Puff pastry has a reputation for being hard to make. It really isn’t. The recipe calls for flour, salt, water and fat (usually butter). Really, that’s all. I think the thing that gives puff pastry it’s reputation for being difficult is that it takes time. After living and breathing puff pastry for the past 2 weeks, I have come to the conclusion that if you start with a solid recipe and you follow the steps involved, you will end up with puff pastry that puffs. You just need patience.
Puff pastry consists of two things: a flour-water dough called the détrempe. This is a fancy-sounding French word for a decidedly non-fancy thing: “moistened dough.” Puff pastry also contains butter. Lots and lots of butter. You can also use margarine, lard, or shortening for your fat–but if you can use it, butter gives the best flavor. If you are a baking nerd like me and you’re into such things, the ratios are: the détrempe is 100 parts flour to about 50 parts water. If you weighed the détrempe, you would then use a butter amount that is 1/2 of the weight of the détrempe. (see Michael Ruhlman’s book Ratio: Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking for more on this approach to cooking).
After you make the détrempe, you then wrap it around a packet of fat–usually butter–which is called your beurrage–“butter packet.” For all intents and purposes, you create an envelope of détrempe into which you put your beurrage. It’s a fascinating concept, really. Wait until you see the pictures–it really does look like an envelope.
After you enclose the beurrage in the détrempe, you then roll and fold the dough several times to create layers of dough separated by layers of butter. The classic number of times you do this is 6. Each roll and fold session is called a “turn.” So, you would do 6 turns for puff pastry dough.
Puff pastry is in the category of doughs called “laminated” doughs. This means it is made up of layers. Laminated doughs involve three steps: 1. Preparing a base dough (détrempe); 2. Enclosing fat (beurrage) inside the dough; 3. Rolling, folding, and layering the resulting dough. According to Harold McGee in his amazing book, On Food and Cooking:The Science and the Lore of the Kitchen (which I recommend to any serious cook/baker), the resulting dough, if you roll and fold it 6 times, will have 729 layers of moistened flour separated by 728 layers of fat. The term millefeuille, or “thousand leaves,” refers to a pastry that is made by stacking 2 layers of puff pastry with a layer of pastry cream in the middle.
When you bake puff pastry dough, the butter in each layer melts, creating a space. The water in the butter and the dough then turns to steam and rises–creating an air pocket in each layer. The resulting baked pastry rises to 2-4 or more times its uncooked thickness and contains many crispy layers. It’s light and delicate. With this type of dough it is very important that you treat the dough carefully to maintain the integrity of the layers. This is not a dough that you would gather and re-roll as you would a pie crust dough. Or, if you did re-roll it, you would not expect the layering and lightness of the first rolled dough.
What I’ve described above is the “classic” method of making puff pastry dough. There are other methods of making the dough–the most common is known as the “rough” (or “blitz”) methods. This method is more like a pie crust dough–the butter is incorporated into the initial dough and is then rolled out once or twice. Since I have found it to be fairly simple, I wanted to present to you the “classic” puff pastry method.
Gluten-free dough presents a bit of a challenge when you’re going through the process of rolling and folding the puff pastry dough. As you know, gluten-free dough is not as elastic as wheat dough. It is more crumbly and prone to breaking because there is no gluten to hold it together. I learned this when working on my pie crust recipe. As I worked on different recipes for the puff pastry dough, I found that gluten-free dough doesn’t fold as cleanly or as nicely as a wheat dough does. Also, all the recipes I’ve looked at for puff pastry dough made from wheat flour call for keeping the dough as cold as possible–the same type of instruction one would encounter with wheat pie crust dough. Using the knowledge and information I gained from my pie crust adventures, I found that gluten-free puff pastry dough doesn’t have to be kept as cold in the rolling process as one would keep wheat puff pastry dough. Therefore, I don’t use ice water or keep it in the fridge too long in between turns. It’s a bit tricky to learn the right consistency of the dough–but you learn to recognize it as you’re doing the turns.
The main thing with this dough is that you don’t want it to get so warm that the butter starts to melt and sticks to the rolling surface. And, you don’t want the dough to be so cold that you can’t roll it it out without cracking the edges of the dough too much. Don’t worry, though–in the following recipe, I have tried to include pictures and descriptions with each step so it’s easy to make your way through it.
