Puff Pastry Dessert Bites
September 23, 2021
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Puff pastry is the buttery, multi-layered laminated dough that anchors turnovers, fruit tarts, savory pinwheels, beef Wellington, and most quick pastry applications where you need flaky layers without making your own dough. Store-bought (Pepperidge Farm, Dufour) saves the 4-6 hours required to make laminated dough from scratch. Puff-pastry favorites include Puff Pastry Dessert Bites and Caramel Apple Turnovers where the pre-laminated dough provides bakery-quality layers without the multi-hour folding process.
Pepperidge Farm puff pastry (the standard US supermarket version) is made with vegetable shortening. Dufour Pastry Kitchens (premium version, sold frozen at higher-end grocers) is made with real butter and produces dramatically more flavorful, flakier finished pastries. The price difference is roughly 4x; the quality difference is significant. For special-occasion baking, Dufour is worth the extra cost.
Thawing puff pastry properly is essential. Frozen puff pastry should thaw 30-40 minutes at room temperature. Enough to be pliable but not so long that the butter softens completely. Cold-but-pliable is the target. Over-thawed pastry produces flat finished bakes because the butter and dough layers merge. Re-freezing thawed puff pastry significantly degrades the rise.
For caramel apple turnovers, the technique is to thaw 1 sheet of puff pastry, cut into 4 squares, place a tablespoon of cooked apple filling in the center, fold corner-to-corner into a triangle, crimp edges with a fork, brush with egg wash, sprinkle with sugar, bake at 400°F for 20-25 minutes. The filling: 2 chopped apples + 2 tablespoons butter + 1/4 cup brown sugar + 1 teaspoon cinnamon, cooked 5 minutes until thickened.
For savory applications (cheese-and-herb pinwheels, beef Wellington, sausage rolls), the same dough works in any direction. The technique is to roll out the thawed sheet, spread or layer the filling, roll into a log, slice into rounds, bake at 400°F for 18-22 minutes until golden. mozzarella cheese works in any savory puff pastry application. For storage, unbaked puff pastry keeps 1 year frozen, 1-2 days refrigerated after thawing. Baked puff pastries keep 1-2 days at room temperature but lose their crispness. Browse butter, flour, and salt for closely related cooking applications.
Puff pastry recipes usually start with thawed puff pastry sheets that are cut, filled, or layered with ingredients before baking. Place the prepared pastry on a baking sheet and bake at high heat so the layers expand and become flaky. Follow the recipe instructions for shaping, filling, and baking times.
Popular puff pastry recipes include fruit turnovers, cheese pastries, savory tarts, appetizer pinwheels, and dessert pastries. Puff pastry works well in both sweet and savory dishes because the flaky layers pair easily with fruit, chocolate, vegetables, or cheese.
Good substitutes for puff pastry include phyllo dough, pie crust, or crescent roll dough. These options provide similar structure for baked recipes, though the texture may differ. Choose the substitute based on whether the recipe requires a flaky, layered crust or a softer pastry base.
Puff pastry dough is made by layering butter between thin sheets of dough through a process called lamination. The dough is repeatedly folded and rolled to create many layers. When baked, the butter releases steam, which separates the layers and produces the flaky texture.
For more flaky dough and pastry-related ingredient options, see our cream cheese and cake flour recipes.