Yoghurt rough puff pastry
At the moment between making and baking, take a minute to
admire the layered cross-section of this dough. Your heart will
skip a beat. Yoghurt adds a beguiling acidity without the excess
fat of cream or sour cream, and browns better than water-based
rough puff. Baking powder (an ingredient that puff pastry
purists might rebuff) brings extra aeration and mild tenderising
to gluten during baking. Grating and freezing the butter means
an easy-on-the-hands rub-in at the start, while adding the
fragments needed for melt-while-it-bakes flakiness. It also drops
the dough temperature, so you can start rolling immediately
without smears and tears. You can swap the yoghurt out if
you like. I did try a version with mascarpone once and the
fattiness was delicious, but almost unbearably rich. Almost.

Grate the butter on the coarse side of a box grater. Line a shallow tray
with baking paper and loosely distribute the butter over the surface –
tease it out if it is clumping. Freeze for at least 30 minutes.

Grate chilled not frozen butter. I lost the skin off my knuckles too often when

using frozen butter. Baking should not be a blood sport!

While the butter freezes, swizzle the flour, salt and baking powder
together in a large mixing bowl.

Add the grated butter to the flour. Rub it in lightly with your fingertips
until the grated butter flakes are half their starting size. The flour
will just start becoming pale yellow. Don’t take it to breadcrumb
consistency.

Stir the yoghurt before weighing so it’s not just whey. Add to the mix
and toss to distribute the yoghurt through. Then start squeezing/
pressing with firm intent until the dough is one rough, yet cohesive pat
of firm playdough. The dough will seem resistant to come together,
but keep pressing, and don’t add extra yoghurt.

Keeps Chilled for 3 days; after that

it can turn a bit grey – still good to
bake though. Frozen and unbaked for
3 months in the freezer. After being
baked, airtight at room temperature
for about 3 days.

Makes 750 g (1 lb 11 oz) – enough

for 6 hand pies.

Takes Around 2 hours with lots of

hands-off dough-resting moments.
225 g (8 oz) unsalted butter,
cold and in a block
300 g (10½ oz) plain (all-purpose)
flour
5 g (⅛ oz/heaped ½ teaspoon)
fine sea salt
3 g (¹⁄₁₀ oz/½ teaspoon) baking
powder
170 g/ml (6 oz) full-fat yoghurt,
natural or Greek style, cold