Whether you’re planning an elaborate dinner party for friends or entertaining family at the annual holiday gathering, appetizers are an essential menu item that you can get very creative with.
Appetizers are bite-sized delicacies that sharpen your appetite in preparation for the main course.
One of the most versatile and delicate ingredients that can add elegance to your starters is puff pastry dough.
Puff pastry is a crunchy, buttery, and delectably flakey shell for sweet or savory treats. You can find puff pastry snacks as a mainstay of many diverse cuisines.
This makes it easy to find a puff pastry recipe that combines well with your culinary theme.
Also, you can easily find puff pastry dough for sale at your local grocery store as it is widely available, especially as the holiday season approaches.
Puff pastry sheets may be paper-thin, but it doesn’t take an expert chef to manipulate the dough to form perfectly flaky pastry bites that will surely wow at your holiday parties.
Below, we will list the best puff pastry appetizers you can make at home to add a classy and delicious element to your menu.
From American to Greek, our list of 25 puffed pastry appetizer recipes encompasses every area of the culinary globe with something for sweet-tooth’s and salt lovers alike.
The secret weapon for making these impressive appetizers is to use frozen puff pastry, available in the United States at most grocery stores, especially as the fall season approaches.
This easy puff pastry appetizer recipe is like a self-contained spinach-artichoke dip.
You won’t have to spend too much either.
With budget-friendly ingredients like cream cheese, feta, and frozen spinach, you can dress up these spinach puffs with bits of bacon.
These beautifully crafted asparagus tarts use creamy, mild mascarpone mixed with a sharper Boursin cheese to cover the puff pastry base.
Honey, lemon zest, and olive oil is drizzled over the fresh asparagus for a well-rounded flavor making this a tasty pick of puff pastry appetizer recipes.
This delectable mushroom puff pastry appetizer combines meaty mushrooms with a creamy roux that you’ll spoon inside the puff pastry dough rounds, brushing them with an egg wash for a golden brown finish.
You don’t have to pronounce it perfectly to know how to enjoy these lovely, tasteful apps.
This clever recipe turns an all-in-one utterly decadent French sandwich into manageable puff pastry bites that won’t ruin your appetite before the main course.
This recipe for pepper jelly cream cheese pinwheels provides a recipe for homemade pepper jelly, but you can always buy red peppers jelly at the store to streamline the preparation process.
Cream cheese and the sweet and spicy nature of the jelly complement each other perfectly.
Additionally, this recipe blogger has excellent tips on rectifying pesky cracks and tears in your puff pastry sheets so that you won’t waste perfect puff pastry dough due to salvageable imperfections.
If you aren’t familiar with the term Phyllo, it’s a Greek word for puff pastry.
You can buy premade phyllo cups from the store instead of dealing with rolling out and shaping the puff pastry dough yourself for this recipe.
Spinach puff pastry appetizers are famously remembered in The Emperor’s New Groove. Bonus points if you remember “My spinach puffs!”
These rich and comforting sausage ranch phyllo cups recipe combines spicy breakfast sausage with a cool, creamy ranch dressing as a delectable filling.
You can freeze them ahead of time, so your only task on the day of your dinner party is to pop the baking sheet out of the freezer and into the oven.
Amazing tarts for entertaining or a Friday night or Saturday brunch. So versatile.
These customizable mushroom puff pastry appetizers allows you to choose your favorite cheeses to combine with your favorite types of mushrooms.
Mushrooms, cheese, and caramelized onions make for a well-rounded flavor profile to every bite.
If you’re a mushroom pizza lover, this might be a great addition to your craveable faves.
These elegant puff pastry pouches stuffed with bacon, eggs, and cheese would make an excellent appetizer for brunches and breakfast gatherings.
Buttery puff pastry for breakfast or brunch? Yes, please.
Who doesn’t love pigs in a blanket? This breakfast appetizer recipe uses puff pastry dough as a lighter and easier shell than the traditional heavier croissant outer layer.
The recipe is straightforward, making it one of the easy puff pastry appetizers to make. These will be easy appetizers well received on game day, I promise you.
Bacon makes everything better. This easy puff pastry appetizer creates the kind of cheddar cheese straws you only see at fancy restaurants.
The golden brown finish will definitely wow at your next dinner party.
Serve these crunchy, comforting pizza puff pastry bites at your next super bowl party.
With only 5 ingredients, this easy puff pastry appetizer is one of our best easy finger foods.
