This beautiful, flakey pastry dough melts in your mouth like butter. No surprise – it’s full of butter. It takes all day to make (mostly resting time) but it’s versatile and will keep for a week in the fridge. Use this dough for croissants, seafood en croute, puffs, pies, couques… the list goes on.

• 500 g all-purpose flour
• 12 g salt
• 25 ml white wine vinegar
• scant 200 ml ice cold water
• 50 g melted butter
• 400 g very cold butter

Sift the flour onto the counter and make a well (make a well like you’d build a sand fort on the beach. Really – make it secure).

Put the salt, vinegar, water and butter in the well and mix with your fingertips. Add more flour from the edges gradually. Careful not to breach the walls of the flour fort or it will run all over the counter.

Keep mixing. When the dough is amalgamated, roll into a ball, wrap in cling film and chill for 2 hours.

Cold counter tops, like marble, work best for working with this dough. As you know, my tiny kitchen doesn’t have any marble… but we’re resourceful 🙂 I put my bag of flour, rolling pin and scrapping blade in the freezer while the dough is chilling in the fridge. That helps.

Take your 400 g of cold butter and bash the heck out of it until it is flat and malleable. Don’t work it too long or it will get soft and stick to the counter. Be fast and brutal. Sandwich it between two pieces of waxed paper and refrigerate.

Once your dough has chilled, roll it out with the cold roller and make 4 flaps.

Put the flattened butter in the center and wrap the flaps over. Flour the counter again and roll the dough away from you into a rectangle that’s about 16″ X 24″.

Fold the dough into thirds and give it a quarter turn. Roll it out again and fold into thirds again. This is 2 turns. At completion, you’ll have 6. Keep track.

After these two turns, rewrap and refrigerate for 1 hr.

Do this again 2 more times. After 6 turns (3 sessions), you’re ready to use the dough. Now, make something beautiful. And even if it’s not beautiful, it will still taste great.