Puff pastry is such a fun ingredient. You can easily make fancy recipes with very little effort. Get some great ideas to impress your dinner guests on this list of Puff Pastry Dessert Recipes.
For more ideas to make, check out all of our dessert recipes.
Store-bought puff pastry is amazing. It’s a great way to make pretty fancy feeling desserts with minimal effort. The puff pastry does all the heavy lifting, but you get all of the credit.
Of course, you could make homemade puff pastry too, if you want, but I’ve seen enough cooking show fails to know that I’m not going to achieve the perfect balance of layers of butter and dough needed for a successful puff pastry. So, ready-made puff pastry is the way I go.
If you’ve never worked with puff pastry before, it can seem intimidating. But it’s honestly so simple.
You purchase frozen puff pastry in the freezer section at your local grocery store. Each pack comes with two puff pastry sheets folded in the box. You need to thaw puff pastry until it comes to room temperature (which takes about 40 minutes) before you can unfold them and use them.
You can defrost a single sheet or both sheets, depending on what the recipe calls for. If you only need one sheet of puff pastry, just take that one out of the box and put the box and second sheet into the freezer. You don’t want to defrost both of them if you don’t need both of them.
You can use puff pastry in both sweet and savory recipes. This list is filled with simple puff pastry desserts, so get your sweet tooth ready for some delicious puff pastry treats.
If you want to use one sheet of puff pastry for one of the delicious recipes on this list, but you’re looking for a savory recipe for the other sheet, try our very popular Spanakopita Puff Pastry Bites recipe.
Puff Pastry Dessert Recipes
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As we add more delicious dessert recipes using puff pastry to Drugstore Divas, we’ll be sure to update this list. So save it however you save posts (bookmark it, pin it, etc.) and come back from time to time to see what new posts we’ve added.
Elephant Ear Cookies (Palmiers Cookies)
Puff Pastry Palmiers Cookies, also known as Elephant Ear Cookies, are the most classic puff pastry dessert.
You sprinkle the puff pastry dough with a cinnamon sugar mixture, then fold it into cute heart shapes. The way these are folded (sometimes) resemble large elephant ears. That’s where the name came from.
Bake them on a silicone baking mat- or parchment paper-lined baking sheet until the flaky puff pastry is golden brown for a great sweet treat.
Puff Pastry S’mores Bites
If you like s’mores, but you don’t feel like starting a fire to make them, these Puff Pastry S’mores Bites will satisfy that craving. Instead of graham crackers, the flaky pasty is the base of the treat.
You bake the puff pastry alone for a few minutes, then fill the cups with mini marshmallows and mini chocolate chips. Bake until the marshmallows and chocolate are melted and serve warm.
Puff Pastry Cream Cheese Danish
You make the cream cheese mixture, which is easily made from simple ingredients that you probably already have in your house (cream cheese, sugar, lemon juice, egg, and vanilla extract), then place the cream cheese filling on top of the cut puff pastry.
You can add an egg wash around the outside to make the puff pastries look prettier. If you wanted, you could add fresh fruit (fresh berries, fresh strawberries, etc.) on top of the cream before you bake them too.
Puff Pastry Easter Bunnies
If you’re looking for a cute Easter dessert, these Puff Pastry Easter Bunnies are perfect.
Nutella is spread between layers of puff pastry. That’s cut into strips using a pizza cutter, then twisted into a bunny shape. A little bit of icing is added after you bake it to look like a bunny tale.
If you want to make these, but it’s not Eastertime, just call them chocolate puff pastry twists. No one will be thinking they’re bunny shaped if the Easter bunny isn’t also on their mind.
Nutella Puff Pastry Shamrocks
You might need to hang onto this easy recipe until you’re looking for St. Patrick’s Day ideas, but these Nutella Puff Pastry Shamrocks are perfect for St. Patrick’s Day.
A layer of Nutella is spread between the pastry, which is cut and shaped into a shamrock. You add some green sprinkles on top before baking. As they bake, the flaky pastry reveals a cute four-leaf clover in the center of your treat.
Which of these Puff Pastry Dessert Recipes will you make first? Be sure to let us know in the comments.