All-Butter Flaky Pastry

This is an all-butter pastry made with the most basic of ingredients, AP flour, butter, salt, sugar and water, which are combined in the usual way. But the similarities to any other short crust pastry recipe I’ve seen end here.

The recipe calls for quite a bit of water which results in a fairly soft and sticky dough. Instead of refrigerating the dough once it’s formed, the author has you use a technique that’s used in making puff pastry to ensure flakiness. The dough is rolled into a long, narrow rectangle on a well floured surface and folded into thirds like a business letter. After giving the dough a quarter turn, these steps are repeated once again. The softness and stickiness disappear during this process as the dough absorbs more flour. The dough is ready for use after a short period of refrigeration.

The chilled dough is very easy to work with and baked up to be one the flakiest crusts I’ve ever made.

The recipe makes enough for a double-crust pie. I used it to make the Sweet Ricotta Galette on page 122.