Just Roll- As simple as that! (JusRol Frozen Puff Pastry)

Member Name: pink_glitter

Product:	JusRol Frozen Puff Pastry
Date:	25/02/09 (725 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Quick, Easy, Convenient, Tastes Great

Disadvantages: More expensive than home made (but you can't put a price on the time you'll save, lol!)

I normally make my own short crust pastry, but I hadn't made puff pastry before, and when looking at a recipe on the internet, I thought the instructions sounded a little bit long-winded. I had bought Jus-Rol shortcrust pastry once before (although like I said I normally make my own so I can't remember why), and thought I'd give their puff pastry a go, rather than risking it going wrong doing it on my own!

The pastry is frozen and comes in two blocks. They make different sized packs - mine had two blocks each weighing 340g each, but I've since seen Iceland selling packs where you get two blocks weighing 500g each. The blocks are individually wrapped, so no chance of them sticking together when frozen.

Taking the pastry out of the pack, it just looked like any other block of pastry really. Obviously you need to leave it to defrost first and the pack advises you can either leave it overnight in the fridge or leave at room temperature for two hours. I left mine at room temperature, and found that two hours was sufficient for it to be fully defrosted.

Once you've defrosted it, all you really need to do is roll it out into the size required for whatever you're making. I found the pastry much easier to work with than home made. Because it is all in a neat block, you can cut bits off as you need them and the pastry seemed quite moist and didn't dry out, even when I had to re-roll it.

You bake the pastry in the oven for as long as your recipe requires, and I must say it looks really good once done - much better than anything I could make myself, I'm sure! It puffs up nicely and goes a lovely golden brown colour.

Obviously there are endless uses for this, I made cheese and bacon wraps, pasties and a couple of sausage and bean melts (glorified pasties!) from my blocks, but if you're stuck for ideas, try the website - www.jusrol.co.uk

The taste is great, just as you would expect it to be. It's light and slightly flaky on the outside, and the inside tends to stay slightly moist and delicious.

I paid £1.66 from ASDA for 2 340g blocks, and ASDA sell 2 500g blocks for £2.50.

If I ever need puff pastry for a recipe in the future and haven't got time to make my own, I will definitely buy this again. And don't tell anyone, but I'll probably pass it off as homemade!

Summary: Fantastic!