A key step to making puff pastry is the fold. You roll and fold the dough several times to make layers. There are two types of classic folds used in puff pastry. One is the “single” fold in which you fold the dough as you would a letter:
Another type of fold is the “double” or “book” fold. This type of fold accomplishes twice the fold (hence the name) as the single fold:
Many pastry cooks use the double fold to save time. So, instead of doing 6 single folds, they would do 3 book folds. As I experimented with gluten-free puff pastry dough, I found that dough folded in book folds didn’t rise quite as much as that folded in single folds. So, in my recipe I recommend single folds–although you are welcome to try double folds to see how your results vary. (drawings from: Whisk).
One thing you really need when making puff pastry dough is a space that is at least 20 inches long that you can roll the puff pastry out onto. I have a tile counter top, so I needed to find an appropriate alternate surface. What I finally ended up doing was pulling the under-the-counter cutting board out of its socket, placing it on the counter, and using that for my rolling surface.
You also need a good, sturdy rolling pin. I most often use this rolling pin. You also need a ruler or measuring tape to measure your dough as you roll and turn it. I use a hardware tape measure (I got the idea from my friend, Kim). It’s simple, cheap, versatile, and works like a charm.
Puff Pastry, Gluten-Free
-1/2 recipe adapted from Baking With Julia, by Dorie Greenspan
-this takes about 2 1/2 hours from start to finish (not all of it is active time)
Special Equipment Needed
-rolling surface that is at least 20 inches long
-rolling pin
-measuring tape (to measure your dough)
-plastic wrap
Ingredients
For the Détrempe
2 cups minus 2 tablespoons (275 g) Jeanne’s Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour Mix
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons water (plus more as needed)
For the Beurrage
1 cup (2 sticks, 225 g) unsalted butter, cold but not too hard
Additional tapioca flour for rolling the dough
The first 5 steps should be done as quickly as possible to maintain cool temperatures for the dough and for the butter.
In a large mixing bowl, stir together flour and salt. Add the water and stir the mixture until it comes together. You want a ball of dough that holds together well, but isn’t wet and sticky. I usually use about 1 TBL of additional water. Mix together well and form into a nice ball of dough. (You can also do this in a food processor but you will still need to take it out and do a final mix with your hands.) This is your détrempe (flour-water dough).
Wrap this completely in a damp kitchen towel and place in the refrigerator while you make your beurrage (butter packet).
Place the sticks of butter together, in a row, between 2 sheets of plastic wrap. Using your rolling pin, beat the butter into an evenly-thick square. You may need to mess around with it a bit to get this into a uniform thickness. I usually beat the 2 sticks into rectangle that is 3″x 6″. I then cut it in half the short way and place the cut 3″ on top of the other 3″. Then I beat the butter into a 4″x4″x1″ thick square. This is your beurrage. Set this aside–it should be cold and firm but not hard (also, if it’s getting too soft, put in the refrigerator) while you roll out your dough.
Flour your rolling surface well with tapioca flour. Take your détrempe out of the refrigerator and unwrap from the damp towel. Place your détrempe on the rolling surface. Starting from each of the 4 sides, roll out flaps (or “ears”) from each side, leaving a roughly 4″x4″ square of thick dough in the center. The flaps should come out about 5″ from the sides of the square. Try to make sure that each flap is the same thickness as the other flaps. The flaps will be thinner than your middle dough. Your détrempe will now be in the shape of a cross.
Remove your beurrage from its plastic wrap and place it on top of the thick part of the détrempe. The beurrage and the détrempe should be roughly the same length and width.
Now you are going to carefully fold your flaps of dough over the butter, one at a time. When all four flaps are over the butter, it will look like an envelope.
Your dough may break at the folding points. If it does, press the break together carefully. Also, squeeze together the gaps at the corners.
You want to make sure that the butter is completely encased in the dough. You don’t want any of your butter to squeeze through any holes.
Take your rolling pin and press down across the dough 2 times in a criss-crossing diagonal. This will help stabilize the butter inside the dough.
Roll the top of the dough gently but firmly with the rolling pin once across the top.
