Puff pastry substitutes

Grate frozen butter into flour with salt, add just enough ice water to bring it together, then roll and fold four or five times. About 30 minutes including chilling.

Best for

tarts, turnovers, palmiers, sausage rolls, pot pie lids

Rises roughly three-quarters as high as a properly laminated pastry and the layers are less even, which is invisible in a turnover and noticeable in a mille-feuille. Because you control the fat, it usually tastes better than a supermarket sheet made with oil. Stop mixing while you can still see flakes of butter; a smooth dough is shortcrust.

Brush every sheet with melted butter and stack them, then use the stack as you would a rolled sheet of puff pastry.

Best for

strudel, layered tarts, baked brie, wrapped bites, tomato tart

Shatteringly crisp and much lighter, but there is no rise at all, so a vol-au-vent or a tall sausage roll will not work. A wrapped filling comes out tight and thin rather than puffed. Unbuttered phyllo bakes into paper, and uncovered phyllo cracks within about two minutes, so keep the stack under a damp towel.

Unroll, press the perforations together into a single sheet, and use immediately while cold.

Best for

sausage rolls, pigs in blankets, savoury hand pies, quick pot pie lids

The chemical leavening gives a soft, bready lift instead of crisp shattering layers, so the result is more like a scone wrapper than a pastry. It is also noticeably sweeter and saltier than puff pastry, so pull back on any sugar or sweet glaze in the recipe.

Store-bought rolled crust or homemade shortcrust, used as a base or a lid in place of the puff pastry sheet.

Best for

quiche, fruit tarts, pot pie, galettes, quiche Lorraine

Sturdy, crumbly-tender and short rather than layered. It stays completely flat, so anything meant to rise will not, but it holds wet fillings far better than puff pastry and is much less prone to a soggy bottom. The best choice for a custard or fruit tart.

Brush with melted butter or oil, wrap the filling, and bake at 400F until deep golden.

Best for

small baked parcels, canapes, savoury hand pies, cheese bites

Very crisp and neutral, and they brown fast, so watch them. They contribute almost no fat or flavour of their own and give no lift whatsoever, so the result reads as a crisp shell rather than a pastry. Excellent for small bites, wrong for anything that needs to look like pastry.

Roll as thin as it will go, brush generously with melted butter, and bake hot.

Best for

sausage rolls, calzone-style hand pies, stuffed savoury rolls

The least-bad option when nothing else is available and the recipe just needs something wrapped around a filling. It is chewy and bready with no flake at all, and the yeast flavour is obvious. Buttering the surface before baking gets you a little richness but never layers.