Easy pastry recipes with step by step instructions and tons of troubleshooting tips to help you master a variety of pastries!
From choux pastry and puff pastry to shortcrust, pie crust, viennoiserie, and even fried pastries, learn how to make foolproof appetizers, mains, desserts, and so much more with these recipes.
I love making and baking (and eating!) pastry. It’s one of the most therapeutic activities that my ADHD mind thrives on in the kitchen.
While baking cakes was my first love as a kid, I took to bread and pastry making soon after, and I’ve never looked back.
I remember baking perfect little choux pastry puffs as a 7 year old and the thrill it gave me. I even shared my detailed choux pastry troubleshooting post with all those tips I picked up after over three decades of choux baking.
If you love pastries and have always wanted to make them at home but were too intimidated to try, my step by step recipes are for you!
I share detailed recipes along with process shots, troubleshooting tips, recipe FAQs, and even recipe videos, and they have helped so many of my lovely readers make the most foolproof, failproof pastries ever!
So, let me guide you with these step by step easy pastry recipes, and you’ll be crowned pastry queen or king in no time at all!😊
Choux pastry (French pâte à choux) is quite possibly my favorite pastry of all, and I’ve shared a series of easy recipes to help you master this delicate pastry.
It’s my favorite to make because it’s so easy, and it doesn’t use any chemical leaveners (such as baking soda or baking powder or even yeast) to rise.
Instead it uses air and moisture (steam) to rise as you bake it, and it’s a splendidly versatile pastry.
In my choux pastry troubleshooting post and related recipes I answer all the following questions.
Why didn’t my choux puff up (and why did my choux collapse)?
How do I get a hollow interior (and how to fill it)?
Can I make both sweet and savory choux (with different fillings)?
What’s the right dough consistency and how many eggs do I need?
How do I store extra choux pastry shells / can I freeze them?
Easy, intermediate, and advanced variations of choux pastry recipes.
And so much more!
1. How To Make Choux Pastry
Classic choux pastry
The most comprehensive, step by step guide to make foolproof, failproof, light, airy, puffy, crisp, perfect choux pastry with troubleshooting tips found nowhere else!
One of the easiest, quickest, most elegant pastry desserts to make. A light choux pastry puff, filled with light chantilly cream – perfect for any occasion!
A rich, creamy vanilla pastry cream filling inside light, airy, crisp, perfectly baked choux pastry shells, and then drizzled with a luscious chocolate sauce on top.
I share all my tips and step by step instructions to make chocolate choux with cocoa powder and fill it with a light chantilly cream (stabilized, sweetened whipped cream).
A reader-favorite and comprehensive guide to master eclairs and make crisp, puffy, perfect choux pastry shells filled with a rich, creamy pastry cream and dipped in a chocolate glaze.
Perfect choux pastry shells filled with a creamy diplomat cream made with earl grey custard. Delicious as tea time snacks. And make it earl grey tea for bonus points!
Also known as French sugar puffs, these are round, airy choux pastries with a sweet, crunchy pearl sugar topping on the outside. Elegant and simple little morsels of delight!
A show-stopping choux pastry dessert, this recipe features perfectly-shaped, crisp choux pastry rings filled with a rich, praline-flavored creamy filling (creme mousseline). And then topped with sliced almonds (traditionally) or pearl sugar.
If I have a little time on my hands, or I’m making some appetizers or snacks or pies for a dinner party or holiday meal, then puff pastry is my absolute go-to.
While traditional puff pastry can be quite time-consuming for home bakers, there’s a fantastic alternative that absolutely anyone can master – rough puff pastry!
Puff pastry is buttery, layered dough that gives you incredibly lift with lots of layers and crisp flakiness, and rough puff pastry gives you all that and so much more in just 30-40 minutes of your time!
Sounds too good to be true? Check out my popular guide on rough puff pastry and all the easy puff pastry recipes that will help you make show-stopping desserts, appetizers, and meals. In these guides, I cover,
What’s the difference between rough puff and traditional puff pastry?
How to incorporate butter and create extra flaky layers
Why does my puff pastry shrink as I roll it out?
