Rough puff pastry is the shortcut method to a light flaky pastry in the fraction of the time it takes to prepare traditional puff pastry. Although you may not achieve the same height and puffiness, this gluten free rough puff pastry recipe will still deliver a beautiful buttery flaky pastry. You no longer have to pass on your favourite pastries at all those parties just because you have a gluten allergy. Bring on the Pork, Apple & Sage Sausage Rolls and Greek Spanakopita I say.
When ingredient shopping be careful not to confuse potato starch with potato flour, they are not the same thing. Potato starch is made from the dried starch component of potatoes and has no potato flavour. It creates a beautiful light fluffy texture in baked goods. Potato flour is a heavy cream flour made from whole potatoes and has a distinct potato flavour. I tend to bake exclusively with potato starch.
My golden rules for a perfect golden puff pastry are-
- All ingredients and utensils should be as cold as possible. Ensure your butter is very cold or even frozen. If you do freeze the butter ensure you cube it first otherwise you may lose some fingers. You need those!
- The initial dough should be rough looking like the picture above. Visible chunks of butter are a good thing in puff pastry. When the visible pieces of butter melt in a hot oven oven they help create a flaky texture so don’t overwork the butter into the pastry dough.
- Roll the dough as thinly as possible between two sheets of baking paper when ready to use to ensure your cooked pastry is crispy and not gluggy.
- Cook puff pastry at a high temperature of at least 200C to achieve maximum lift.
As you can see rough puff pastry is not as daunting as people think and the great news is your pastry skills definitely improve with every attempt. If your dough is too sticky at any point just add a little more flour and remember to always flour your rolling pin to avoid dough sticking to it.
Now it’s your turn my gluten free pastry bakers. Get rolling!
- 250g very cold butter, cubed
- 1 cup or 120g cornflour
- ¾ cup or 120g potato starch
- ½ cup or 70g sorghum flour
- 2 tsp xantham gum
- 1 tsp salt
- 130g chilled water
- Put the cornflour, potato starch, sorghum flour, xantham gum and salt in a food processor and pulse to combine.
- Add the cold butter and pulse until mixture is combined but chunks of butter are still visible.
- With the motor running add chilled water and mix until just combined.
- Turn onto a lightly floured surface and shape into a rectangle. Roll the dough in one direction into a 20 x 50cm rectangle. You still want to see butter streaks so don’t overwork the butter. Fold the top and bottom short edges to meet at the centre then fold pastry in half. Wrap in cling film and rest in fridge for 30 min.
- Repeat the roll and fold 2 more times. Wrap pastry in cling film and rest for another 30 min.
- When ready to use roll out pastry between two sheets of baking paper to produce a thin pastry sheet which will deliver a flakier texture.
- Put the cornflour, potato starch, sorghum flour, xantham gum and salt in Thermomix and combine 3 sec/speed 4.
- Add the cold butter and mix 5 sec/speed 4 until mixture is combined but chunks of butter are still visible.
- With the motor running add chilled water and mix 5 sec/speed 3 until just combined.
- Turn onto a lightly floured surface and shape into a rectangle. Roll the dough in one direction into a 20 x 50cm rectangle. You still want to see butter streaks so don’t overwork the butter. Fold the top and bottom short edges to meet at the centre then fold pastry in half and wrap in cling film. Rest in fridge for 30 min.
- Repeat the roll and fold 2 more times. Wrap pastry in cling film and rest for another 30 min.
- When ready to use roll out pastry between two sheets of baking paper to produce a thin pastry sheet which will deliver a flakier texture.
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