Making pastry from scratch changes your end product entirely, and this recipe doesn’t have to include hours of folding, rolling and shaping to give you that classic, crispy-layered buttery flakes that it’s known for. 

Cheat’s rough-puff pastry 

Makes about 400g 

Rough puff pastry is super easy to make because the idea is to not blend everything together into a smooth pastry, hence the name “rough”. 

Sift together 3 ½ – 4 cups (525–600g) flour and 1 tsp (5ml) salt in a large bowl. Slice 450g cold butter into 1 cm cubes. (Keep butter ice-cold until using.) Add butter and 2 Tbsp (30ml) lemon juice to the flour. Use a knife to “cut” the ingredients together until a chunky mixture forms. This creates pockets of butter in between the flour. Add ½ cup (125ml) ice water and use your hands to work the mixture together, adding up to ½ cup more ice water until a dough forms, taking care to not overwork – you still want the pockets of butter to stay intact. Once formed, roll dough into a long rectangle. Bring the one short-end up to the middle of the rectangle, and the other short-end over the first to create a parcel. Wrap the pastry in clingfilm and rest for at least 30 minutes before rolling out to use for savoury tarts, cheese straws or pies.  

Why it works

The tiny butter pockets are encapsulated by flour. Once it hits the oven, it melts and creates steam that causes your pastry to rise – giving it a crispy texture.

Styling: Sjaan Van Der Ploeg
Photographs: Zhann Solomons