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I know you're used to me saying buy a ready to use puff pastry sheet … if it's good enough for chefs to use it's good enough for me.

For my home-made Christmas gifts I wanted to make all the elements myself and so I made the flaky pastry – quickly – from scratch.

To clarify “flaky pastry” is another name for “rough puff pastry”, in other words it's lumps of butter mixed with flour and traditionally rolled and folded – a similar method to puff pastry. The following recipe does not involve all the faffing around of folding and resting etc., rather a throw it all in a bowl method! I've not made this pastry for ages, so much so I can't even remember where I found it. It does remind me of a similar pastry recipe contained in my series on Cornish pasties posted in June this year – that pasty pastry recipe was the strangest I'd come across but said at the time, “not only does it work I'd say it's the best result I've ever had”. If you're interested check out The Cornish pasty – the recipes 1^stJune 2019 and the series with a photo guide.

The following fast flaky pastry recipe falls into the same category. It's kind too. You can use it, having rested for 30 minutes or make up a batch and then freeze it. All you need to remember is to form the pastry into a shape of your choice before wrapping in cling film and fridging or freezing.

Recipe up next ...