This also stabilizes the butter in the dough. Turn the dough packet over, so the folded side is now on the bottom and the smooth side is on the top.
Now you are ready to do your first “turn.” Add some more flour to your rolling surface–you need to make sure it is well floured at all times. Also, make sure your rolling pin is floured, as well. Now carefully roll your dough out in a long rectangle. As you roll it out, the dough will probably tear along the sides (it doesn’t do this with wheat dough). I use my hands and the side of my rolling pin to repair and push in these tears as I roll the dough.
Eventually, you will have a rectangle of dough that is roughly 1/2 inch thick and 18 inches by about 8 inches. It will look mottled and “streaky”–meaning that you will see the flour and butter separately in the dough. This streaking will diminish as you make each turn. Make more repairs to your dough edges so it looks like a neat rectangle.
Now you do your first fold. I recommend doing the single fold method. For this, take one end of your dough and fold roughly a third of it onto the top of the dough.
Then take your other end and fold it on top of the already folded dough–as you would with a business letter.
Once you’ve folded your dough, repair your packet again. Press a corner-to-corner criss-cross into the dough will your rolling pin to stabilize it. And roll the dough gently and firmly across the top with your rolling pin. Press the sides in to repair any tears in the dough. When you’re done repairing the dough, place one indentation to the dough with your fingertip to indicate that you’ve done 1 turn.
This cue will help you keep track of how many turns you’ve done. Once your packet is neat, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap (make sure it’s completely wrapped so no air gets to it) and place into the refrigerator for 15 minutes.
Re-flour your rolling surface and your rolling pin. After 15 minutes, take out your dough, unwrap it, and place on your rolling surface. Be sure to turn your dough 90 degrees from the way it was after you folded it the last time. This means that the folded edge will be facing the side instead of being in front of you.
You will turn your dough this way each time you roll it out. Now roll out the dough the same way you did the first time, taking care to repair the edges as you roll. Do a single fold, repair your sides, press a criss-cross with your rolling pin, roll across the top and mark your dough with 2 indentations to indicate that you have now made 2 turns.
I recommend that you brush the flour off of the bottom of the dough each time you fold it. This way, you reduce the amount of extra flour that you incorporate into your dough. I do this with a pastry brush.
Repeat the entire process four more times for a total of 6 turns. After your first two turns, you might find that your dough is cold enough for you to do 2 turns per session before placing the dough in the refrigerator to rest. This will save time. I usually do 2 turns in one sitting for the 3 and 4th turns, and then again for the 5th and 6th turns. But you need to gauge your dough to see if it’s cold enough to do this. Make sure the butter isn’t getting too soft–if it is, it will stick to the rolling surface.
After your 6th and final turn, you dough should look pretty good.
You will now have a nice packet of puff pastry dough that is a little over 1 lb (about 1 lb 5 oz). This is roughly the amount you get in package of frozen commercial (wheat) puff pastry. Once you’ve repaired your dough and have made it look as neat as possible, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator. It should be about 8″x5″x1″. Your dough is now ready to roll out and use in recipes. If you want to use your dough right away, place it in the refrigerator for another 1 hour before rolling it out for use. When you roll it out for use, you may need to rest it on the counter for awhile to bring it to rolling temperature. It shouldn’t break or crack too much while you’re rolling it–breaking and cracking indicates that the dough is too cold.
The dough will keep in the refrigerator for about 2 days. I have found that keeping the dough in the refrigerator for more than 2 days diminishes the puff action of the pastry. The pastry will still be flaky, but won’t be as puffed.
If you don’t use your dough within a couple of days, roll it out to about 1/4″ thick, wrap it in plastic wrap, and freeze it. Puff pastry dough freezes beautifully. And it’s so nice to have on hand when you find a recipe that calls for it.
To prepare your dough for freezing, set the amount of dough you want to freeze on the counter to warm up (I usually cut the dough in half and roll and freeze each half separately). If the dough has been in the refrigerator for longer than about 2 hours, set it out on the counter for about 45 minutes-1 hour to warm up. Then roll it out on a well-floured surface until it is about 1/4 inch thick. You want to roll out as nice of a rectangle as possible. Using a very sharp knife, cut off the raggedy edges. You can stack these these edge pieces, wrap in plastic wrap, and freeze them separately and use to make cheese puffs. Now, place your neat rectangle on a cookie sheet and freeze for 10 minutes. Once it its frozen, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and place in the freezer for later use. When you’re ready to use it, you can remove it from the freezer, unwrap and let it warm on the counter for a few minutes, and then cut out. Do not cut it if it’s frozen–it will crimp the edges and limit the rising.
