25 Savory Puff Pastry Recipes You Haven’t Tried Before (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to baking puff pastry? ›

Always preheat your oven for a minimum of 15-20 minutes before baking, because Puff Pastry depends on even heat to rise and puff. Place pastries 1 inch apart. If you want a flaky thin and crispy pastry that's not very puffy, prick the unbaked Puff Pastry all over with a fork, which lets steam escape while baking.

Puff pastry is a light, buttery, flaky dough used in both sweet and savory dishes, from appetizers to main courses to desserts. It contains only three ingredients—flour, butter, and salt—yet it rises to a great height with no added leavening agent.

Puff pastry does need some gluten development but, because of the amount of rolling out that will happen during lamination, it is very easy to overwork a dough which makes it incredibly hard to use and can cause a lot of shrinkage.

Adding an acid, the theory goes, stops the gluten in its tracks and rescues the crust from toughness. These same acid enthusiasts claim that stopping or at least hindering the gluten makes the dough easier to roll out, and may even prevent it from shrinking as it bakes.

The Los Angeles Times notes that butter can still be used as a "wash," but it yields different results than egg: Instead of imparting color or crispness, it offers a more luxurious flavor and softness.

Yes and no, and it depends—mostly on the recipe you are using. Substitute one for the other and your baked goods may bake up different than expected.

The French call this dough "pâte feuilletée," which means "pastry made leaf-like." Each "leaf" in this pastry consists of a layer of flour separated by a layer of butter. The expansion (puff) occurs because the butter layers create steam when exposed to the heat of an oven.

I recommend including at least some bread flour (Paul Hollywood's recipe uses half and half). The higher gluten content helps the dough layers to hold together as they are rolled and folded, facilitating those flaky layers that are the hallmark of puff pastry.

When cutting Puff Pastry, the sharper the knife or pastry cutter, the better. A dull edge can cement layers together and prevent pastry from rising. Always cut Puff Pastry straight down, never on an angle, to prevent layers from sticking together and inhibiting the rise.

What can go wrong with puff pastry? ›

Heat is the enemy of Puff Pastry—it handles best when cold. So avoid working with it on hot, humid days, in a stifling hot kitchen or next to your oven. Puff Pastry works best when cold. Your hands should be cold, too, when handling it.

Leaving the puff pastry at room temperature too long.

When left at room temperature too long, puff pastry's main ingredient, butter, starts to soften and melt. This leaves the dough sticky and really hard to work with, and may result in the pastry not holding its shape while baking.

Place pastries 1 inch apart. If you want a flaky thin and crispy pastry that's not very puffy, prick the unbaked Puff Pastry all over with a fork, which lets steam escape while baking.

HOW DO YOU STORE PUFF PASTRY? Wrap unbaked individual sheets of puff pastry in plastic wrap and store them in airtight containers in the refrigerator for up to two days. The sheets can be individually, tightly wrapped and stored in airtight containers in the freezer for several months.

Rolling & Folding

You will roll + fold it a total of 6 times before refrigerating again for at least 15 minutes (2nd refrigeration). The photo below shows what the center of your dough looks like after all the rolling and folding.

Your puff pastry may fail to puff for several reasons. Warm pastry: Your pastry should be cold, cold, cold going into the oven. It's worth reiterating: Cold butter equals flaky layers. If your pastry is warm, the butter can easily leech right out during baking.

Do I need to blind bake pastry cases when cooking with wet fillings? As a general rule, you do need to blind bake when cooking a dish with wet fillings. For example, if you're making a quiche or frangipane, blind baking the crust first will help ensure the pastry case stays buttery and retains its crunch.