Makes one large sheet of pastry
For me one of the challenges of keeping kosher is not combining dairy and meat in the same dish, I love savory pastry dishes and crave a perfect sausage roll, a chicken pot pie with a golden puff pastry dome, just waiting for me to dive in. And yet my desire to keep kosher is stronger. Yes, you can purchase frozen dairy-free puff pastry, inevitably these tend to leave me feeling sad, they have the texture but none of the taste I long for in the all-butter version.
Making my own pastry put me one step ahead, even though it was dairy-free, the homemade pastry tasted better, perhaps because of the effort I put into it. And things kept on improving, with more people adopting vegan and non-dairy diets, more mainstream alternatives have come into being, like betterine, it functions like butter and has some of its taste, so we are one step closer to my personal nirvana.
*We used betterine ( https://betterine.com/ ) a butter alternative in this recipe we adjusted the rest of the ingredients, these are not the same measurements one would use for the dairy version.
- 225g (1 ¾ cups + 1 tablespoon) plain (all-purpose) flour
- Pinch of salt
- 190g betterine – cold, and cut into small cubes
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 120ml (½ cup) ice-cold water
Extra flour for rolling out
- Sift the flour and salt into a mixing bowl. Add the pieces of betterine and toss until coated in flour. Add the lemon juice to the flour mixture. Add half the ice water to the bowl and lightly work it into the flour, now add the rest of the water 1 tablespoon at a time until the dough just comes together (you may not need all the water). You can do the whole first stage in the food processor, just be sure to use the pulse button. and do not overwork the flour and butter
- As soon as the dough comes together in shaggy lumps, turn unto a lightly floured surface and shape into a 10x14cm (4×5.5inch) block, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
- Take the dough out of the fridge and on a lightly floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin, roll the dough into a 20x35cm (8x14inch) rectangle. Fold in 3 like a business letter (bottom third up to cover the center third, then top third down to cover the other 2 layers and make a neat square.
- Give the dough a quarter turn, then roll out again and fold as before.
- Wrap and chill for 20 minutes. Repeat the rolling, folding, and chilling twice more. So in total, the pastry has been folded a total of 6 times. Wrap and chill for an hour at least, preferably overnight. Dough can now be kept in the fridge for up to 5 days or frozen for 2 months, bring to room temperature before rolling out.
