Don’t be afraid to make your own gluten free pastry – it is surprisingly easy to make and with my recipes you will get a great result each time. This is a cheat’s version of the traditional rough puff pastry – I just speed up a few steps to save time. The result is a delicious buttery flaky pastry that is perfect for a range of sweet and savoury dishes. I love using it to make apple turnovers, sausage rolls and pies. If you want to see a demonstration showing you how to make it then watch our you tube video here . You can also find a quick recipe to show you how to make simple apple turnovers on our instagram page
Overview
Difficulty – Moderate
Time – 1 hour preparation
Makes 1 block of puff pastry
What’s good about it?
Following a gluten free diet can feel restrictive at times. However learning some basic recipes like pastry means you can create your favourite dishes from scratch. Puff pastry is an indulgent treat being high in saturated fat so use occasionally only
- Grate the butter with a coarse box grater. Weigh out 75g and set aside. Divide the remaining butter into two equal portions and place these back into the freezer.
- Place the flour, xanthum gum and pinch of salt in a bowl or food processor. Add the grated 75g butter and rub in with your fingers or process in the food processor. Gradually pour in the water mixing as you pour until you have formed a soft, slightly damp dough. It should be a little on the wet side.
- Shape the dough into a square and place on a sheet of cling film. Place another piece of cling film on the top of the dough and roll the dough with a rolling pin to form an oblong, around 25cm x 20cm wide.
- Take the frozen butter out of the freezer. Scatter half of the butter over the bottom two thirds of the dough. Fold over the top 1/3 of the pastry followed by the bottom 1/3 of the pastry to form an envelope and press the edges together to help seal in the butter. Place the cling film over the pastry again and roll the pastry out again.
- Repeat the above process with the remaining frozen butter. Wrap the pastry in cling film and place in the fridge for 15 minutes to firm up slightly.
- Take out of the fridge and roll out again to the same oblong size as before using cling film as before. Fold the top 1/3 over and then bottom 1/3 up over to form an envelope again. Press the edges together slightly then wrap in cling film and chill again for 15 minutes. Repeat this process 2-3 more times then chill for 30 minutes before using.
- If you don’t want to use the pastry straight away it can be kept in the fridge for 2-3 days or frozen for up to 1 month.
Did You Know?
Xanthum gum is a useful addition when making gluten free pastry to help bind the ingredients without it crumbling. Other options you can use include pectin powder, psyllium husks, ground chia seeds and ground flaxseed.
175g frozen butter
275g Gluten Free Bread Flour (e.g Dove’s Farm)
1tsp xanthum gum
125-150ml water
Sea salt, pinch