Putting Puff Pastry To Work
Few ingredients punch so far above their weight as puff pastry. It’s the ultimate culinary secret weapon—a golden, flaky canvas that can transform breakfast, dinner, or dessert into something that looks far more complicated than it is.
Homemade puff pastry is a worthy weekend project—meditative, rewarding, and a true display of craft. Or keep a box in the freezer and you’re halfway to impressive. The key is quality: Always choose an all-butter version like Dufour or Trader Joe’s, and steer clear of brands made with palm oil. If the first ingredient isn’t butter, it won’t taste like magic.
Puff pastry is pure opportunity. Slice it into tarts, twists, or turnovers; fill it with fruits, cheeses, meats, or whatever’s in season. Its genius lies in versatility—and how easily it makes you look like you’ve been to pastry school.
We share some of our favorite ways to use the flaky dough and called in an award-winning pastry chef to share her expert tips on technique, timing, and the small details that turn puff pastry from freezer staple (or weekend project) into flaky perfection.
Lauren’s Easy Rough Puff Pastry
2 cups⁄450 grams cold unsalted butter, diced
3 cups⁄450 grams flour + extra for dusting
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 cup ice cold water
Dice butter and place in freezer. Sift flour and salt into a bowl. Add cold butter cubes. Work butter into flour with fingers or pastry blender, trying to form large flakes and chunks. Press a few times with hands, leaving larger pieces of butter. Put lemon juice into ice water, then add a little bit at a time to flour mixture, until a shaggy dough starts to form. Dump out onto floured counter and form into a rough, flat rectangle. Refrigerate until firm.
Roll out thin, then fold in thirds like a book. Make a quarter turn and roll out again, folding again in thirds. Repeat. Chill in between, if necessary. Fold and chill 30 minutes.
Roll out each half and chill. Use rough puff to create pastries and brush outside with egg wash, if desired.
Chef Lauren’s Pro Tips for the Architecture of Flake
1. If making small tarts, dock the center that will be under the fruit ⁄ filling by drawing a shallow line with the tip of a pairing knife to create a border. That way, only the outer edge will pu.
2. Bake pastries for 18 to 25 minutes or until deep golden brown. Make sure not to underbake.
3. If making pu from scratch, make sure to chill it well in between turns. Patience is a virtue.
Goat Cheese Shallot & Sausage Tart
Show up to a party with this hearty dish and you’ll always be welcomed back.
5–6 shallots
2 apple & sage sausages (we love Field & Roast veggie sausages, but any good-quality chicken sausage will work well)
Olive oil
Puff pastry
2 tablespoons soft goat cheese
3 tablespoons pomegranate seeds, divided 1 tablespoon tahini, divided
2 cups chopped kale, divided
Preheat oven to 400°. Slice shallots in half, and dice sausages. Sauté in olive oil 3 to 5 minutes until slightly browned. Roll out puff pastry into a round. Spread the goat cheese up to docked border line. Place the shallots and sausage on cheese and top with pomegranate seeds and tahini. Pinch edges of dough to form a crust and pull toward the center to create a partially closed bundle. It will open slightly as it bakes.
Place in oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown. After 15 minutes of baking, drop 1 cup of kale in center and return to oven. Reserve the remainder of kale, pomegranate seeds, and tahini to place over top of the tart before serving.
Harvest Pear Pastry
A bit of artistry can elevate your breakfast or dessert with this elegantly simple pastry.
Makes 2 tarts per pear
Bartlett pear
Cream Cheese or Ricotta Apricot jam
Puff pastry dough
Preheat oven to 400°. Slice fully ripe Bartlett pears in half lengthwise and scoop out the core, leaving a cavity that you then fill with cheese. Spread apricot jam on dough. Place the pear filling-side down on a rectangle of dough, then make a series of deep slices in the pear nearly all the way through to assure that it cooks consistently.
Roll the edges into a neat crust around the pear, and then cut a set of decorative leaves at the top.
Bake for 18 minutes placing aluminium foil over the leaves to prevent them from burning before the rest of the dough is baked.
Apple Roses in Custard
Vanilla custard:
1 vanilla bean
1 cup whole milk
1/4 cup heavy cream (add 1 extra tablespoon if using skim or 1% milk)
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 cup sugar
1 medium egg
1 medium egg yolk
Apple Roses:
1 sheet puff pastry
2 medium apples, sliced thinly
Blackberry jam
For the custard: Scrape out seeds from vanilla, and place pod in saucepan with milk and cream. Heat milk to hot but not boiling then remove from heat. Leave for 10 minutes to infuse flavor.
Mix the cornstarch and sugar in a bowl. Then add a few
tablespoons of milk to the dry mix and stir until smooth.
Bring milk slowly to a boil and, as soon as bubbles start to form, stir in cornstarch mixture and stir until thickened. Stir in the eggs
and remove from heat.
For the apple roses: Preheat oven to 400°. Cut pastry sheet into 8 strips. Slice apples thinly and place in bowl covered with water. Microwave for 2 minutes to soften the apples and make the dough
easier to roll. Spread blackberry jam on the pastry strips. Layer apple slices along top half of dough with about a third of the apples hanging over edge of dough. Fold the bottom half of the dough over the apples and then roll the apples into a spiral. The
apples will extend beyond pastry and form a rose shape. Place roses in a round baking dish filling up the space. Pour a layer of custard around the roses. Bake for 25 minutes.