puff paste

4.9

A dough of flour, butter, and water that makes light, flaky layers when baked

noun
/pʌf peɪst/

Specialized

: masa de hojaldre

The chef demonstrated how to make authentic puff paste for the classic mille-feuille dessert.

Examples

You need to chill the puff paste before rolling it out for the best flaky texture.
She prefers to use homemade puff paste rather than store-bought dough in her pastries.
Puff paste is delicious.
I made a delicious tart with puff paste.
The chef demonstrated how to make authentic puff paste for the classic mille-feuille dessert.
You need to chill the puff paste before rolling it out for the best flaky texture.
She prefers to use homemade puff paste rather than store-bought dough in her pastries.

Synonyms

pâte feuilletée

vspuff paste

Specialized

9.9

A rich layered pastry dough used to make croissants and puff pastries

is less rich and emphasizes a simple flour butter water composition

How Flaky

puff

37 2.3

puff paste

Specialized

4.9

piecrust

1 1.6

Surface Forms

puff paste singular

puff pastes plural

Morphology

puff + paste

The meaning 'a dough used to make light, flaky pastry' follows directly from combining 'puff' (a light, hollow pastry) with 'paste' (a dough or paste): a paste for making puffs. This noun+noun composition expresses a transparent type-of relationship and has clear cross-linguistic parallels, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

Puff paste is named for what it does in the oven: layers of butter and dough make the pastry puff into many thin, flaky layers, and paste was a simple word for 'soft dough'. So puff paste means the dough used to make very light, flaky pastry.