Makes about 500g (1lb 2oz)
Ingredients:
225g (8oz) plain flour, sifted, plus extra to dust
½tsp salt
225g (8oz) unsalted butter, chilled
125-150ml (4-5fl oz) ice cold water
1. Put flour and salt in a large mixing bowl and add 25g (1oz) of butter, cut into cubes. Toss butter through flour with a knife, to coat cubes. Rub butter and flour together using fingertips until mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
2. Pour in 125ml (4fl oz) ice cold water and stir it in quickly using knife, to bring everything together to a rough dough. Add a little more of water if needed. Bring dough together using your hands. Knead lightly on work surface and shape into a thick rectangle. Wrap in cling film and chill for 30min.
3. Lightly flour work surface. Roll out pastry into a long rectangle about 30.5cm x 15cm (12in x 6in). Straighten up sides now and again with edges of a palette knife and try to keep top and bottom edges as square as possible.
4. Wrap remaining butter in greaseproof paper. Using a rolling pin, flatten into a rectangle, about half size of rolled out dough and slightly narrower. Lay butter on bottom half of dough.
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5. Fold sides and bottom of pastry just over butter, then fold top half of pastry over butter to enclose it. Press edges with a rolling pin to seal and use a palette knife to make sure edges and corners are straight and sharp.
6. Lightly press dough with rolling pin to flatten slightly. Roll pastry out again into a rectangle, using a palette knife and rolling pin to keep edges straight and neat. Fold bottom third into middle, then fold top third over, to seal like an envelope. Roll and fold again, with closed fold to left, like a book. Wrap in cling film and chill for 30min
7. Repeat process of rolling and folding twice, then chill for 30min. Repeat this roll, fold and chill sequence another two times. After six rolls and folds pastry should not be streaky and there shouldn’t be any butter showing through – if there is, give pastry just one more roll and fold.8 Chill finished pastry for 30min, or ideally overnight, before using.
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Classic glass bowl (0.5 / 1 litre), Classic glass measure jug (1 litre), Pyrex. Loft 24-piece dinner set, Zwilling J.A. Henckels. Palette knife, glass ramekin, measuring spoon, rolling pin, chef's own.
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The GH Kitchen Team are Good Housekeeping’s resident recipe developers and all-round food obsessives. GH Kitchen Director Sarah Akhurst is our resident hosting pro and loves nothing more than putting on a foodie feast for friends. Our GH Kitchen Manager Linzi Pucino is our very own Italian food expert (originally hailing from the North East of Scotland!) and can be found working her way through midweek recipes that cover all bases, from haggis to ragu! Our Kitchen Editor Nadine Brown loves digging into the stories behind her favourite foods and enjoys applying her eclectic tastes to more modern, flavour-forward recipes - just don't give her too much chilli! Our Junior Food Content Produce Frankie Prichard combines a love of beautiful presentation and flavour-led, seasonal cooking in her recipe development, along with a passion for bringing people together through food. With a wealth of professional kitchen experience between them, they’re dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work every single time