Tips for using puff pastry
1. Use a very sharp knife or shape cutter to cut it and don’t use a back and forth motion or a twisting motion. Push straight down with the knife. The more you “squish” or crimp the edges, the less it will puff because the layers will be glued together at the cut point.
2. Do not re-roll your pastry. Once it’s cut, it’s cut. If you re-roll it, you will nullify the layering effect. It will still be flaky, but not as flaky as before.
3. After cutting out your shapes for use, freeze on a cookie sheet for 10 minutes before baking. Transfer to a different baking sheet for baking.
4. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet that has been sprinkled with cold water. This will help prevent the pastry from burning.
5. If you are using flat shapes (like rectangles or strips), place the pieces of dough on the cookie sheet upside down. This will help the pastry puff.
6. When sealing together 2 pieces of puff pastry dough (as for vol-au-vents), use a bit of water brushed on the pastry–do not use an egg wash because it will ooze out and drip down the sides, limiting the rise.
7. When using an egg wash, be sure that it doesn’t drip down the sides–this will prevent rising
8. When baking puff pastry dough, start with a high temperature to encourage the most rise. I usually start with well-preheated oven at 425 degrees for 20 minutes. If the pastry needs a longer baking time, reduce the heat to 300 degrees and bake further to completely cook the dough.
9. Let your baked puff pastry cool before eating for full flaky effect.
10. Keep in mind that gluten-free puff pastry puffs up to about double its initial size. It doesn’t puff quite as dramatically as wheat puffed pastry. But, it will be flaky and taste delicious!
Recipes that use my gluten-free puff pastry:
Cheese Straws
Puff Pastry Shells (Vols-au-Vent)
Puff Pastry Turnovers
Enjoy!
Note: If you use a different gluten-free flour mix, alter the amount of or eliminate the xanthan gum or use a different gluten-replacer, use dairy-free or egg-free substitutes, or change any other ingredients in this recipe, your results may not match my results.
This post contains affiliate links–which means that I get a tiny percentage of each purchase you make through the link (at no extra cost to you!). Thank you!
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2014 Jeanne Sauvage
I tired this for the first time this past weekend – and apart from feeling like I was chained to the kitchen sink all afternoon it really did make a decent pastry. I used Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 baking mix with an extra 1/4tsp xantham. I made simple rectangles and sandwiched them together with fruit etc. The taste was good (caveat – I have never had ‘real’ puff pastry to have no reference for how close to the real thing this is) and the dough was remarkably easy to roll. I saved half the dough for sausage rolls today . I do plan on making this again but the time involved would make it for high days/holidays and snow storm days! Thanks for sticking with the pastry to make it work,
Kate: Yay! I am so glad! And you are welcome!
I tried both your GF flour mix and this puff pastry mix today. The aim was to make GF sausage rolls (pork and fennel to be precise!) and they turned out delicious!! The pastry was a lot of work and the first turn had me doubting everything because it just seemed like too much butter, (Perhaps it may have been because I used all your gram weights for everything) but after about the 4th turn I could see it coming together better. That’s when I think it probably became more important to brush the excess flour off each time, but, it still all came out good.
The sausage rolls were a great success! The pastry was golden and crispy. While not as flaky as wheat pastry, I think the crispiness makes it successful on it’s own.
I will try to send you photos too 🙂
Thank you very much for all your instructions and photos. I don’t think I would have even attempted it if it wasn’t for that!
Paige: Hooray! I’m so glad you made it! And your photos on FB awesome! Well done!
Hi there.
We have gluten free, dairy free, nut free, peanut free in our household. The dairy substitute is usually vitalite or pure. Even when frozen very difficult to do – have you any suggestions?
E: I would recommend using a shortening instead of a butter substitute. The butter substitutes are difficult to make pastry with because they have so much water and they have such a low melting temperature.
