What to use instead of puff pastry
It depends entirely on what it's doing in the dish. Here's the job, what else does it, and what to skip.
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Laminated lift around or under a filling
Water in the butter layers flashes to steam and pushes the dough sheets apart, so the pastry rises into leaves rather than baking as one slab.
Rough puff made from scratchRan out
250 g flour, 250 g cold butter in 1 cm cubes, 1/2 tsp salt, 125 ml ice water, three letter folds with a 20 min chill between each
Rises about two thirds as high as bought all-butter pastry and the layers are uneven. Tastes considerably better.
All-vegetable-fat puff pastryPlant-based
1:1, same sheet size, same oven
Rises just as high. No butter flavour, and the layers set slightly waxy as they cool, so serve it warm.
Phyllo, buttered between the sheetsRan out
8 to 10 sheets, brushed with melted butter between each, per 1 sheet of puff pastry
Shatters instead of flaking, and there is no rise or chew. A sausage roll made this way is crisp all the way through with no soft interior.
Gluten-free puff pastryGluten-free
1:1, straight from frozen into a fully preheated 425F oven
Fewer, shorter layers and a sandier bite. If it thaws on the counter first it slumps and will not rise at all.
What doesn't work: Pie crust. It is shortened rather than laminated, so the fat is dispersed through the dough instead of sitting in sheets. A vol-au-vent case cut from it never opens, and a sausage roll comes out as a greasy flat tube.
Base that stays crisp under a wet topping
The fat in the bottom layers waterproofs the sheet for long enough that juice from the fruit or vegetables cannot soak in before the pastry sets.
Blind-baked pie crustRan out
1:1 by area, blind-baked 15 min at 400F before the filling goes on
Sturdy and short rather than flaky. Better under a tarte tatin than under a mushroom tart, where you miss the lift at the edge.
Phyllo, buttered between the sheetsRan out
6 to 8 sheets, butter between each, per 1 sheet of puff
Crisper and much thinner, so the tart is all topping. Cut it with a serrated knife or it shatters.
Pizza dough rolled thin and dockedRan out
200 g dough rolled to a 10 in round, docked all over, par-baked 8 min at 450F
Chewy and bready. It holds a wet topping better than anything else here and gives you none of the flake.
What doesn't work: Phyllo laid in sheet-for-sheet with no butter between the layers. With nothing holding them apart they wet through and fuse into one damp sheet of paper under the filling, and the tart lifts out in one soggy piece.
Keep it cold right up to the oven door. Butter that has softened smears through the layers and you get pastry that fries rather than puffs.