How many folds / turns do I need?
How to store or freeze rough puff pastry dough?
And so much more!
12. How To Make Rough Puff Pastry
Rough puff pastry
A quick and easy rough puff pastry recipe with lots of troubleshooting tips to make deliciously crispy, flaky, buttery puff pastry from scratch in 30 minutes.
As far as easy puff pastry recipes go, they don't come much simpler than this. Puff pastry sheets (store-bought or homemade), sausages, and a sweet or savory jam or jelly spread are all you need.
Sweet, spicy, well seasoned ground pork filling mixed with caramelized apple and roasted fennel spice, wrapped in golden brown, buttery, flaky puff pastry.These are classic pork sausage rolls with a flavor-bending upgrade!
A New Zealand classic, this ultimate breakfast pie features scrambled eggs, hearty whole eggs, thick smoky chunks of bacon, lightly spiced soft leeks, and gooey cheese all encased in buttery, flaky layers of puff pastry.
An easy version of curry samosas that you can make with store-bought puff pastry. Flaky, buttery puff pastry filled with a lightly spiced vegetarian filling of potatoes and peas.
Easy puff pastry recipes are a staple party appetizer, ideal for potlucks and holiday entertaining.Like these mini tarts, featuring pears, creamy & tangy goat cheese, topped with salty prosciutto and sweet honey.
Puff pastry is tailor-made for desserts too. Like these poached pear tarts stuffed with a gooey chocolate filling, and baked atop a buttery, flaky, vol-au-vent style puff pastry case with a frangipane filling, and then covered in a sweet red wine sauce!A show-stopping dessert for the holidays.
This is where bread meets pastry. Yeast-leavened dough (i.e. bread) enriched with butter, eggs, milk (i.e. pastry) to create those delightfully buttery, shatteringly crisp layers of French croissants, or the soft, rich, tender crumb of brioche.
I honed my skills to make beautiful viennoiserie at the Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Arts Institute in Ottawa, and I’ve shared all those tips and knowledge in these recipes.
Many home bakers think this pastry is too advanced, but you only have to look at the thousands of reader reviews on my recipes to know that anyone – with a little time, patience, and planning, can absolutely master this pastry!
In these recipe guides, I cover,
How to know when your dough is done kneading
Why your dough might be too sticky and wet
All about proofing and shaping
Why your croissants may not have layers
Ingredient substitutions
How to store and freeze the dough
And so, so, so much more!
22. How To Make Croissants
Homemade French croissants
Everything you need to know to master French croissants with a small batch recipe tailored to home-bakers with tons of tips, diagrams, pictures, and a recipe video.
Classic pain au chocolat made with a buttery authentic croissant dough and chocolate batons, along with all my tips to shape, proof, bake, and store croissants, and so much more.
A quintessential cross between pastry and bread. Ultra soft, rich, buttery brioche is super versatile. You'll never go back to store-bought once you've tried this enriched pastry at home!
Rich brioche or croissants soaked in a sweet citrusy syrup, and baked with frangipane and sliced almonds on topAn easy yet fancy “French toast” of sorts, perfect for brunch or dinner parties, and can be made for a crowd too.
There’s only a fine line separating shortcrust pastry from pie crust dough (see below). They both typically use the same ingredients; flour, fat (in the form of butter or shortening or lard), and liquid (water).
The difference is mainly in the ingredient ratio and the resulting texture of the baked product.
Shortcrust pastry typically has more flour than fat and could also include eggs, which together make the pastry less flaky (and more crumbly) compared to pie crust.
It’s mainly used to make tart dough, where you could also add sugar for a sweet shortcrust pastry (pâte sucrée) when making sweet tarts. It’s also used to make quiches and sometimes even pies.
So, don’t get hung up on the distinction between shortcrust vs pie crust. They are both made using the same primary ingredients and often used for similar purposes.
With some textural differences that make one preferrable for a particular application over the other.
In the following posts, I show you how to make a variety of easy savory pastries as well as dessert pastry recipes with perfect, failproof shortcrust pastry and pâte sucrée (sweet tart dough).