It’s really just an excuse to get pizza ingredients into a flaky butter puff pastry.
This savory pastry takes on the famous Greek dish, Spanakopita, a feta and spinach quiche with a puff pastry crust rolled into bite-size pinwheels.
15. Lobster Newburg
If you want to impress your party guests, here’s a challenge: Savory ingredients and flaky dough appetizer recipe that bathes lobster meat in cognac cream sauce.
Just for the record, you can use that leftover white sauce on eggs the next morning. Yum!
Just as sliced pears often appear on cheese plates to balance strong fontina cheese and tangy goat cheese flavors, this easy puff pastry recipe combines pear slices and creamy, rich brie to bake over buttery, flaky puff pastry dough.
A twist of black pepper before serving is a great way to add a nice bite, too.
You can customize this easy savory puff pastry tart with the seasonal veggie of your choice and substitute the ham for chicken or skip the meat altogether.
This recipe ensures you leave your puff pastry at room temperature before use and provides helpful tips for handling puff pastry dough.
Get out your rolling pin for this one.
Sweet roasted garlic combines beautifully with gorgonzola and mozzarella cheeses in this flavorful herb-sprinkled flatbread recipe.
Parmesan cheese finisher is always a bonus.
This simple puff pastry recipe mixes luscious crab meat with cream cheese in this classic Chinese appetizer dip that you wrap in puff pastry squares instead of traditional wonton wrappers.
Inspired by the tangy, refreshing Mexican cocktail, these puff pastry bites use tequila and plenty of lime juice to marinate the shrimp.
This easy puff pastry recipe puts a southwestern twist on a classic comfort food recipe by adding green chiles to these individual mini-pot pies.
If you’re looking for a challenge, these extravagant and complex mini lobster pot pies fit the bill for the most elegant appetizer.
These puff pastry pinwheels offer a simple alternative to crab cakes that don’t sacrifice flavor, making it one of the more unique seafood appetizers with puff pastry sheets.
These hearty and flavorful double meat puff pastry pouches are easy to make and can be enjoyed as appetizers or main courses.
A large batch of these may be required as hands come at your platter before you can make it out of the kitchen.
These savory and rich puff pastry snacks feature golden brown crispy pastry cups stuffed with a cremini mushroom, white wine, filled with smoked gouda and melted.
With some parchment paper and a baking sheet, these delicate mushroom tarts come out of the oven ready to serve.
This caramelized onion puff pastry appetizer is going down in history.
The bottom line
If you’re looking for an appetizer that’s sweet, savory or both, one of these savory recipes will be a perfect choice as quick appetizers.
With creative twists to traditional appetizers, they are sure to leave your dinner guests, friends, or family fully satisfied.
Did you choose your favorite appetizer from our list above?
While the world is still hoping that phyllo dough becomes as easy to use as crescent roll dough in the can, we aren’t quite there yet, so don’t substitute this unless the recipe gives you directions for doing so.
25 Practically Perfect Puff Pastry Appetizers
What is it about buttery, flaky puff pastry that makes every recipe into an event? We have 25 puff pastry appetizers to inspire your next get-together.
Ingredients
- Cranberry Creamy Brie Cheese Bites
- Spinach and Cheese Puffs
- Asparagus Puff Pastry Tarts
- Mushroom Vol Au Vent
- Mini Croque Monsieur
- Pepper Jelly Cream Cheese Pinwheels
- Spinach Phyllo Cup Appetizers
- Sausage Ranch Phyllo Cups
- Mushroom Tart
- Egg and Bacon Puff Pastries
- Pigs in a Puff Pastry Blanket
- Bacon Cheddar Straws
- Pepperoni Pizza Pastry Puffs
- Spinach Feta Pinwheels
- Lobster Newburg
- Pear and Brie Tart
- Ham and Asparagus Puff Pastry Tart
- Roasted Garlic Puff Pastry Flatbread
- Crab Rangoon Mini Pastry Puffs
- Margarita Shrimp Bites
- Green Chile Chicken Hand Pies
- Lobster Pot Pie Puffs
- Crab Puff Pastry Pinwheels
- Chicken Chorizo Puff Pastry Rolls
- Mushroom Tarts
Instructions
- Choose your new favorite puff pastry appetizer from our list.
- Pick up a few packages of Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry or any other high quality brand.
- Bake to your heart’s content and enjoy!