No need to break the bank with those gluten free puff pastry sheets! We can make our own quick gluten free puff pastry and it’s glorious!!
No more doing without our favorite old recipes using puff pastry OR canned crescent rolls because, ya’ll, this gluten free quick puff pastry is absolutely perfect and will stand in for both!!
I posted my recipe for gluten free quick puff back in May of last year, but I’ve since tweaked it to be better than ever and you’re gonna love it. The first recipe was great and I didn’t think it could get better. BUT, it was very temperamental and all planets had to align to get the proper puff. The layers were there, but the puff wasn’t always on point.
What is Rough Puff Pastry?
There are so many recipes out there for puff pastry and just as many techniques. How to turn it into gluten free rough puff pastry is not quite as easy, but I’ve done all the hard work for you so all you have to do is follow the recipe!!
Instead of making the traditional method of classic puff pastry, where a butter block is folded into dough, I decided to make it a whole lot easier by making a “rough puff.’ This is when the butter is in small pieces within the dough, and the dough is folded and turned several times (laminated). All this means for us gluten free peeps is that we don’t have to slave in the kitchen.
Traditional puff pastry, while I’m sure would work, would take a lot of time. And often, in order to bake, we have to first make a component of it, like a flour blend. We have to literally MAKE flour!! It’s a tedious task on its own so anything we can do to shorten our time is great! You’ll still get great puff and layers with this quick or “rough puff” version.
How To Make Gluten Free Puff Pastry
Surprisingly, gluten free puff pastry is easy to make. It’s a lot like making a flaky pie crust. It’s not typical for eggs OR milk to be in regular puff pastry, but again this is gluten free so things aren’t always like they should be when it comes to gluten free baking.
- Start with Kim’s gluten free bread flour blend.
- Use milk instead of water. The extra protein in the milk aids in the puff.
- Add eggs to the dough. This is THE essential part of the dough that holds it together and also aids in rising. Without gluten, we need that extra boost.
- Just like pie dough and traditional puff pastry, the butter and liquid (in this case, milk) need to be super cold! You don’t want the butter to melt into the dough because you won’t get all those layers.
- Roll out and fold the dough 6 times!! This is called turns.
- Bake it at a higher temperature than gluten-filled dough is normally baked. I always bake mine at 50 degrees higher for the first 5 minutes.
What To Make With This Rough Puff
There are an endless amount of things we can make with this glorious gluten free puff pastry! Any recipe calling for traditional puff pastry in a cookbook or online will work with this gf puff pastry. Here are just a few ideas:
- Cheese straws (try my recipe here or ANY recipe for puff pastry cheese straws)
- Sausage rolls
- Napoleon (mille feuille)
- Tarts (both sweet and savory)
- Palmiers
But WAIT! There’s more! I don’t know about you, but I have a TON of recipes that call for canned crescent roll dough (think Pillsbury) from my former life (before Celiac). I thought I’d never be able to make them again, but nope. That’s not true. I CAN make them again!!! And they’re just as good, or even better, than what I remember them to be!
So if you’re like me and you, too, have old recipes, you’ll need to play around with the amounts. One tube of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls is equal to 8 ounces, so all you need to do is weigh out 8 ounces (or however many tubes are required for your recipe). Roll the dough into a rectangle and cut triangles (if your recipe uses triangles).
If your recipe calls for one large sheet of dough, no cutting will be necessary. Just roll it out and use it in your recipe as normal! You may need to adjust the temperature to a slightly higher temperature. If your recipe calls for a 350-degree oven, bake it at 400 degrees for the first 5 minutes, then drop it down to 350. That will give the pastry a chance to puff first before setting.
Get in the kitchen and make this right away! You’re gonna be amazed at how glorious it truly is!! ALL.THE.FLAKY.LAYERS 🙂 🙂 🙂
Glorious Gluten Free Puff Pastry
Ingredients
- 3¾ cups (525 g) Kim's gluten free bread flour blend
- ¼ cup (50 g) granulated sugar
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1¼ tsp fine sea salt
- 1 cup (226 g) butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces and kept very cold
- 2 large eggs
- 1 to 1½ cups (240 to 360 ml) cold milk
Instructions
- Combine flour blend, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.
- Add butter pieces and flatten with your fingers until they are all flattened and well combined throughout the dry ingredients.
- In a measuring cup, mix the eggs and milk. Add half the egg and milk mixture to the flour mixture and toss with a fork. Continue adding and tossing until mixture is wet enough to stick together, but not overly wet. You may not need the entire egg/milk mixture.