27. Quiche lorraine
Classic quiche lorraine
Packed with bacon, chives, cheese, and eggs, and baked in a flaky, buttery crust that is so easy to make! Perfect for weekend brunch, and to serve a crowd too.
These bite-sized mini quiches are perfect for snacking and as party appetizers too. Made with shortcrust pastry and canned tuna and an egg custard for the flavor-packed filling.
A buttery, sweet French pastry that is tailor-made for tarts. I share two different ways to make pate sucree, the step by step recipe, and all the troubleshooting tips as well.
Rich, creamy, decadent chocolate ganache tart, with a crisp, bittersweet chocolate pate sucree base. Super simple yet fancy chocolate dessert, perfect for dinner parties and potlucks.
Pie crust dough is typically more flaky than shortcrust pastry (see above) due to a comparatively higher amount of fat over flour.
Pie crust is such a classic pastry that anyone can (and maybe even should) master!
Admittedly, it took me a long time to master pie crusts, but now I can’t even imagine a Thanksgiving or a Christmas without a homemade pie!
My detailed pie crust dough recipe and troubleshooting post is tailored for beginner-bakers that addresses all the common pie dough fails such as,
Why does my pie crust shrink away from the sides
The bottom of the crust is soggy
My pie crust is too tough and chewy, and not flaky
Why does my dough crack or break when rolling it or transferring it
My pie crust did not brown at the bottom
And many more stumbling blocks that come with pie baking!
34. How to make pie crust
Homemade pie crust
Step by step recipe and tutorial on how to make buttery, flaky, perfect pie crust. Developed for beginners (and seasoned pie bakers alike), with lots of troubleshooting tips.
An incredible upgrade on classic apple pie where the buttery, flaky pie crust is filled with an apple filling that's mixed in a spiced and salted butterscotch sauce!
Step by step recipe with tons of tips and flavor variations to make the best pumpkin pie ever! Silky smooth, creamy, spiced pumpkin pie filling and a perfectly baked pie crust.
No undercooking, no overcooking, no watery pie filling, just a perfectly set, creamy, tangy, tropical filling encased in a buttery, flaky homemade pie crust.
Extra jammy, juicy, sweet strawberry galette made with the same easy, forgiving, buttery pie crust. The great thing about galettes is that you don't even need to worry about cracks and leaks, because they contribute to the rustic charm of a free-form pie like this!
For anyone who doesn't want to choose between a buttery, flaky pie crust and a nutty, delicious graham cracker crust!A super flaky pie crust with the flavor of classic graham crackers. Pairs so well with custard pies, cream pies, fruit pies etc.
A layer of caramel, topped with banana custard pudding, layered with fresh bananas and nilla wafers, and topped with more whipped cream.All encased in a uniquely-flavorful, flaky graham flour pie crust.
Step by step churros recipe with lots of tips and troubleshooting to ensure the best churros with a super crunchy crust, and a soft and delicious center.
A step by step recipe and tutorial on how to make doughnuts with a classic vanilla glaze. Deliciously fluffy and airy on the inside and tender on the outside, doughnuts are probably the most well-known fried pastry.
Perfectly cooked doughnuts that are crisp on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside, and filled with a decadent white chocolate pastry cream filling.
A tutorial on how make mini doughnuts with rainbow colored dough, topped with a colorful unicorn glaze. Soft, perfectly sweet, with a hint of citrus flavor, these mini doughnuts are perfect for kids' parties, themed parties, and entertaining.
A slightly spicy, savory, scrumptious fish filling encased in a flaky and buttery crust. You can make the dough with lard or margarine instead of butter too.
Dini Kodippili is a professional food writer, recipe developer, food photographer, cookbook author, and baker. Dini has been featured on HuffPost, Cosmopolitan, Forbes, Delish, Food & Wine and more. Learn More
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Hi! I’m Dini, a third culture kid by upbringing and a food-geek by nature. I was born in Sri Lanka, grew up in New Zealand and lived in Australia, and then the US, before moving to and settling down in Canada. My food is a reflection of those amazing experiences!
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