17 Best Puff Pastry Recipes, From Appetizers to Desserts (2024)

What Makes Puff Pastry and Phyllo Different?

Tomato and Brie Tart

Here's an easy, refined dinner option that calls on puff pastry: This cheesy tart showcases juicy slices of heirloom tomatoes, buttery brie, and briny capers. It's best accompanied by a salad for a main course—or cut it into smaller slices and serve it as an appetizer.

Pigs in Blankets

These snacks combine easy familiarity with an elegant touch. For this truly irresistible version, we brush the puff pastry with honey mustard before baking. It's a versatile recipe, too: You can use any fully cooked sausage, from frankfurters and andouille to chicken sausages.

Date, Olive, and Goat-Cheese Tart

This tart takes everything you love about a cheese plate and puts it in tart form. A creamy, tangy cheese filling is studded with sweet Medjool dates, briny Kalamata olives, and fiery pickled serranos.

Puff-Pastry Turkeys

Tuck this fun "turkey" recipe away for November, and you're sure to delight carnivores and vegetarians alike. It starts with sprinkling store-bought puff pastry with cinnamon sugar; then, you shape "feathers" by folding the dough. Slice and bake until crisp, and decorate with a white-chocolate-chip eye, a candied sunflower seed beak, and a freeze-dried strawberry wattle.

Blueberry Toaster Pastries

To make these homemade sweet treats, pack puff pastry with fresh berries and lemon zest, then bake them in the oven. (Don't even think about using the toaster!) Then, finish them with a sugary glaze or violet icing.

Pork Wellington With Prosciutto and Spinach-Mushroom Stuffing

For this twist on the traditional Wellington, pork tenderloin replaces beef and spinach and prosciutto takes the place of pâté. What's familiar: mushrooms and, of course, puff pastry. The resulting dish is just as beautiful and delicious as the classic—and a bit lighter.

Puff-Pastry Waffle Hearts (Puffles)

These cute little tickers hide a tasty secret: They're actually pockets made from puff pastry that you stuff with chocolate-hazelnut spread. The waffle iron turns them crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside.

Easy Peach Potpie

When peaches are in season, this speedy version of peach pie is a must—it's one of our favorite puff pastry recipes. You bake the fruit into a vanilla-bourbon nectar, top it off with a flaky round of pastry, bake, and serve warm.

Apple Jalousie Tart

This French tart takes decorative inspiration from shutters, aka "jalousie." The eye-catching folds of puff pastry do indeed look like windows; behind them lies a delicious filling of vanilla-flecked baked apples.

Individual Chicken Potpies

Here's a classic comfort food made even better in individual portions. Frozen puff pastry serves as a crisp, flaky topping for the savory and warm chicken breast filling.

Puff-Pastry Cannoli Cake

If you like the classic cannoli, you're going to love this dazzling cake inspired by the beloved Sicilian confection. To make it, you sandwich the creamy ricotta between crisp layers of puff pastry. Chopped pistachios add a gorgeous green accent to the finished dessert.

Salmon Coulibiacs

Akin to a seafood version of beef Wellington, coulibiac is a Russian dish; puff pastry envelops poached salmon, mushrooms, and rice. This recipe makes individual pouches, which are lovely for entertaining. Serve them with a sour cream dill sauce.

Cherry-and-Cream-Cheese Hand Pies

A cross between a sour cherry pie and a cheese Danish, these flaky pastries are the perfect way to showcase a quintessential summer fruit. The recipe also includes variations for strawberry, mixed berry, apricot, peach, or plum-blueberry.

Breakfast Casserole with Bacon

Like quiche, this savory brunch dish has a custard filling; using frozen puff pastry instead of traditional pie dough makes it even simpler to prepare. Gruyère gives the dish a rich, subtly nutty flavor.

Puff-Pastry Cheese Straws

Pure butter puff pastry results in the best flavor and texture for these cheese straws. Our recipe makes several variations: sesame-poppy, tomato-rosemary, and pecorino-black pepper.

Gooey Gouda Puff-Pastry Bites

These yummy appetizers are the perfect combo of sweet and salty goodness, thanks to the Gouda cheese topped with lingonberry jam. Easily make to impress!

Strawberry Napoleons

Tangy creme fraîche and fragrant vanilla bean perk up the whipped cream sandwiched between layers of puff pastry and strawberries in this towering summer dessert, which feels like the ideal combo of a French Napoleon and American strawberry shortcake.