Extra Flaky Gluten-Free Puff Pastry
yields: 8 servings, 1 large sheet puffy pastry
Classic puff pastry sheets made with just gluten-free flours and high-quality butter. This quick and easy cheater method rough bakes up puffy with plenty of crisp golden brown flakes. Use it for your favorite savory or sweet puff pastry recipes!
Ingredients
- 80 g (½ cup + 2 tablespoons) Bob’s Red Mill sorghum flour
- 56 g (¼ cup + 2 tablespoons) millet flour
- 42 g (¼ cup + 2 tablespoons) Bob’s Red Mill tapioca flour
- 59 g (¼ cup + 2 tablespoons) Bob's Red Mill potato starch
- ¾ teaspoon xanthan gum
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- ½ teaspoon kosher
- 16 tablespoons (226 g) unsalted butter*, preferrably European-style, frozen for at least 30 minutes
- 7-9 tablespoons ice water
INSTRUCTIONS
- Sift together all the dry ingredients into a medium bowl. Note: if your kitchen is warm, you may want to freeze the bown with the flour for an hour before continuing.
- Working quickly, grate 4 tablespoons of the frozen butter into the flour. Gently toss the grated butter so all the small pieces are covered in flour.
- Very thinly slice the remaining frozen butter into 1/16 - ⅛-inch thick slices and add them to the bowl. Gently toss the butter slices in the flour, separating all of the pieces, until each piece is covered in flour.
- Drizzle 6 tablespoons of ice water over the top, and use a fork to mix the dough as much as you're able, until it is no longer super sticky. Working quickly, very gently work the dough with your hands until it just comes together into a shaggy dough when pinched, adding up to 3 tablespoons more ice water as needed. Take care not to overmix here or the butter will melt and incorporate, eliminating the puffy flaky rise. There will still be several dry spots in the dough, but that's okay because the dough will hydrate in the fridge.
- Dump the shaggy dough onto your work surface, knead it until it just forms a disc, and wrap it loosely in plastic. Use your hands or a rolling pin to flatten the dough roughly into the shape of a rectangle, about ½-inch to 1-inch thick. Chill for 30 minutes in the fridge or up to overnight. Once chilled, you'll laminate the dough using the double letter fold method.
- Lightly flour your work surface with sorghum flour. Place the chilled dough on your work surface and brush all over with sorghum flour to prevent the rolling pin from sticking.
- Roll the dough into a rectangle, about ¼-inch thick, lifting and flipping as you roll, and lightly dusting with more flour as need to prevent the dough from sticking. Fold it as you would a letter: First, fold ⅓ of the length of the dough over the top, using a bench scraper or knife to help remove the dough from the surface, as needed. Repeat by folding the other ⅓ of the length of dough over the top as you would a letter. Repeat the tri-fold one more time in the other direction, this time folding ⅓ of the width of the dough over top, then folding the remaining ⅓ of the width of dough over the top.
- Dust the dough lightly with sorghum flour and roll it out again into another rectangle about ¼-inch thick. Repeat the whole double letter fold process you just did once more. Wrap the dough in plastic again and chill for at least 30 minutes or up to a week in the fridge before rolling out to use for your recipe.
- When ready to use, roll the dough about ⅛-inch thick on a sheet of parchment paper dusted with sorghum flour and use as instructed in your recipe.
- For the puff pastry bites shown here, roll the puff pastry ⅛-inch thick and cut into 2x4 inch rectangles and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Chill while you preheat the oven to 425°F. Brush with an egg wash and optionally sprinkle with coarse sugar, if desired. Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 375°F and bake for an additional 8-10 minutes until the tops are golden brown and crisp, rotating the pan halfway through to avoid any hot spots.
Notes
My preferred butter to use:
While any butter will work, I highly recommend using an unsalted European-style butter that has a higher butterfat content and less water. Not only does it have more pronounced flavor, it creates more rise with flakier layers than American butter. However, due to the higher fat content, it is also softer and melts faster, so it's extra important to pop it in the freezer to firm up before using.
Gluten-Free Flour Substitutions
While it may seem overwhelming and expensive to purchase multiple gluten-free flours for one recipe, you can search my recipe filter for recipes that use the same flours to use up to whole bag. Tip: keep your flours in the freezer for longer storage. They'll last for years in the freezer. While the flours in this recipe produce the best gluten-free puff pastry, below you'll find my recommended substitutions if you can't find or can't have one of the flours in the recipe.- Sorghum Flour: Sorghum flour adds flavor to the dough. Sorghum is wholesome and whole grain that has slightly sweet notes that add flavor depth.
- Substitute by weight with gluten-free oat flour, brown rice flour, or white rice flour.
- Millet Flour: Millet flour is a neutral flour in texture and flavor that’s used almost as the mediator between the sorghum and the starches.
- Substitute by weight with brown rice flour, or white rice flour.
- Tapioca Flour: Tapioca starch is one of my go-to flours for gluten-free baking. It's a fluffy starch that holds the dough together, while also helping the flaky layers puff up.
- Substitute by weight with sweet rice flour (mochiko), arrowroot starch or corn starch.
- Potato Starch: Potato starch works in combination with tapioca starch by helping the flaky layers bake up ultra crisp, and adding more flavor to the dough.
- Substitute by weight with sweet rice flour (mochiko), arrowroot starch or corn starch.
