Ingredients: 

All-Purpose Flour (Maida) – Don’t try to swap in whole wheat flour here in an attempt to be healthy; the texture will not come out correctly. If possible, reach for organic flour or unbleached flour for the best quality results.

Unsalted Butter – If you only have salted butter on hand, simply skip adding the salt to the recipe.

Salt – I use sea salt or pink salt for my everyday cooking, but if you are working with kosher salt, table salt, or any other type of salt, you can refer to a salt conversion chart to ensure proper measurement.

Ice Cold Water – As with making Pie Dough, you need your ingredients to be very cold. Make sure you use water that has been chilled down with plenty of ice to keep your butter from melting.

Steps to Make It: 

Step 1:Take 3 cups all purpose flour and 1 teaspoon salt in a large bowl/pan or on your work surface.

Step 2: Mix very well and keep aside. If you want, you can sift flour and salt together.

Step3:Take 250 grams cold unsalted butter and chop it in 1 inch cubes. Overall you will need 2 cups chopped butter. Do note the butter has to be cold and hard. It should not be soft.

Step4:Now add the cold butter cubes to the flour and salt mixture.

Step5: With a knife or pastry cutter, roughly cut the butter in the flour.

Step 6:Some large pieces or cubes of butter should be there. Do not make to a breadcrumb consistency.

The butter should not melt. If the butter begins to melt, then cover with lid and place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Step 7:Then sprinkle ¼ cup + 1 tablespoon ice cold water all over. The water also has to be very cold. So do chill water in the freezer before preparing the pastry.

Step 8:Mix with your hands and gently bring the dough together. Add 1 or 2 tablespoons more water if required to bind the dough or if the mixture looks very dry. Do not knead.

You just need to collect and gather the dough. There will be some pieces of butter in the flour and its fine.

In case the dough becomes moist or sticky, then add a few tablespoons of flour.

Step 9:  When you get a rough piece of dough together, then cover with a lid and place in the same bowl or another bowl. Refrigerate for 45 minutes to an hour.

Step 10:After 45 minutes, sprinkle some flour on your work surface.

Step 11:Later remove the rough dough from the fridge and place it on the sprinkled work surface.

Step 12:Sprinkle some flour on the dough also. Now gently roll the dough with a rolling pin, in one stroke downward.

If any piece of dough comes out, then stick it back to the dough.

Step 13:Make a 20 inches by 8 cm rectangle shape. With the rolling pin, even the edges to get a rectangle like shape.

Step 14:Now make two fold. First fold from top and bring the fold till center of the rolled dough.

Step 15:Overlap the second fold on top of the first fold. If you see, the pastry dough looks jagged and not even.

Step 16:Now lift the folded dough and place the overlapped folded side facing your left hand side. The dough will be facing lengthwise to you.

Step 17:Again sprinkle some flour and gently roll in one stroke to make a rectangle.

Step 18:Again fold like it was done earlier. Here the photo is with the fold downwards.

Step 19:Again keep the overlapped folded side facing your left hand side and gently roll. Sprinkle some flour if required.

Step 20:Fold again in the same way.

Step 21:Here is a photo of the folded dough. This is the third time I was folding. Just to show you the dough texture.

Step 22: Lift and change the position. Sprinkle flour and roll again.

Step 23: Here is the folded dough the fourth time. You will see the dough has become much more smoother.

Step 24:Again roll and then fold. I did this rolling and folding for 6 times. So the rolling and folding has to be done for 6 to 7 times.

If the butter begins to melt, then refrigerate the dough for 20 minutes after every fold. Cover the dough and keep in the fridge. In hot and warm temperatures you may need to do this.

Step 25:This is the fifth fold. Again roll and fold.

Step 26: Once the last folding is done, then gently roll a bit to even the dough. You will see this last fold is much more smooth than the previous ones.

Step 27:Cover with a foil or cling film and place in the fridge for an hour before you start shaping and making the pastries.

You can also keep overnight or for a day. If not using the dough in a day, then keep in the freezer. The dough should be completely covered, otherwise it will dry out in the fridge.

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