I have made a lot of sourdough crackers lately. Since I first tried to make crackers from my discarded sourdough starter I have been hooked.
But this weekend it was time for a change. There have to be more things you can do with the discard I said to myself, and there is.
Most of you know that you can use the discard for pancakes, waffles, muffins, and much more.
But perhaps not so many of you have tried to make puff pastry, and I think I know why.
Making real puff pastry is a bit tedious and requires time, and not all of us wants to spend that much time on some discarded starter.
But perhaps it’s possible to make a quick version. At least that was what I tried to find out.
There are lots of recipes for puff pastry, most of them with just flour, butter, and water on the internet. I found some based on a sourdough starter as well, but most of them were aiming for croissants, danish pastry and such.
That was not what I was looking for. It was far too complicated and time-consuming.
I just want to do something with my discarded starter, so I don’t have to waste it. I wanted a simplified version of a sourdough puff pastry recipe.
Finally, I found a recipe that I liked. There was no sourdough starter in it, but I liked the method.
I know that there are not many of you who read my blog that understands Swedish, but some of you do, so here is the link.
Normally when you make puff pastry, you roll the butter into the dough in layers. You do that by folding the dough and roll it several times.
For this puff pastry recipe, you mix half of the butter with the flour and starter. The dough is rolled out into a square. Then you distribute the rest of the butter on one half of the square. I used my cheese grater to cut the butter into thin slices. Fold over the other part of the dough and roll it to an even thickness.
Fold the dough into three parts in one direction and one part in the other direction. You should now have six layers.
Wrap the dough in cling film and let it cool in the refrigerator for at least 15 minutes. After that, you can roll the dough into a desired form or thickness.
This sourdough puff pastry recipe is a bit rough, and nothing I recommend if you’re planning to make anything more ambitious.
But if you only want to make some quick and easy dessert for yourself and your friends a lazy Sunday afternoon, it may work just fine. It lifts quite a lot after 15 minutes in the oven as you can see in the picture above, but not as much as if you had done it according to a traditional recipe.
After all, it is a simplified variant of puff pastry. The taste, however, is not simplified at all. Butter tastes good, that’s no news, but combined with all the unique flavors of the sourdough starter makes it even better.
So, if you use to waste you’re discarded starter, stop doing that immediately. It’s liquid gold.
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Quick sourdough puff pastry recipe
Ingredients
- 80 gram Wheat flour
- 100 gram sourdough starter discarded, 100% hydration
- 120 gram butter
Instructions
- Note that it's important that all ingredients are cold. Start by mixing the flour, sourdough starter and half of the butter into a dough. Let it rest in the fridge 30 min.
- Roll out the dough to a square with an even thickness. Distribute the rest of the butter on one half of the square. Use a cheese grater to cut the butter into thin slices
- Fold over the other part of the dough and roll it to an even thickness. Fold the dough into three parts in one direction and one part in the other direction. You should now have six layers.
- Wrap the dough in cling film and let it cool in the refrigerator for at least 15 minutes. After that, you can roll the dough into a desired form or thickness.
24 Comments
Tell me more about the butter you mix with the flour and starter please. Is it cold or soft? Grated or cubed?
Many thanks.
Trying this recipe, sounds like a wonderful treat. Yet there is no suggestion as to what temperature to bake at. I will guess 350°F…
A straight edge cheese grater was used to thinly slice cold butter. See picture above.
Thank you Chantal, but that was the second addition of butter into the dough, I am asking about the first addition of half the butter into the inltial dough. see 1 and 2 below in regards to my question. Many thanks!
“For this puff pastry recipe,
1. you mix half of the butter with the flour and starter.
The dough is rolled out into a square.
2.Then you distribute the rest of the butter on one half of the square. I used my cheese grater to cut the butter into thin slices.
Fold over the other part of the dough and roll it to an even thickness.”
Hi Lucy,
Take butter directly from the fridge and mix it with flour and sourdough starter with your hands. I cut it into small pieces, but you can also use a cheese grater as Chantal suggested if you prefer that. The important thing is to get a dough with all flour hydrated. Take a look at the picture showing the “dough ball”. It gives a hint how it should look like. You should have a quite stiff dough that’s easy to roll out.
