How do I get the best out of shop-bought puff pastry?

Shop-bought puff pastry is one of the few convenience products professionals use without embarrassment. Almost everything that goes wrong with it happens between taking it out of the fridge and putting it in the oven.

Step by step

1. Buy all-butter if you can.The difference in flavour is large and the price difference is small. Blocks are usually all-butter; ready-rolled sheets are more often made with vegetable fat.
2. Thaw it in the fridge.Overnight for a frozen block. Thawing on the worktop softens the butter layers, which is the beginning of most puff pastry disappointments.
3. Work fast and keep it cold.The layers only separate if the butter is still solid when it hits the oven. If it starts feeling greasy or soft, put it back in the fridge for fifteen minutes.
4. Roll in one direction only.If you need to roll a block, roll away from you in one direction, turning the pastry rather than the rolling pin. Rolling in all directions destroys the layers.
5. Cut down, do not drag.A very sharp knife or a pizza wheel, pressing straight down. Dragging smears the cut edge closed and that edge will not rise.
6. Keep egg wash off the edges.Brush the top only. Egg running down the cut sides glues the layers together and gives a lopsided, stunted rise.
7. Chill the shaped pastry before baking.Twenty to thirty minutes in the fridge or ten in the freezer. It firms the butter and relaxes the gluten, which reduces shrinkage and improves the lift.
8. Bake it hot.200 to 220°C. Puff rises because the water in the butter turns to steam quickly. A moderate oven melts the butter out before it can create steam and you get a flat, greasy result.
9. Score, do not pierce, decorative tops.Shallow cuts through the top layers only. Cutting all the way through vents the steam that is supposed to lift it.
10. Use a hot tray for anything with a base.Preheat a baking tray and slide the pastry onto it. Heat from below is what stops a soggy bottom.

Tips

• Puff rises from its edges. Anything that seals an edge — dragging a knife, egg wash, a firm press — stops it locally.
• All-butter is worth the extra pound.
• Chilling the shaped item before baking is the cheapest improvement available.

Common mistakes

• Letting egg wash run down the cut sides — Egg sets in the oven and glues the layers together at that point, so the pastry rises everywhere except where the wash ran. It is the most common cause of a lopsided sausage roll or vol-au-vent.
• Baking puff pastry at 180°C — The butter melts and leaks out before it has generated enough steam to force the layers apart, so the pastry sits flat and greasy. Puff needs a hot oven to work at all.

If it doesn't work

Questions people ask