At this stage, you can leave the dough in the fridge for another 24 hours if you like or even freeze it (see above for instructions).
- Once you're ready to use the puff pastry, lightly flour the counter top and place the dough in the middle of the surface. Roll the dough out into a rectangle or square. You want the dough to be around ½" thick (this portion of dough can be rolled out to around 30cm x 42cm or 12" x 16.5").
- Now your sourdough puff pastry is ready to use for whatever you like - whether you're topping a pie, making hand pies or tarts or even just cutting it into strips to top with jam and cream. I like to cut the pastry to size and add it to whatever I need and then place in the fridge for around 10 minutes before placing into the oven).
- Before you place your puff pastry in the oven, give it a light egg wash to ensure it browns up. A sprinkle of coarse sugar is a nice touch for sweet applications.
- Bake sourdough puff pastry at 220C (430F) for around 30 minutes (depending on how large a piece it is).
Notes
- All Purpose Flour - make sure you're using all purpose flour for this and not bread flour because you don't want to develop the gluten in this pastry.
- Sourdough Discard - your discard will need to come from a 100% hydration sourdough starter. Using discard that is around 24 hours old is perfect.
- Butter - the butter you use can be salted or unsalted (I always use salted). The trick here is to make sure your butter is super cold because this is what will give your sourdough puff pastry the most flaky layers.
- Water - the water you use needs to be ice cold to ensure that the butter doesn't melt when you bring the pastry together.
- Salt - just a pinch. You can leave the salt out if you are using salted butter (although I think it tastes best with both).
Nutrition
