Puff Pastry. I'm obsessed with it.

September 13, 2024 3:33 PM

I've become a recent fan of puff pastry and the "season" for the all-butter French-made puff pastry at Trader Joe's has just started. Besides using it for slab apple pie and spinach pie, what else can I make with it? I saw this question and printed a few recipes, but I'm really interested in main dishes (with protein) and maybe some desserts. We're adventurous eaters and have access to ethnic grocery stores. What can you recommend?
posted by DrGail to Food & Drink (23 answers total)

Vol-au-vent:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vol-au-vent

You can fill it with pretty much anything. There's a French restaurant I go to that makes a quite good one with a filling of seafood in some kind of cream sauce.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 3:46 PM on September 13 [1 favorite]

I love to make hand pies with puff pastry. Create a filling of your choice. Cut your sheets into 3rds, and add filling. Fold over, seal tightly, cut slits, add egg wash, and bake.

I *love* a lamb curry hand pie, with something like this filling. You can swap beef for the lamb if you prefer. You can also do a pot-roast sort of filling or shepherd's pie. Zimmern cuts the pastry into circles, but that's wasteful, so I keep mine rectangular.
posted by hydra77 at 3:55 PM on September 13 [2 favorites]

Meat pies with a puff pastry crust on top are a British pub staple. Beef in an ale gravy, or chicken in a béchamel sauce with mushrooms or leeks are favourites.
posted by pipeski at 4:04 PM on September 13 [2 favorites]

I put puff pastry on top of chicken pot pie.

I also wrap cooked Toulouse-style garlicky sausages in puff pastry.

Also cheese straws! Roll out a sheet of puff pastry, then cover half of it with about a handful or so of shredded hard cheese like cheddar or Gruyere. You can also add some Parmesan if you want. Mix the cheese with a sprinkle of paprika and/or cayenne.
Fold the top of the puff pastry over, roll it again to smush everything together, cut into 1/2" strips, twist them and bake at 400 until puffed and golden.
posted by Lycaste at 4:05 PM on September 13

savory palmiers
flattened baked pastry in savory napoleons
brie with jam in pastry
puff pastry topping to individual baked soup serving (looks like a balloon!)
posted by winesong at 4:07 PM on September 13 [1 favorite]

If you want a bigger project, go old school with Beef Wellington or Salmon Coulibiac.
posted by jenquat at 4:27 PM on September 13 [1 favorite]

I’ve really been wanting to try those viral upside down onion tarts. Google that and you’ll get pages of examples - it looks really good!
posted by mygothlaundry at 5:02 PM on September 13 [2 favorites]

Single serving beef wellingtons are lovely!
posted by platinum at 5:09 PM on September 13

I do quick spanakipita, Greek spinach and feta filled puff pastry, easy peasy...also any quality canned pie filling is wonderful in a cut square of pastry then folded over into triangle.
posted by Czjewel at 5:32 PM on September 13 [2 favorites]

Make a lasagna. Freeze it until firm and take it out of the pan. Cut into squares-- whether you go for something more 2-4 bites or a proper serving is up to you. place it on a square of puff pastry and wrap the pastry up the sides, so they have just a tiny amount of lip over the height of the lasagna. You can either cut out the corners or pinch them together; I forget what I did. Either way you want the 4 sides and bottom to be wrapped.

After that, freeze them hard until you're ready. After that, bake as you would frozen puff pastry, and the lasagna will reheat in that process. Let rest (which also eliminates any possible cold spot in the lasagna), serve your handheld lasagna. (Actually you'll want a plate.)

This will work with any casserole type dish, just keep in mind that casseroles in general are carb-heavy, and adding a pastry layer to that doesn't help with the heaviness. So try to keep things on the side of light and saucy.

Along those lines, you can line a muffin tin with 12 squares of puff pastry, bake them, and then fill them with whatever hearty stew you can think of.

