This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.
When I told Keith that I was doing a ‘rough puff pastry post’, he said, “Say that one five times fast.” Try it. Add it to the list: toy boat, torso sore toe, never been to Bend before (the last two courtesy of my dad).
As I worked on this recipe, I missed Seattle. Don’t misunderstand me, I LOVE Bend, Oregon. We’ve lived here for two years now and it feels like sweet home. But I do love Seattle, and we spent the last year we lived there with this view.
The faltering economy lent us a condo rental opportunity that we could not refuse. So we spent the year gawking at the Seattle skyline and beautiful Puget Sound. We relished our ability to walk down 1st Avenue to some of our favorite restaurants: Palace Kitchen, Lola, Serious Pie, Dahlia Lounge, Matt’s in the Market (oh baby!).
Keith and I laughed and conversed our way through many memorable meals in Palace Kitchen booths. We celebrated our 10th anniversary at the Dahlia Lounge. (Our 17th is tomorrow!) We savored countless breakfasts at Lola and let the unique pizzas at Serious Pie melt on our tongues.
If you know Seattle, you know that the first four restaurants I mentioned are very different, yet owned by the same restaurateur, Tom Douglas (the link will take you to a peek-a-boo of all of his restaurants). The man is brilliant. And I loved that he dined in his own restaurants. We would spot him having a drink in the bar with a friend at the Dahlia Lounge or having dinner with his wife and business partner, Jackie, at the Palace Kitchen.
I tinkered with ingredients to create the recipe for this puff pastry, but the method I owe to Tom. He shared it in his excellent cookbook, Tom Douglas’ Seattle Kitchen. You mix up all of the ingredients in a food processor, form the dough, and then roll it up jellyroll style – so many layers so quick.
Puff pastry is a great item to keep in your freezer for making quick and elegant main dishes like pot pies or savory tarts or quick fruit tart desserts.
What to make with your homemade whole wheat puff pastry:
Fava, Feta and Mint Tart with Lemon
Cut into small squares, bake at 400°F until puffed and golden brown and serve with Chicken Pot Pie Soup.
Quick Whole Wheat Puff Pastry
Ingredients
- 22 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter 1 cup + 6 tablespoons, or 2 3/4 sticks, cut into ½ inch chunks
- 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 10 tablespoons ice water plus up to 1 more if necessary
Instructions
- Freeze the butter chunks for about 10 minutes before making the dough.
- Place flour and kosher salt into the bowl of a food processor and pulse a few times to combine. Add about 1/3 of the butter to the flour and pulse until the butter is in small crumbs. Add remaining butter and pulse 3 or 4 times, leaving visible chunks of butter. Add ice water and pulse until dough begins to clump – don’t overprocess or your pastry will be tough.
- Turn the lumpy, uneven dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Shape dough into a rectangle. Use a board scraper or your hands to create relatively square edges. Lightly flour a rolling pin and the top of dough rectangle. Roll back and forth to create a 12-inch by 18-inch rectangle.
- Fold one edge of the 12-inch side to the center of the rectangle and repeat with the opposite edge, leaving a 4-inch by 18-inch rectangle. Use your hands and dough scraper to roll dough up like a jelly roll. Roll ‘jelly roll’ out into a 4-inch by 18-inch rectangle. Roll it up again; wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or freeze for later use.
- Use as directed in recipes calling for puff pastry.
- Note: After the hour has passed, I like to roll the dough out into a 9-inch by 13 1/2-inch rectangle (~3/8-inch thick – no thinner or your pastry won’t puff!) and cut it into 6 ~4 1/2-inch squares – cut the 9-inch length in half, then cut the strips 3 times into squares. I stack each square with a layer of parchment paper in between and freeze, then thaw in the refrigerator when I’m ready to use them. They thaw in just a couple of hours.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Hi Marissa,
Your whole wheat puff dough recipe says it makes 6 servings… I plan on making a baked Brie puffed dough
Recipe. Would one serving be adequate for this recipe?
Hi Suzanne! It should wrap a standard 8-ounce round of brie nicely. Enjoy!
Thank you Marissa! I will share
results😊
Hi. Can you use a vegan butter replacement? Like avocado butter?
Hi there, Lisa. I’d love to help, but I haven’t tested a vegan version of this recipe.
Hi Lisa, don’t be afraid to substitute. I’m dairy free and always have to substitute all dairy products. Absolutely no problem at all. Sorry I only saw this like 2 years later lol. Hope it turned out well for you!
Is it okay if i mixed the ingredients myself with a whisk, I don’t have a processor?
Yes, you can absolutely make this recipe by hand! Use a pastry blender or a couple of knives to cut in the butter as you would for a pie crust.
Hi Marissa,
I haven’t made puff pastry yet, but am looking forward to trying. In reading the recipe, I see a small math problem. A 4″ X 16″ rectangle, can be cut into 4 pieces, (each 4″ square), not 6. So, I’m wondering if the recipe actually yields 4 pieces, or should the dough be rolled out into a 4″ X 24″ rectangle to get 6 pieces?
Hi Scott! You’re absolutely right, my math was off. Thank you for catching that. I’ve updated the recipe to note the proper proportions for rolling out your chilled dough.
Hi again Marissa,
I finally made my first attempt at this recipe, but I ended up with something more like a fairly thick, hard shortbread cookie, rather than a puffed up, flakey pastry layer. It rose a little when it baked, but not too much, and the texture was more brittle, mealy/sandy than flakey, layered and crispy like I expect from puff pastry. Don’t know what I doing wrong.
Hi there, Scott! hmmm…it’s hard to say for sure. Is it possible that your butter wasn’t very cold at the start? Whole wheat puff pastry should definitely be flaky, but it doesn’t have as light a texture as when you make it with AP flour. You might try a 50/50 blend of whole wheat to AP flour to see if you’re happier with the result.
Tried this recipe last night and my puff pastry didn’t really, well…puff. What could I have done wrong and how can I prevent it next time?
Hi Jenn! I’m sorry that the pastry didn’t puff as much as you hoped for. Whole wheat flour puff pastry definitely has a different consistency than puff pastry made with A/P flour, but should ‘puff’…The only thing I can think of is that your puff pastry may have gotten too warm before baking?