The 15 Best Puff Pastry Desserts to Make and Taste
Try any of these puff pastry desserts ranging from cream cheese treats to apple and fruit tarts and more, recipes included.
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Puff pastry desserts never fail to impress—they’re light, flaky, buttery, and perfect for just about any occasion.
It may seem like delicious puff pastry desserts only live on the shelves of French bakeries, but most of them are easy to make yourself. Especially if you use frozen puff pastry!
Whether you keep store-bought puff pastry in your freezer or have a go-to homemade puff pastry recipe, desserts are a breeze with this versatile and delicious pastry dough.
Read on to discover some of the best puff pastry recipes for desserts, including tarts, danishes, turnovers, cinnamon rolls, croissants, and more!
15 Amazing and Easy Puff Pastry Desserts
1. Puff Pastry Cream Cheese Danishes
You can’t go wrong with puff pastry desserts with cream cheese. This twist on a classic cheese danish is so simple to make—cut sheets of puff pastry into squares, top with a cream cheese filling, add a topping of your choice, bake, and drizzle on some powdered sugar icing. These are perfect with blueberries, raspberries, or even chocolate chips.
2. Apple Turnovers With Puff Pastry
Puff pastry desserts with apples create the perfect combination. They’re delicious in any form, but these apple turnovers take the prize—they taste like apple pie and are so easy to make! Simply cook apples with butter, sugar, and cinnamon to make the filling. Then cut squares of puff pastry, place the filling on one side, fold over, seal, and bake. They’re best enjoyed fresh out of the oven.
3. Easy Puff Pastry Snowflake
When it comes to puff pastry desserts, chocolate is always a welcome addition. This chocolate puff pastry snowflake may look intimidating, but it’s actually incredibly simple to make. Cut two circles of puff pastry, spread a generous layer of Nutella in between, cut 16 slits (avoiding the middle), and twist. When the pastry puffs up in the oven, the resulting design looks like something straight out of a French bakery!
4. Peach Frangipane Puff Pastry Tarts
These juicy peach puff pastry tartlets are the perfect summer treat. Frozen puff pastry dough is cut into squares, topped with a layer of frangipane (sweet almond cream), and finished off with sliced peaches. You can also try them with plums, cherries, or nectarines.
5. Puff Pastry Apple Tartlets
These apple tartlets are a triple threat—they’re delicious, they’re simple to make, and they look perfectly Instagram-worthy. Simply fold over the edges of puff pastry squares and blind bake the shells before filling them with applesauce and sliced apples and brushing on a brown sugar and cinnamon glaze.
6. Raspberry Puff Pastry Tart
This puff pastry recipe pairs the flavors of fresh raspberries and a silky smooth custard filling. It comes together incredibly quickly if you make the homemade custard in advance. Simply top little puff pastry rectangles with the custard filling and fresh raspberries (or any other berry), and bake!
7. Lemon Cream Horns
These lemon cream horns are a fresh take on the classic European dessert. Traditional cream horns are made by wrapping strips of puff pastry dough around a cone-shaped mold (you can make your own out of aluminum foil), baking them, and filling them with whipped cream. This puff pastry recipe uses a lemon custard filling instead, creating a delicate dessert perfect for spring and summer.
8. Puff Pastry Almond Croissants
Traditional croissants are made with a special dough that’s similar to puff pastry dough, but contains yeast and follows a slightly different laminating (folding and rolling) process. However, if you’re in a pinch or just looking to shake things up a bit, why not try making croissants with puff pastry dough? These croissants have to be much smaller (otherwise the insides will be left uncooked), but they’re just as delicious! Top them with almond syrup and sliced almonds, or fill them with frangipane for even more almond goodness.
9. Puff Pastry Cinnamon Rolls
Looking for even more ways to speed up traditional dessert recipes with puff pastry? Puff pastry cinnamon rolls are light and flaky but contain all the same sweet and warm flavors of regular cinnamon rolls. Tops them with some chopped nuts and a sugar glaze and you’ve got yourself a quick, sweet breakfast or snack.
10. French Palmiers With Homemade Puff Pastry
This French palmiers recipe includes a traditional puff pastry recipe and instructions, so you can use store-bought puff pastry or make your own homemade puff pastry dough from scratch. Once you have your puff pastry dough, simply sprinkle it with sugar, fold it into the middle three times on each side, and cut into individual cookies that’ll melt in your mouth!
11. Mille Feuille
Mille Feuille, or “a thousand sheets”, is a traditional French dessert. It’s made with three sheets of puff pastry and a creamy vanilla filling layered in between. The distinct chocolate and vanilla icing pattern is what gives it the classic Mille Feuille look.
12. Puff Pastry Apple Galette
A galette is a free-form pie made with a fruit filling. Using puff pastry for the crust gives it a perfectly flaky and crispy texture. Simply roll out a round sheet of puff pastry, fill it with sliced apples coated in butter, sugar, and cinnamon, tuck the edges, and bake. It’s absolutely divine when served with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce!
13. Reese’s Stuffed Puff Pastry Donuts
Traditional donuts are time-consuming to make, but puff pastry makes the perfect quick substitute. What makes these donuts even better is the chocolate peanut butter cup hidden inside. Dip them in chocolate and sprinkle with more peanut butter cup pieces, and you’ve got yourself an absolutely heavenly dessert.
14. Easy Sticky Buns
These puff pastry sticky buns are a dessert you can have for breakfast. They’re baked upside down in a muffin tin, so the warm goodness of pecans coated in butter, cinnamon, and brown sugar ends up on top of the flaky bun when you invert them.
15. Tarte Tatin
Tarte Tatin is a French dessert with a caramelized fruit topping. The tart is baked upside down and then flipped so the fruit filling sits on top of a puff pastry crust. This recipe uses a special homemade puff pastry made with sourdough starter, which acts as a raising agent and gives the crust a unique flavor.
Learn How to Bake Your Own Tarte Tatin
The Art of the Tarte Tatin | Artisan Pastry Dessert
Sayana Lam
Sayana is a musician, writer and graphic designer based in Toronto, Canada.
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