- Dump dough out onto lightly floured surface and press with your hands into somewhat of a cohesive mass. Using a rolling pin, press down at different places in the mass into a rectangle about 7 by 10 or 11 inches long. It will be messy and may look like it's not going to come together at all. Use a bench scraper or ruler to "shore up" the sides into a rectangle as best you can.
- Using the bench scraper or your hands, do your best to fold the top third of the dough down to the middle, just like you'd fold a letter, and then the bottom third up over the top third. Large chunks may fall off. Just put them back on and continue. Turn the dough clockwise. This is your first turn.
- Press and roll dough out again into 7 by 10-inch rectangle, adding a little flour as necessary to keep dough from sticking. Fold again into a letter style. Each time you do this, it will start to look more and more like a dough. Turn clockwise. This is your second turn.
- Repeat all of this again 4 more times for a total of 6 times. If the dough begins to get too soft, stop rolling and folding and put in the refrigerator for about 10 minutes, noting which turn you were on.
- When completed, your dough should be totally cohesive and look similar to pie dough. Wrap in plastic wrap and allow to chill for at least 1-2 hours before using as desired in any recipes calling for puff pastry or crescent rolls.
- For puff pastry or crescent dough recipes, increase the temperature by 50 degrees F for the first 5 minutes of baking and then drop it back to what your recipe normally calls for. This will give the gluten free puff pastry a chance to puff well before baking the rest of the way.
Notes
Recipe adapted from Gesine Bullock-Prado’s Perfect Puff Pastry class on Bluprint.
Those look totally amazing! I don’t know how you do that! You come up with the most unbelievable gf recipes ever!
Aww, thanks Karen!! I don’t want us to miss out on anything 🙂
Do you think this would work with dairy free butter and almond milk?
I wish I could say for sure, but I’m not familiar enough with dairy free butter to know for sure. I feel like it would, though, because most puff pastry bought in the stores isn’t actually made with butter. I’d give it a try, Whitney! I think it really could work 🙂
Hi I am going to try this for a savory tart with goat cheese and asparagus. A quarter cup of sugar in your recipe seems like a lot for a savory dish, could you tell me more about that? Thanks! Looks exciting to try!
Hi, Sarah! You’re right, for savory that does seem like a lot of sugar. I think you could try to cut back a little bit on the sugar, maybe by half to just 2 tbsp or even down to 1 tbsp. In this instance, it shouldn’t make a difference as there is no yeast to feed in the recipe. When I created this recipe, I based it on another recipe for non-gluten free bread that used the same amount of sugar, so I didn’t change it.
Hope that helps 🙂
Hi I’m allergic to eggs what can I use instead please
I’m not really sure. I only have a reaction to gluten so I haven’t tried this without eggs. The eggs are really what helps it puff up. You maybe could try an egg replacer, like from Bob’s Red Mill, or a chia egg??
Can u omit the sugar?
Yep, you can! I need to put that on the recipe.
When you say to flatten the butter, do you mean to rub it in like you would for gluteny bread?
Yes, but don’t rub it in so much that it’s like breadcrumbs or peas. Just enough to where the butter is flattened, but still pretty large pieces 🙂
Can I use unsweetened almond milk instead of regular cows milk?
I think it would work just fine, Julia!
Hello! When I use this, an I suppose to roll it out or will that smush the layers? I used it but it’s too thick and a bit dense so I’m wondering if I rolled it thinner if that would help
Yes, you’ll need to roll it out to use it according to whatever recipe you’re using it in.
Love this! A lot of recipes online call for “1 sheet” of puff pastry. How many “sheets” does this make do you think?
I would guess about two sheets of puff pastry.
Hi I am in Australia where can we your flour…please
I don’t sell my flour blend (yet), but I do offer the recipe on my blog. Also, I have an Amazon affiliate account with Australia so if you go to my flour blends page, you should be able to see links that are available in your area through Amazon.
F%#@ing DELISH!! Kim, THANK YOU! I live in a large city and cannot find gf puff pastry. I was afraid to try this but I thought why not, all of the recipes I have tried from you have been spot on. It was so amazing. I made the cheesy straws and they were devoured in under 8 minutes. I made them again the next day and I was actually able to eat one before my family gobbled them up again.
