Puff pastry made in the Thermomix® comes together in two strictly separate phases: the mixing bowl handles exactly 25 seconds at speed 5, and everything after that is done by hand with a rolling pin. Mixing up those two phases gives you not puff pastry but a buttery shortcrust without any layers.
We make this dough whenever we know what we are putting in it. 250 g butter, 300 g flour, 140 g water, half a pinch of salt. That is all it takes. Shop-bought puff pastry often contains palm fat and preservatives; ours does not. The effort is not in the mixing but in the folding and the waiting between turns.
Puff Pastry, Thermomix® (Basic Recipe)
Ingredients 0 / 4 ✓
- 250 g butter frozen
- 300 g plain flour (type 405) + a little extra for dusting
- 140 g water cold
- 1/2 tsp salt
Instructions 0 / 6
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1
Combine the ingredients.
Cut the butter into pieces roughly 2 cm in size and place in the mixing bowl. Add the flour, water and salt and combine for 25 sec / speed 5.
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2
Chill the dough.
Wrap the dough in cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
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3
Roll out the dough.
Dust the work surface with flour and roll the dough into a rectangle three times as long as it is wide. Fold the dough so that the thirds lie on top of each other.
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4
Chill the dough again.
Wrap the dough in cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
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5
Continue folding the dough.
Repeat this process twice more. The dough can then be filled and shaped as desired.
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6
Bake the dough.
Bake the puff pastry at 200°C on the middle shelf. Baking time (8 minutes to 20 minutes) depends on the size of the pastry.
Tips:
- You can freeze your homemade puff pastry in portions and thaw it when needed.
- Always keep the dough cold while working with it, as the butter must not soften.
- If the dough becomes sticky during handling, simply pop it in the freezer for a few minutes.
Video
Nutrition per serving
Why this dough works in the Thermomix® (and where its role ends)
- Frozen butter is essential, not optional. We cut the 250 g of butter into 2 cm cubes and take them straight from the freezer. At room temperature, butter smears at speed 5 and binds completely into the flour. That is exactly what we do not want. We need small, cold pieces of butter sitting as islands in the dough. Those islands are later rolled out into layers during the folding.
- 25 seconds at speed 5, not a second longer. That is the only machine step. If the dough still shows rough pieces of butter afterwards, that is correct. Anyone who adds ten extra seconds because the dough looks crumbly has missed the point. Crumbly is good. Everything comes together on the first roll.
- The Thermomix® makes the base dough, not the puff pastry. True puff pastry is created by folding by hand: roll out into a rectangle, divide into thirds, fold, chill, turn, repeat. Three turns give 27 layers in theory, four turns give 81, and in the oven the steam between the butter layers makes everything rise. That is physics, not a machine.
The folding sequence in practice
After the 25-second mix, the dough goes into cling film and into the fridge for 30 minutes. We then flour the work surface only lightly, otherwise the finished pastry turns out too dry. Roll the dough into a rectangle three times as long as it is wide. With 500 g of dough that is roughly 45 cm by 15 cm. Then fold the top third down to the middle and the bottom third over that. That is one turn.
Wrapped up and back in the fridge for 30 minutes. Repeat this process twice more, so three rolls, folds and chills in total. One important point: on the second and third turns, rotate the dough 90 degrees before rolling again. This keeps the layers crossing at right angles and the dough stays symmetrical.
Including the resting times, this all takes 2.5 hours. Active work is at most 15 minutes. We use the 30-minute chill periods for other preparations, such as slicing an apple filling or greasing the tart tins.
Where homemade puff pastry tends to go wrong
The butter softens while rolling
As soon as the dough starts sticking or the butter shows through the surface, it has become too warm. Our solution: Wrap it up immediately and put it in the freezer for ten minutes. Not the fridge, that takes too long. Then carry on folding. One extra pause is better than a dough where the butter merges with the flour.
The layers tear while rolling
We pressed too hard and too fast at first. Tears open up pockets of butter and in the oven the fat leaks out. Our solution: Roll with even pressure, working from the centre outwards. If a tear appears, seal it straight away with a drop of water and a pinch of flour and carry on. Do not panic and start kneading.
Butter leaks out during baking
This happens when the last turn goes into the oven too soon. After the final fold the dough needs another 30 minutes in the fridge before cutting or shaping. Our solution: Allow at least 30 minutes of final chilling, ideally an hour. And always bake in a properly preheated oven at 200°C, never in one that is still coming up to temperature.
What we use the dough for
- Sweet as apple turnovers or strudel: Roll the dough out thinly, add apple sauce or diced apple with cinnamon, roll up or fold over, brush with egg yolk. 15 to 20 minutes at 200°C.
- Savoury as cheese straws: Cut into strips, brush with egg yolk, scatter over hard cheese and sesame seeds, bake for 12 minutes at 200°C. Works very well alongside soups.
- As a base for quiches: Press into the tin, prick all over with a fork, blind-bake at 200°C for 8 minutes, then fill with an egg and cream mixture and finish baking.
- Vol-au-vents as a starter: Cut out rings using two cutters, layer them on top of each other, brush with egg yolk, bake, then fill with mushroom ragout or chicken.
Storage and preparation
Raw dough keeps in the fridge for two days wrapped in cling film. We wrap it twice so it does not pick up any fridge smells. Frozen, it stays good for three months. We divide the 500 g into two portions and freeze them rolled out flat. Thaw overnight in the fridge, never at room temperature. If the dough thaws too quickly, the butter softens and the layers stick together.
Baked pastry goes stale after a day. We therefore only bake as much as we plan to eat the same day. Freezing the remaining dough raw is a better approach than keeping finished turnovers.
What we use the dough with
Once the dough is ready, you want to use it. Our most-used follow-on recipes are Thermomix® puff pastry pinwheels with ham and cheese, classic apple strudel and, in autumn, plum tart. For the sweet side, our vanilla sauce basic recipe makes a great accompaniment.
How other recipes approach this differently
Most Thermomix® puff pastry recipes use the Dutch rough puff method: the butter is mixed directly with the flour in the mixing bowl in large pieces, then only two simple turns follow. That is quicker but produces fewer layers. Classically laminated puff pastry needs three to four turns with 30 minutes of chilling each time, and in return it rises noticeably higher in the oven. For the flour, most sources use standard type 405, while some patisserie references use a 1:1 ratio of butter to flour (250 g to 250 g) for particularly rich layers. We deliberately stick with the classic three-turn method because it works consistently in the Thermomix® and gives visibly more volume than the rough puff version.
With a sheet of dough in the freezer, we can have a pastry on the table within 30 minutes that tastes like it came from a bakery. Shop-bought puff pastry simply cannot match that flavour.