Thank you! First time I had very good results. As I make this more often my technique will improve. I appreciate you taking the time and effort to develop this recipe.
Patricia: Yay! I’m so glad!
I love this recipe! It makes the most amazing crispy pizza crust!
Becky: Wow, you use it for pizza? I haven’t done that. Will check it out!
Hi!!! Im very new to gluten free baking per say, Ive been coeliac for 3 years now and not experimented much, but I am wanting to do a beef wellington for me and my partner with this pastry recipe. Will it work?
Jonathan: Yes, this puff pastry can be used in any recipe that uses puff pastry!
This looks exactly like a pastry should, and like everything I`ve been missing since going gluten free. Thank you so much! I will be using this recipe a lot in the future 🙂
Yay!
many thanks for this jeanne, after a million years of cooking/baking/living with the alchemy that is gluten, i have been adrift and going blind with small print! this allergy is proving to be vital!! i would like to thank you for your work.. thank you x
Paula: Yay! I’m so glad to help!!
I am also looking for a puff pastry to use with a Wellington. You mentioned bean flour. I am going to try that. Will let you know if it works.
Sue
Sue: I don’t recommend bean flour in most baking. It tastes too much like bean. I recommend using my flour mix for this recipe.
Thanks for the response. I will take your advice. This is for a friend coming to dinner. Sue.
Sue: Ah. Let me know how it goes!
Hi Jeanne,
Saving GF people all over the world. Love your work. Just a quick question in regards to this recipe. Once the dough is ready to be rolled out for use, are you still required to roll it out on a bed of tapioca or is it best to use a clean surface?
Thank you
M
Matthew: LOL! And Thanks! Yes, continue to use tapioca flour to roll it out. I have found that it might stick to the rolling surface if you don’t use it. You do need to brush off the flour each time you are ready to fold the dough so you’re not introducing too much additional flour.
Hi Jeanne,
Your pictures of the puff pastry really caught my eye. It looks like the best recipe out there. I do have a question though. I am looking to make a goat cheese tart with the puff pastry. Every recipe tells me to prick the pastry with a fork then brush with an egg mixture. Would you recommend doing this with gf puff pastry?
Christianne: Yes, go ahead and do the fork pricking. I think that should be fine.
Hi Jeanne,
Do you think I could use this puff pastry recipe in place of phyllo dough to make “spanakopita”?
Thanks,
Kalliope
P.S. Love the cookbook!
Kalliope: I have not done that yet–although other readers have said they’ve tried it. I really need to get back to this recipe and experiment with it for phyllo dough. If you do this–let me know how it goes! And I’m so glad you like the book–yay!
Hello! I am English and finding it really difficult to understand the quantities used.
Really want to make some puff pastry in time for Christmas.
Do I need to use 9oz of flour?
Aquari’elle
Aquari’elle: Yes, 9 oz of flour!
In response to Aquari’elle’s question from England.
I lived in England for nine years, and found it difficult to convert cups to a generic 4 1/2 ounces per cup, especially when dealing with gluten-free flours, as they have drastically different weights. Speaking from experience, treating all flours the same can produce a heavy mess.
In general, American cookbooks tend to treat a cup of flour as ranging between 4 to 5 1/2 ounces. The King Arthur Flour website has a fabulous explanation of the history of the different measuring systems here:
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipe/measuring.html
They also have a great master weighing chart, which includes many gluten-free flours, here:
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipe/master-weight-chart.html
According to their chart, the relevant flour weights are as follows:
brown rice flour – 5 3/8 ounces per US cup
white rice flour – 5 ounces per US cup
tapioca flour – 4 ounces per US cup
King Arthur’s Flours doesn’t list Monchiko, but the Gluten-free Lab notes that sweet rice flour would be 204 grams to a cup (and conversion from grams to ounces is 7.2 ounces per US cup):
http://theglutenfreelab.com/2011/03/21/gluten-free-black-white-cake/
Hope the above helps.
Michelle: I appreciate your help. But, just to let you know: the 9 ounce measurement in my recipe is there because that’s what it weighed out for me when I wrote the recipe. Not because I did any “generic” translation. In fact, all of the weights here and in my book are based on my own weighing of the products.