Oh, and don't forget those "straws" that're just baked twists of very narrow strips of puff pastry. Sweet, savory, what have you, they'll be awesome.
posted by Sunburnt at 7:00 PM on September 13

We’ve been doing burekas — put a sheet of puff pastry down on a half sheet pan and do 24 little 1-2 tablespoon scoops of potato or cheese filling in a 4x6 grid. Then another sheet on top, press down the seams with a chopstick and cut with a pizza wheel. Egg wash on top, sprinkle sesame seeds or zaatar, and bake. Great for parties!
posted by goingonit at 7:54 PM on September 13 [4 favorites]

Puff Pastry Cinnamon Rolls These cinnamon rolls are just delicious; I much prefer them to yeasty cinnamon rolls.
posted by effluvia at 8:40 PM on September 13 [3 favorites]

I pick a lot of wild mushrooms in the fall, and I like to make puff pastry cups or little pockets filled with mushrooms cooked with butter and garlic and salt, sometimes with cream or béchamel or soft cheese in them.
posted by centrifugal at 8:49 PM on September 13 [2 favorites]

Here's my dad's salmon puff pastry pie verbatim. I will leave typos unedited. Mushrooms are browned, ie cooked in butter. I can confirm it is amazing.

Box of puff pastry. Thaw. If 4 sheets can join to make 2 big ones ,top and btm, by small overlap beaten egg and press to weld
Carrots 1 or 2 matchsticked.
Mushrooms , brown in butter qty enough to layer on salmon and carrots to soften .season.
Piece of ginger matchsticked
Fresh thyme if available
Skin salmon and season both sides place on lower sheet of puff to fill area with about inch edge.
Brush salmon with melted butter . Sprinkle herbs if have them and ginger. Layer 🍚 mushrooms, carrots, on top salmon. Place top sheet of puff and use beaten egg at edge and fold over and weld by pressing together edge . Cut slits in top to breathe.use end of fork handle to lightly press in fish scale decoration. Brush top all over with egg. Chill in fridge 30 min min.bake 400f 30 min or until golden brown and puffed up.ill check on time and temp.
Bon appetit
Love dad

Love you too, dad. Bon appetit.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 9:03 PM on September 13 [10 favorites]

Yep, salmon en croûte
posted by eyeball at 9:18 PM on September 13

I’ve never tried to make it but Moroccan bastiya/pastilla has always looked intriguing. Chicken and almond, generously spiced with cinnamon, in a puff pastry crust…
posted by graphweaver at 10:16 PM on September 13 [1 favorite]

Mushroom, Butternut Squash, and Gruyere Tart
posted by Red Desk at 10:44 PM on September 13

I discovered Tarte Soleils later in life. They are so utterly amazing, festive, and versatile that it completely makes up for not knowing about them sooner.
posted by concinnity at 1:04 AM on September 14 [2 favorites]

Samosa Pie, just replace the phyllo with puff pastry.
posted by rednikki at 6:37 AM on September 14

The dim sum classic roast pork puffs.

Portuguese custard tarts are interesting — you roll the puff pastry up into a tight log, cut discs, then push them into the tart case so the layers are vertical rather than horizontal.
posted by lucidium at 8:28 AM on September 14

I discovered Tarte Soleils later in life. They are so utterly amazing, festive, and versatile that it completely makes up for not knowing about them sooner.

Yes! A tarte soleil is such a lovely thing to bring to a party, since people can break off individual rays of the sun. I like this Smitten Kitchen recipe but I make it with her chocolate babka filling.
posted by corey flood at 12:59 PM on September 14 [1 favorite]

I’ve made tasty little bundles of puff pastry with Dijon mustard, ham and Swiss cheese. There’s lots of recipes online, but here’s one from Ina Garten.
posted by kittydelsol at 2:29 PM on September 14

I roll out a square of puff pastry big enough so that when I cut it into 9 squares, I can place each square into the cups of a muffin tin so that the sides are fully covered. Then I crack an egg into each cup (you want to make sure no egg leaks over the side of the pastry or it will be impossible to remove after baking), add toppings like chopped ham, torn spinach, crumbled feta, S&P and bake them about 25 min. One of our favorite breakfasts.
posted by Liesl at 6:43 PM on September 14 [2 favorites]