Ruff Puff aka Rough Puff Pastry (and how to use it)

The most versatile, delicious and easy-once-you-get-it-down pastry

I woke last weekend for the first time in close to a year with an extreme craving for a pastry. Something buttery, generous and unfussy. What I really wanted was a croissant or something in that family, but given that they take days to make and more patience than I was willing to test, I made a tart with rough puff pastry. Two actually. One was sweet, the other savory. I ate most of the savory one- a Pissaladiere or onion, anchovy and olive tart from the south of France, which is especially good in summer with a glass of very cold rose- before giving the last two slices to my neighbors who told me later later that it was “like drugs”, a compliment I think.

A tart is good at any time of the year. In summer, I dress them simply in fresh tomatoes and herbs, maybe a little goat cheese on top, in spring they are a great way to showcase asparagus, nestled into a little bed of herbed ricotta. In autumn some roasted squash and sage, roasted peeled garlic and dijon mustard underneath. All year they provide the perfect base for fruit of the season, needing little more than a sprinkling of sugar or a thin layer of almond frangipane to set them singing.

Although it may at first feel like a real process to make, once you get the hang of rough puff pastry you will find that it is actually very easy and incredibly forgiving-even a less than perfect batch is still much better than most pastries you can buy in a shop. It is definitely the pastry I go to more than any other, a great repertoire basic.