What a beautifully details and crafted recipe. Can hardly wait to try it.
Has anyone tried to make beef wellington using this recipe? Just curious if it works, as we have two friends coming over for the holidays and they are both gluten-free. If others had had success with this, I’d love to know.
Michelle: I haven’t tried Beef Wellington with this. Let me know how it goes!
Hi Jeanne,
This post itself is a masterpiece. Thank you so much for sharing it! I just finished my 6 turns and am letting the dough sit in the fridge. I admit that I left the house for a little while (after the first turn) and came back and went along just fine (I needed to let it warm up a little outside the fridge though as I’d been gone about an hour). Hopefully that won’t mess too much up when I bake it. I really want to make baklava. It’s been 11 months since I went gluten free and I’m part lebanese; living without baklava has been a terrible sadness, so I was so overjoyed to find your beautiful recipe. I agree with you that the steps are really not all that difficult. It’s messy, and it takes a long time, but if the cooking is for fun (and doesn’t stress you out), I think it’s a wonderful process. I just hope my baklava comes out delicious tomorrow. I am hoping to bring it to a party, but if it’s too good, I might have to bring something else! Thank you again, so much, for your hard work! I’m so excited. I’ll send you a picture tomorrow if you’d like!
-Nora
Nora: Yay! Let me know how it goes!!
Jeanne: It went OK. By the time I started layering for the baklava it looked beautiful, but only then did I realize I needed to cut it…and then I rolled it after I cut it, even though you said not to. Woops. Now I know what I would want to do is to roll it out really long and fold it three times into the 13×9 dish. But the real problem was I couldn’t tell if I was supposed to cut it into the pieces in the dish before I cooked it. Now I realize that was essential to make sure that the pastry could puff. I just didn’t know if it said that on the regular recipe because it’d be easier that way or what, so I second guessed it and the pastry didn’t puff basically at all :(. Even still, it turned out pretty delicious. It just doesn’t look beautiful… Now I know that if I’m going to be using it in sheets, I should make sure I cut it into portions before it’s baked.
I did have a question though, suppose I wanted to only use some of it at a time, or divide it into sheets, would I need to do this from the very beginning or could I do it after I’ve already done a few turns? Would this ruin the puff? I don’t think I’ll ever want to use all of it at once anymore…it made SO much and it’s just me and my husband most of the time, but I’d be happy to make it all and keep it in batches in the freezer, as long as I could use some at a time…
Nora: Yes, puff pastry relies on the layers you have created via the fold, roll, and turn process. So, if you smoosh the dough together and re-roll it, you are undoing the “lamination” effect. I haven’t done baklava with this dough–baklava, as you know, is more accurately done with phyllo dough–so I can’t speak from experience. But you are right–you would need to cut off a small portion of the puff pastry, roll it thin, layer it the dish, put on the filling, and then repeat the process until you have all of the layers you need. If you wanted to use only a bit at a time, I would cut off the bits that you want to use and then tightly wrap and freeze the remainder. But be sure to actually cut off the bits you need– you will need to roll each bit once into the thinness you need. You won’t be able to maintain the lamination effect if you roll some, then pull together scraps and re-roll it.
Good luck! Keep me updated on your progress!
So happy to see this recipe! I was just diagnosed with celiac disease, and I make beef wellington for Christmas Eve every year (and sometimes on request for birthdays). Among my first thoughts after the CD diagnosis was the holidays, with pie and wellington and all that, so I am SO happy that I can enjoy all those treats! It doesn’t seem like a big deal, but really, it is! :o) Thanks!!!
Jennings: Yay! Let me know what you think when you make it!
Thank you so much for posting this! I can finallynmake my mom a Napoleon cake! She hasn’t had one in over 10 years, this is the perfect mothers day gift for her
James: Yay!
MMMM! Spanakopita’s are not out of reach in the GF world! Thanks! Looks like a once a year en devour! That is one long recipe!
Jeanne,
This is fabulous! I have an autistic son we are gfcf and corn free so this will definately be on my agenda this weekend! I can’t thank you enough!
Just one question,I know how delicate these doughs can be, can you fill with savory filling such as turkey pot pie or other wet fillings?