We have been a gf house for ~ 5 years and you are now my go-to for recipes and I share your recipes with others. Simply amazing!💙
Keep up the good work. It makes a difference to us. XOXO
Awe, thank you so much, Debbie!! I love hearing stories like this and am SO glad you like the puff pastry!! Thanks for sharing my recipes with others and for all your confidence in me 😍😍😍
Hi I am new making gf recipes and I was wondering if I could use coconut oil instead of butter and coconut milk instead of milk? I’m excited to try this recipe! Looks very good!
Michelle
Hi Kim! What is the name of the pastry on the first picture of the recipe? I’d love to make it with your recipe, I used to eat them filled with pudding and jam (on opposing sides) when I was a kid and could still eat gluten. I really miss them 🙂
Do you think these should be filled after or during the baking proces? Thank you!
Hi, Kristina! I think those are just called a danish, but I’m not sure. What you do is cut out a square of dough and then cut a V on opposing corners of the square. Then fold each side over, securing with a little egg wash. It’s hard to explain without showing, so here’s a great link for how it’s done: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zhq20aCSh-s&t=566s It depends on what you fill it with as to whether you fill it and then bake it or bake it and then fill it. Cream cheese danish would be filled first and then baked, but pudding would be filled after baking. I think jam could be done either way 🙂
Thanks for replying! I found them under Custard Danish Pockets and it seems they fill them in before baking. https://youtu.be/DkrFPOgvGsQ?t=302
I love your bread flour mix and I already spent my first batch of 10 cups on following recipes: Panettone, Croissants, Sugar cookies and Pizza Crust. Panettone turned out best so I’m planning on making another one for New Year’s but this time with choco chips instead of raisins. 🙂
I need to mill my own rice flour in a coffee grinder since I can’t find gluten-free one to buy where I live, is there a best type of rice you’d recommend for milling, as in long grain, basmati, etc.?
Hmmm, I’m not sure, Kristina. When I look at the package of superfine white rice flour I use, it says it’s milled from California rice so I’m not sure what kind of rice that is. Maybe a long grain? I don’t think it would be basmati.
Hey, no problem! I’ve used basmati so far and everything turned out ok, I’ve already milled 500g of it for the next batch and then went to shop to find potato starch and I found GF rice flour on the shelf 🤣 1 day too late! I bought it nevertheless for the next batches I make. It’s really weird but it also doesn’t say from which type of rice it’s grinded!
Unfortunately I didn’t manage to find potato starch in the store. Is it ok if I use cornstarch instead for the bread flour mix?
You could try the cornstarch. I’m not sure if it has the exact same texture as potato starch (it’s not as hearty, for lack of a better word), but it’s worth a shot. Another option would be arrowroot starch.
I went with cornstarch and panettone turned out amazing! Even more airy and fluffy than the previous one that was made with potato starch in the mix. Also, it needed 15 min less to bake. Now I’m wondering can I use the same dough to make deep fried donuts since it’s remarkably similar to it.
Kim, this recipe turned out amazing. Every year for Christmas my mom makes a beef wellington and for the last 9 years we have attempted a gluten free pastry dough purchased or by handfor a small portion just for me… every year but this year was a disappointment. I found your challah recipe and was blown away and have tried many since but this puff pastry recipe is AMAZING. My family and I now refer to you as “new best friend Kim” or the queen of gluten free. I have been on a baking rampage since finding your recipes and they have all been spectacular:)
Oh my gosh, Lindsey! Thank you SO much for your kind words!!! It makes my heart so happy to hear wonderful stories of people like yourself being able to enjoy their favorite things again because of my recipes 🙂
Do you send your flour blends to Australia…..how can I buy some….
Hi, Jan! I currently don’t sell my blend, but the recipe to make the blend is on my blog (linked in every one of my recipes) or you can find it under Resources on the main menu 😍
Hi Kim….can you please tell me the difference between your gluten-free flour blend to gluten free bread blend flour…..yes it Jan again
Hi, Jan! The regular blend is an “all-purpose” flour that’s used mainly as any all-purpose flour would be in regular baking, such as for cakes, cookies, cupcakes, pie crust, etc. The bread flour blend is used solely for breads as it has protein added to it so it will mimic the protein (gluten) found in regular (wheat) flour. Mimicking the gluten will help with the rise of the dough and ultimately the texture of the finished bread.
I hope this explains it 🙂
Thanks Kim……..I notice you have used bread flour in the puff pastry recipe…..is this correct.
Yep, this one is a little different in that it’s a pastry and particularly needs extra lift that I couldn’t replicate by using the regular flour.