Method:

First make the puff pastry dough:

1. Melt the butter on a low heat.

2. Mix the water and salt together in a bowl. Weigh the flour into a large mixing bowl.

3. Once the butter is melted, pour it into the water and salt mixture.

4. Pour the mixture over the flour, and using a pastry scraper, mix until it becomes homogeonous, but don’t overwork the dough. Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Next get your butter ready for the turns:

1. Take a large piece of baking parchment, and fold it in on itself to create a rectangle which is totally enclosed. You want this to be about the size of two hands put together.

2. Now take your block of dried butter, open up the back of the parchment envelope and place the butter right in the middle. Close the envelope over the butter so it is totally closed. Flip the envelope over so you have the flat side of the envelope facing upwards.

3. With your rolling pin, start to roll out the butter. Sometimes bashing it out a little helps at first. Roll it out until you have a smooth flat rectangle of butter which reaches the corners of the envelope.

4. If the butter has gotten very soft, place it in the fridge to chill for a few minutes. For the next stage, you want butter which is not to hard but also not too soft. Too hard and the butter will crack within the dough, too soft and it will just melt when you are trying to do the turns.

Enveloping the butter:

1. Once the dough has rested and you have your butter ready, dust a large surface with a bit of flour (not too much). Roll out your dough to a large rectangle shape, about double the size of the butter.

2. Take the butter and place it at an angle in the middle of the dough so that the corners of the dough are coming out of the flat side of the butter. Now fold each corner of the dough into the middle, enveloping the butter. If the dough doesn’t touch in the middle and cross over a little bit at the edges, take the butter away and roll the dough out a bit more until it does. Pinch the seams together so they are sealed and roll over it a couple of times.

3. Place in the fridge for 5-10 minutes.

Now for the turns:

1. With the flat side (the side without the joining creases) upwards, dust a little flour onto the dough (if you dust too much, use a brush to brush it off. Now roll out your dough using upwards and downwards rolling motions. The idea is to end up with a long rectangle.

2. Once your rectangle is the length of your rolling pin plus 1/4 of it’s length, fold the bottom third of the dough upwards, and the top third over the bottom third. This is your first simple turn. If the dough doesn’t feel cold anymore, cling film it and chill it before 30 mins before the next step.

3. Next, take the dough and turn it on its side so that it looks like a book which is about to be opened (open edge on the right). Again, roll out the dough to a long rectangle. This time, fold the bottom part of the dough upwards, about 2/3 of the way. Fold the top part down to meet the bottom part. It should be a lot shorter than the bottom fold. Next, fold the whole thing in half. This is a double turn - you have now completed 3 turns in total. Chill the dough for 30 minutes.

4. Repeat Step 3 once more and chill. This will make 5 turns - and you have your puff pastry dough! After this you can roll out and cut the dough for whichever purpose you need it.