Thank you Tomas!
I didn’t see flecks or pieces of butter, thus my question.
Thanks for asking about this. I was wondering the same thing. I’m thinking I’ll start it like a pie or tart dough.
Consider it a hybrid of a pie crust and puff pastry. As I mentioned in the post, this pastry is not a replacement for real puff pastry. It’s just an easy way to make something useful with your discarded starter instead of wasting it.
This looks awesome! I’ve not used puff pastry but I’ve been wanting to try it. I’m curious what recipes you suggest using it in? Thanks!
I’m glad you liked it, Carol. There are so many ways you can use puff pastry. One of my favorites is to add chopped olives and tomatoes on top of a sheet of puff pastry, about 3-inch wide and 4 inches long. Add plenty of cheese on top. I use Västerbotten cheese which can be hard to find outside Sweden. But it’s not impossible. Sometimes it can be found at IKEA. Another good choice is Parmesan cheese. Or just choose one of your own favorite cheese. Just take one with strong taste. Bake it in the oven at 220℃/450°F until the cheese has melted and the puff paster is golden.
Serve it as a side dish to a steak or as a starter.
If you can wait until Thursday I will post a super easy dessert with puff pastry including apples and sour cream.
Yum! Thanks ?
First, in the recipe there is no salt.
I have tried making it today (i added some salt) and it all ended up spreading like an ugly mess in the oven. Pity. I had high hopes for this recipe. I guess, it was a mistake to put the butter in the dough. I will try next time with 1/4 of the butter rather than half. Perhaps it will be better.
I think your problem is that butter is “leaking” out somewhere. I have experienced the same. If you wrap up the butter too tightly, the dough may burst when rolling it and the melting butter can leak out, creating exactly the mess you are describing.
Personally, I think the salt coming with the butter is enough. If you are using unsalted butter, you may have to add a pinch or two.
How long do I bake this and at what temperature?
You can use and bake it the same way as with any ordinary puff pastry. I would advice 425°F for 10 to 15 minutes.
I would love to try this, however not familiar with a discarded sourdough starter. Could you please give some guidance as to how you make your starter, and at what point you discard it, and how to measure the hydration.
If you sign up for my newsletter You will get my ebook about making a sourdough starter for free. You will find a link on the website.
The hydration is the ratio of water to flour in a dough. Let’s say you mix 300 grams of water with 400 grams of flour. You then get 300/400 = 0.75 = 75%.
That dough will have hydration of 76%. Note that this only works with weight units, not volumes.
This worked brilliantly last night to make classic Australian “party pies” – as mentioned by others it didn’t puff a lot, but that may have been user error – I didn’t roll it out super thin when I folded the dough over each time. But it did puff up and the texture was divinely flaky and crisp – cooked to perfection with no soggy spots!
It was exactly the recipe I needed for a “quick fix” and it will definitely stay on my recipe rotation!
I’m glad to hear that, Tracy.
This is, after all, a quick puff pastry meant for pastries that don’t need to raise that much. If you need more puff, you can always do some more foldings.
Hi Tomas, on your flour, your flour has bits of larger gains in it I have noticed, wondering if you mix some other gain with it. Your link worked well this time. And I checked out the link in Swedish, beautiful photos, really catches your eye.
Joyce
Hi Joyce,
What you see is pieces of bran from whole wheat. I used to add a small amount of a very coarse whole wheat to my starter to make it more active.
I’m glad you liked the photos.
Hi Tomas, Thank you for sharing that with me. I am a cook but not a pastry or bread maker. I have always said your eye first, then your smell, then taste brings all the sense together for an enjoyable meal. With time on my hands I am enjoying bread making , sourdough starter. But I can see your photos and try to make them. Since I can’t speak Swedish, only know one word, that my mom past down to me plus cooking. Thank you again.
Joyce
I won’t lie, I was skeptical about the recipe at first. I am so glad I gave it a try though! It turned out perfect for my pumpkin cream cheese danish twists. Wish I could post a photo of the results! They were so flaky that they were literally flaking apart in my hands!