Thanks so much,
Kelly B.
Kelly: Yay! What I would do for a pot pie is put the crust only on the top. That way the filling won’t weigh down and get the crust soggy. Happy baking!
Jeanne,
I can’t use xanthan gum as well because of the corn. I read that ground flaxseed can replace the xanthan in the same ratios. I’ve tried if for a few things but wonder if it will work for this. Would also love to try your baguette recipe using the ground flax. Any thoughts on this? Thanks.
Dianne: I have to say that I don’t feel like ground flax works that well as a gluten-replacer. It’s better as an egg replacer. Have you tried guar gum? I think it might be the next best thing to xanthan. I would experiment with that and see what you think. It’s made from the guar seed. Also, the folks who make xanthan gum claim that it has no more corn left in it after the growing process. Have you found that you do have a reaction to it? Or are just afraid that you might? I would chat with your allergist and see what s/he thinks about trying xanthan gum. Good luck!
I actually have had great success using a mix of psyllium husk, ground flax, and ground chia in place of xanthan gum. I react badly to any gums, and have found that the substitute works in any recipe I try. If you mix it up with water and let it sit for a minute to thicken before pouring it into the batter, it works well. The only trade off is that you may have brown flecks from the ground seeds in the dough, but it’s worth it to me to not get sick. I’m definitely going to be trying it on this puff pastry soon!
Angie: I’m so glad you’re pleased with the results of the seeds. That’s the most important thing when baking–that you like what’s happening! So far my experiments have not been satisfactory for me. The results are still a bit gummy and the baked item ends up turning into gummy crumbles in a few days. So, I’m not a fan of the seeds, currently.
Hi. So glad I found your site and your flour mix! The mix is working great for me so far. I have also made your puff paste recipe and made our traditional Dutch Christmas rings filled with almond paste and decorated with red and green cherries. Haven’t made that in 12 years! I did not think it possible with gf flours. My husband will be glad to try some this afternoon if there is any left after I keep sampling it in amazement! It didn’t rise as high as wheat based puff paste but made an excellent flaky crust to put around the almond paste. Thanks for posting! Merry Christmas.
Caroline: Oh, I’m so glad–yay!! Thanks for letting me know!
Lynn:
I am going to be manufacturing gluten-free frozen, gourmet savory pies and would like to find a supplier of gluten-free puff pastry pie tops. Is there anyone in the U.S. who has the equipment and know-how to make large volume GF puff pastry pie tops?
Thanks,
Matthew
Matthew: I don’t know of any in the US. There was one in Australia that is undergoing big changes, so no availability in US that I know of. And call me Jeanne :).
After rereading this recipe half a dozen times, I finally went for it — my first time ever making a puff pastry, and it turned out fantastic! The dough did have a tendency to crack at every possible opportunity, but it seemed to do all right after I coaxed it back into shape. I used my own GF flour mix (slightly more starch than your blend, and a total of nine different flours), and omitted the salt from the recipe since I was using salted butter.
I used some homemade pear-ginger chutney and chopped walnuts as a filling. Yum yum yum, many thanks for the recipe!
Katie: I’m so glad! I know–it looks daunting, but it’s actually just long and requires patience. I’m so glad you did it! Send me a photo if you have the time–I’d love to see it!
I would love to make this, but I’m allergic to dairy and corn. Can it be made with guar gum instead of xantham gum? Can it be made dairy-free?
I look forward to hearing from you!
Lynn
Lynn:
You can certainly make it dairy-free–use lard or a butter substitute of your choice. If you use a butter substitute, be sure it’s one that can be hard like butter or lard at refrigerator temperature. The key to puff pastry is to keep it cold. Also, I haven’t used guar gum in this recipe but I think it should be fine. Go ahead and try it! Let me know how it goes!
Lynn,
Did you make the puff pastry dairy-free? I also cannot have dairy and am wondering if anyone figured out what fat would be a successful substitute for butter in this recipe.
Cheers!
Kim
Kim: Check my Substitutions post about dairy-free options. Basically, I recommend using shortening–and using volume (cups) to make the substitutions versus weight. Shortening weighs more than butter and if you use weight, you end up with too much shortening. Happy baking!