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Sara Haas
Key Takeaways
- Making puff pastry from scratch can be a tedious and time-consuming process—even some professional chefs opt for store-bought instead.
- Allrecipes spoke to three professional chefs who swear by this one frozen puff pastry brand, which delivers perfectly airy and crispy pastry.
Making laminated doughs—including croissants, kouign-amann, or puff pastry—is certainly a labor of love. While you can absolutely DIY if you have the patience and precision, even professionals admit to outsourcing.
“I certainly admire anyone who has the talent and time to make it from scratch, but I always buy pre-made frozen puff pastry,” says Virginia-based food and wine writer Becky Ellis. “I am a much better cook than I am a baker, and weighing and measuring is just not my thing. I am very good at opening a box, so frozen puff pastry is my thing!”
Remarkably light, flaky, and lofty, puff pastry earns its “puff” through the lamination process: A dough made with flour, salt, and water is wrapped around a block of cold butter, which bakers then roll out, fold over, and repeat. They perform this roll-fold process again and again to form hundreds of layers with butter infused throughout. As the pastry bakes, the liquid in the water and butter evaporate, creating the signature poof—no leaveners required.
Since several sessions of chilling are required to keep the butter from melting, the entire process for homemade puff pastry takes hours. But you know what takes mere minutes? Investing in boxes of frozen puff pastry to keep on-hand, thaw, and transform into everything from palmiers to pot pies. But, like with canned biscuits, brownie mix, and cake mix, options abound as you peruse the aisles. So we tapped a few dough-pro chefs to help us select the absolute best shortcut puff pastry for your buck.
Our Panel of Puff Pastry-Rating Chefs
- George Duran, a celebrity chef in New York City
- Becky Ellis, a Roanoke, Virginia-based freelance food and wine writer and the recipe developer behind Biscuits and Bubbly
- Ruchit Harneja, corporate pastry chef for Berg Hospitality Group in Houston, Texas
Qualities of the Best Store-Bought Puff Pastry
Sara Haas
George Duran, a celebrity chef in New York City, lived in Paris for more than three years and is a French culinary school graduate. Along the way, he tells us, “I’ve developed a deep appreciation for what makes puff pastry truly exceptional…In France, supermarket shelves are lined with a variety of puff pastry brands, where quality is paramount. They’re French, after all!”
Here’s what Duran and our other chefs believe helps the best puff pastry stand out from the rest:
- It must puff. The most crucial factor is the quality of the butter and how it’s incorporated into the dough, Duran explains. “A proper butter-to-dough ratio is essential; without it, the pastry won’t puff correctly.”
- The layers should be delicate and flaky. As for those layers, they should be distinct and well-defined. “The layers should separate beautifully upon baking, creating that signature crisp and airy texture,” notes pastry chef Ruchit Harneja of Houston.
- The flavor must be buttery, but neutral. All three of our chefs agree that butter-based puff pastry is always superior to those made with vegetable shortenings or hydrogenated oils. Doughs made primarily with palm oil or margarine instead of butter tend to lack the same depth of flavor and crispness as all-butter versions. “Butter not only enhances flavor, but also contributes to better lamination and flakiness,” Harneja says. The buttery note shouldn’t be overwhelming, however, and the overall flavor “should be versatile enough to work for both sweet and savory applications,” he adds.
- The texture should be sturdy but not too dense. Once baked, a “quality puff pastry should hold its shape well, while still being light and crisp—rather than dense or doughy,” Harneja explains. Ideally, it shouldn’t crack or crumble as you handle the pastries.
- The baked pastry shouldn’t be greasy. According to Harneja, greasiness is a red flag for poor lamination or lower-quality ingredients.
The Best Puff Pastry Brand, According to Chefs
When we asked the pros to name their go-to store-bought puff pastry brand, the answer was unanimous—and echoed the results of our internal puff pastry taste test: Dufour Pastry Kitchens Puff Pastry Dough.
Ellis used to use Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry Sheets exclusively, “because that's all that I could find where I live in southwest Virginia, but then I found Dufour in a fancier grocery store in our area. The difference was vast," she tells Allrecipes. Dufour “is so much better in regards to puffing up and in terms of its rich, buttery taste. I found out why: One of the first ingredients in Pepperidge Farm puff pastry is vegetable oil, and the first ingredient in Dufour puff pastry is butter.”
The all-butter pastry closely mimics the quality of handmade pastry used in professional kitchens, according to Harneja, who declares that Dufour “has a more professional, gourmet feel compared to other options in the freezer section.”
Duran digs Dufour, “and not just because the name sounds French!” Duran says. “Their puff pastry is crisp, buttery, and beautifully flaky—everything you want in a great dough.” It’s admittedly a splurge, clocking in at around $10 for one frozen sheet (compared to $5.99 for two sheets of Pepperidge Farm or $4.99 for two sheets of Trader Joe’s rendition). Still, Dufour is more than worth it, our panelists agree. (Psst…it’s a favorite of Chef John, too!)
If price is a factor, or if you can’t find Dufour near you, Duran recommends Trader Joe’s All Butter Puff Pastry Sheets “as an excellent alternative, although it tends to be seasonal.”
The Importance of Thawing Puff Pastry
No matter which brand you buy, the most crucial step to creating the best pastry possible is thawing properly.
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Duran suggests following the package instructions “to avoid dough that’s too cold to work with or too sticky.” This often means thawing the puff pastry in the refrigerator overnight “to help maintain its structure,” Harneja adds.
When you’re ready to go, lightly flour your surface to prevent sticking, then roll it out gently—and without dilly-dallying, as you want the dough to still be chilled. “If the dough starts to tear or feel too soft, pop it back in the fridge for 15 to 20 minutes,” Duran advises. “If needed, fold it back like a book, then roll it out again to the desired shape.”
Sweet and Savory Puff Pastry Recipes to Try
Now that you’re well-versed in how to buy and work with frozen puff pastry, it’s time for the fun part: baking and eating.
“I always like to have a box of frozen puff pastry in my freezer just because I never know when I'll be inspired to use it in one of the recipes I am creating,” Ellis says.
Ideal for “using in both sweet and savory dishes,” Harneja explains, the following puff pastry recipes are stand-outs according to our experts—and Allrecipes fans:
- Easy Pigs in a Blanket
- Baked Brie in Puff Pastry
- Pesto Puff Pastry Pinwheel
- Weeknight Wellington
- Puff Pastry Waffles
- Upside Down Apple and Brie Puff Pastry Tarts
- Fresh Raspberry Turnovers
- Portuguese Custard Tarts (Pasteis de Nata)
- Lemon Berry Tartlets
- Strawberry Napoleons
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