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

FAQs

25 Savory Puff Pastry Recipes You Haven’t Tried Before? ›

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.

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 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.

If you're making a tart or filled Puff Pastry, place it on the baking sheet before adding toppings or fillings. That way, you won't have to transfer the dough with the extra weight and risk tearing it. For extra-thin, crisp Puff Pastry, set a second baking sheet on top of the filled pastry before baking.

Lightly roll out the puff pastry: Dust the top of the puff with just a little flour, then use a rolling pin to very lightly roll across the seams and bumps from the packaging and make the pastry even.

Plus, these puff pastries possess processed, refined carbohydrates, which we already know can increase blood sugar levels and promote an inflammatory response.

You can eat puff pastry if you like. It probably won't taste very good, since it's just raw flour, fat and water, but it's edible. I'd say there's less risk eating raw puff pastry than raw cookie dough, which makes it more favorable of the two.

Puff pastries are a distinct type of pastry that features layers of butter-covered dough rolled and folded over each other. Puff pastries are so named because they puff up when baked. They are not ideal for optimal health or weight loss diets, as they are high in calories and fat.

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.

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.

Should puff pastry be room temperature before baking? ›

Pastry should be at room temperature for rolling (to make it more pliable), but chilled before baking (so the buttery layers remain separate).

Always cut Puff Pastry straight down, never on an angle, to prevent layers from sticking together and inhibiting the rise. Cut up and down, and don't drag the knife. You can brush an egg-wash glaze (1 egg plus 1 tsp. water) over the Puff Pastry to create a rich, golden sheen when baked.

I do line the base of the pie with pastry, which is optional – but I love it. You blind bake the pastry slightly to prevent a completely soggy bottom however. The sides of the puff pastry when blind baking may puff slightly, but that is totally okay.

Pastry being soggy in the middle is a result of the pastry being undercooked. Don't place the pastry on too high a shelf in the oven. One way to prevent soggy bottom pastry is to blind bake the pastry – This means partially or completely bake the pastry before adding the filling.

Blind-bake your base before adding a filling to help to firm the base and avoid liquid being absorbed into it. Prick the base with a fork to help steam escape, cover with foil or parchment, and weigh it down with ceramic baking beans, uncooked rice or white sugar.

Shortcrust pastry can sometimes brown unevenly, with some areas becoming too dark and others remaining pale. This can happen if the oven temperature is too high, if the pastry is not rolled evenly, or if it's placed on a rack that's too high or too low in the oven.

About a third of puff and shortcrust pastry is fat, and if it's made with butter or palm oil, it contains more saturated fat than if it's made with unsaturated fats such as sunflower spread. These are our most commonly used pastries, but it's worth trying to keep them for a treat. Not all pastry is high in fat.

General rules

Keep everything as cool as possible otherwise the fat may melt which would spoil the finished dish. Introduce as much air as possible during making. Allow to relax after making to allow the fat to harden. Handle the pastry as little as possible.