Butter and Flour and Convenience

April 20, 2024 9:09 AM

My local supermarket carries this - frozen puff pastry that has been pre-cut into modest squares. I tried something with them last night and I'm a big fan now. What else can I do with them?

This is perfect for a single diner like me - instead of thawing a whole sheet of puff pastry and cutting the bit I need and then figuring out what to do with the rest, I can just pull out one or two squares for something. Like last night - dinner was two little tarts with a goat cheese and asparagus topping, and I was stunned how quickly it came together. So now I'm looking for other ideas for stuff-to-put-on-squares-of-puff-pastry, or other general things-to-do-with-squares-of-puff-pastry.

Some ideas I'm already looking at are:

* ricotta with sliced tomato and basil
* Sauteed mushrooms with some kind of soft cheese
* little slab fruit tarts
* DIY sort of toaster pastry (sandwich some filling between two squares and bake)
* a single serving of mille-feuille

Anything else?

And reiterating that this would be for single-servings, so please nothing that would require a whole sheet of puff pastry left whole. But anything that has you cut the sheet down into squares I'm still happy to look at and scale down the recipe.

posted by EmpressCallipygos to Food & Drink (18 answers total)

Best answer: We use them for deconstructed pot pies, or as the "side" with stews - just egg wash and sprinkle salt or herbs or whatever. You can also cut your square into several strips and twist to make cheese twists for appetizers or, again, a cute and tasty side for soup or similar.
posted by Lyn Never at 9:14 AM on April 20 [2 favorites]

Top crust on a pot pie?
posted by slkinsey at 9:14 AM on April 20 [2 favorites]

Same concept as cheese twists: Nutella and/or jam twists. They also sound perfect for little egg souffle cups.
posted by teremala at 9:38 AM on April 20

Slice up some ham or prosciutto, smear some fig jam on the puff pastry, pile the meat shreds on top, roll up, bake. Soft chevre may be included if you wish.
posted by pollytropos at 10:23 AM on April 20

Best answer: I don't know how big those squares are, but I make prune stars with puff pastry. Plop a prune in the middle, cut the corners and fold into windmills, bake however long the box says, lightly dust with powdered sugar. (The Finns and Balts in the crowd are shocked at my use of a prune instead of prune jam but I say it's just as good, if not better.)
posted by The corpse in the library at 10:55 AM on April 20 [2 favorites]

My social media videos are full of ways to use these as one-sided tarts. Place filling on parchment, top with a square of dough, bake. You can go sweet or savory: pears, rosemary, and honey; brie and chutney; bacon, cheddar and apple; mushrooms, onions and gruyere, erc. ad lib.
posted by ottereroticist at 10:59 AM on April 20 [2 favorites]

Salmon en croute/Salmon Wellington

Cornish pasty

Anything normally in an empanada, for example picadillo.
posted by vunder at 11:56 AM on April 20

Rhubarb and strawberries would be good as a desert. For savory, maybe asparagus and hollandaise sauce (they sell packets at the store if you aren't up to making it).
posted by fern at 12:46 PM on April 20

Frozen broccoli, defrosted and then drained well (probably semi crushed in the process of getting the moisture out,) combined with some chopped up brie cheese was an old favourite of mine when I have frozen puff pastry.

You use frozen instead of fresh broccoli so that it comes out fully cooked instead of as remaining still raw when the pastry is starting to burn. You could also steam some broccoli to use just before putting it into the pastry, but left over broccoli will taste like left over broccoli.

You can also use frozen cauliflower the same way, or other frozen veggies. If you don't want to use brie, try to use another very soft cheese like Camembert, as hard cheeses don't melt and run into the vegetables enough.



Salsa and left over chicken also works.
posted by Jane the Brown at 1:31 PM on April 20

Best answer: Smitten Kitchen has a lot of these in larger format, some using the flavors you're already evaluating. But the ones I think might adapt well:
- ratatouille tart
- herbed tomato and roasted garlic tart
- zucchini and ricotta galette (not puff pastry, but I've made it with it)
- roasted leek & white bean galette
- spring asparagus galette
posted by deludingmyself at 1:42 PM on April 20 [1 favorite]

The New York Times has some very good puff pastry tart recipes that you could scale down. All link are gift links, so there should be no paywall.
Any Vegetable Tart
Asparagus, Goat Cheese, and Tarragon Tart
Carrot Tart with Ricotta and Feta
posted by skwm at 2:23 PM on April 20

Response by poster: Since a couple people have asked: the squares are like 4 x 4 inches. Two of them topped with cheese and asparagus plus a side of couscous made for a surprisingly lovely dinner.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:36 PM on April 20

Best answer: If you want to plus up your mushroom idea, try mushroom duxelles.

If you dock the inner part of the square leaving a border, it should puff up like a pizza with "crust" and you can fill it like one.
posted by mmascolino at 5:15 PM on April 20

Best answer: Kalamata olives, thinly sliced fennel and red onions, feta and black pepper, tossed with a little olive oil. I usually microwave the fennel and onion first, or put it in a dish in the oven as the oven preheats so it gets a little softer. For a little punchier flavor add some halved garlic cloves or a handful of capers.

It's become a favorite in our house (we do the full-size sheets, but it should scale no problem).
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 6:24 PM on April 20

You could make a couple of sweet or savory palmiers by covering the top with cinnamon sugar or premade pesto before rolling and slicing. At that size maybe a single spiral instead of the usual double, but everything else would be the same as making a larger batch.
posted by tchemgrrl at 6:57 PM on April 20

Spanakopita -- I'm actually making one today. I know it's supposed to be made with filo dough, but I've made it with puff pastry all my adult life because I'm lazy and it is good.
The other thing I use puff pastry for Is pot pie, made with leftover chicken.
posted by mumimor at 12:42 AM on April 21

Jacques Pepin has a little pear dessert using store-bought puff pastry that is dead simple and looks delish.
posted by Short Attention Sp at 5:25 AM on April 21

Mini tarts tatin. You'll need to shape them into circles that fit in a muffin tin.
posted by Elsie at 7:54 AM on April 21