29 Puff Pastry Recipes for Fancy Without the Fuss
We realize that saying the following puff pastry recipes will make your life all-around better is bold. But frozen puff pastry is buttery, flaky, versatile, and reliable. It exists solely to make you look good. It sits patiently in your freezer for months and months—however long you need it to, really—until you pluck it from those frosty shelves. Then, it quickly and easily becomes breakfast, lunch, dinner—or even a cocktail party appetizer or jaw-dropping brunch dish. It asks nothing of you, save for acknowledgment of its deliciousness with an emphatic “mmmm.”
Now does that statement seem so extreme? No, right? Glad we’re on the same page. Here are our best puff pastry recipes for your “mmmm”-ing pleasure.
Photograph by Isa Zapata, Food Styling by Thu Buser, Prop Styling by Paola Andrea1/29Zucchini Sausage Rolls
Photograph by Isa Zapata, Food Styling by Thu Buser, Prop Styling by Nicole Louie2/29Blackberries and Vanilla Cream With Crispy Puff Pastry
You can use the method in this puff pastry dessert for all kinds of things: With the help of some parchment paper, bake the dough between two sheet pans, and you’ll get jagged shards of crisp pastry.
Photographs by Josephine Schiele. Food styling by Rebecca Jurkevich3/29Ham and Cheese Hand Pies With Honey Mustard
Frozen puff pastry and sliced deli ham and cheese make these hand pies simple to assemble—but don’t skip the step of brushing their tops with egg wash before baking. For those who don’t know, egg wash consists of beaten egg mixed with a little salt and cold water or milk, and it’s responsible for that golden-brown finish on many pastries.
Photograph by Emma Fishman, Food Styling by Alison Attenborough, Prop Styling by Summer Moore4/29Sheet-Pan Hazelnut Breakfast Tart
Inspired by kringle, a Danish holiday treat, this make-ahead tart pairs wonderfully with coffee. Nut-free house? These Choc Bar Puffs consist only of frozen puff pastry, chocolate bars, and an egg, and they’re as good as nearly any chocolate croissant.
Photograph by Jenny Huang, Food styling by Susie Theodorou, prop styling by Martha Bernabe5/29Char Siu Wellington
Photograph by Alex Lau, food styling by Victoria Granof, prop styling by Sophie Strangio6/29Beef Wellington With Green Sauce
And now for the traditionalists, this beef Wellington recipe leans on a range of umami-rich ingredients—bacon, soy sauce, mustard, and maitake and crimini mushrooms—to create flavor.
Photograph by Rana Duzyol, Food Styling by Jesse Szewczyk, Prop Styling by Marina Bevilacqua7/29Easy-Fancy Pear Galette
We love a dessert that falls into what we call the “easy-fancy” category. Store-bought puff pastry dough and canned pears make this galette easy, and as for the fancy? Well, look at it! And here’s a bonus easy-fancy puff pastry recipe: this tart made with peaches, goat cheese, and, surprisingly, chili crisp.
Photo by Michael Graydon + Nikole Herriott, food styling by Rebecca Jurkevich, prop styling by Kalen Kaminski8/29Shortcut Puff Pastry
If only homemade puff pastry will do, we developed a recipe that still gets you all those flaky layers but involves some time-saving shortcuts. You just need all-purpose flour, lots of unsalted butter, sugar, kosher salt, a box grater, a rolling pin, plastic wrap, and some self-restraint.
Photograph by Isa Zapata, Food Styling by Judy Kim, Prop Styling by Marina Bevilacqua9/29Turkey Pot Pie With Puff Pastry Crust
Who needs to make pie crust when you have puff pastry sheets at your disposal? Sometimes we splurge for all-butter Dufour, but more affordable Pepperidge Farm, which you should be able to find at any grocery store, also works.
Photograph by Guang Xu10/29Baked Brie Bites With Jezebel Sauce
The ’90s are back, which means so is baked Brie. This modern take is a dinner party power move, featuring smaller pieces of the creamy cheese encased in buttery pastry and topped with a punchy sauce.
Photograph by: Elliott Jerome Brown Jr., Prop Styling by Stephanie De Luca, Food Styling by Thu Buser11/29Simplest Plum Tarts
Photo by Chelsie Craig, Food Styling by Yekaterina Boytsova12/29Spinach and Feta Tarte Soleil
We love the spanakopita-inspired mixture of feta, spinach, garlic, and lemon in this impressive—and impressively easy—appetizer, but now that one of our readers suggested a version with sun-dried tomato pesto and poppy seeds, we’re dreaming of a new riff...
Photo by Isa Zapata, Food Styling by Cyd McDowell, Prop Styling by Paige Hicks13/29Samosa Tart With Caramelized Onions and Fontina
Photograph by Isa Zapata, Food Styling by Pearl Jones, Prop Styling by Stephanie De Luca14/29Coronation Curried Chicken Salad Pastries
Photo by Chelsie Craig, Food Styling by Kate Buckens15/29Ham and Cheese Feuilleté
These savory bites are the perfect cocktail party appetizers—just imagine them with an extra-dry martini—but this dish could also stand in for ham and cheese quiche at brunch, if you want to hit the same flavors but skip the eggs.
Jarren Vink17/29Hogs in a Pretzel Blanket
Why call these hogs in a blanket and not pigs in a blanket? There are no mini cocktail weiners involved here; we're talking andouille sausage or kielbasa. But that’s not to say we don’t love pigs in a blanket, lambs in a blanket, or even pigs in sleeping bags.
Photograph by Michael Graydon + Nikole Herriott, Food Styling by Alison Roman, Prop Styling by Kalen Kaminski18/29Upside-Down Apricot Tart
Photo by Chelsie Craig, styling by Judy Mancini19/29Crispy Cheese Twists
These are cheese straws, but they’re so flaky and buttery that we felt they needed a different name, something that speaks to their elegance. They also happen to be one of our favorite easy appetizers.
20/29Apple Pandowdy
Apple pie and cobbler get all the good PR, but apple pandowdy deserves your attention, too. We feel confident that it will become your new favorite apple dessert if you give it a shot.
Alex Lau22/29Tomato-Lemon Tart
Many, many recipes for tomato tarts exist in the world—tomato hand pies, too—but none is as super-charged with citrus as this one. Thinly sliced rounds of lemon make it both bright and pleasantly bitter.
Alex Lau24/29One-Hour Apricot and Almond Galette
Don’t let the idea of making your own almond cream intimidate you. All it involves is pulsing almonds and sugar together in a food processor and then adding an egg, unsalted butter, almond and vanilla extracts, salt, and a little flour. There you have it: almond cream.
Photo by Laura Murray25/29Savory Palmiers With Cream Cheese and Everything Spice
Everything spice has become so popular, you can find it in most grocery stores these days. If you can’t, though, we have a step-by-step guide to making it. More into pinwheels than palmiers? Try these prosciutto and Gruyère pinwheels, also made with frozen puff pastry.
Christopher Testani28/29Carrot Tart With Ricotta and Herbs
Tender roasted carrots and caramelized onion topped with fresh chives and dill make for a winning combination. If you really want to make your own dough, try this puff pastry recipe, which we lovingly call “rough puff.”
