Puff Pastry substitute

Best substitute

Rough puff pastry (homemade)

Use the same amount by weight as the puff pastry you are replacing

Best for tarts

Close match

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.

Other puff pastry substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Phyllo (filo) dough, stacked and buttered
Taste and texture differ
Use 6-8 sheets for every 1 puff pastry sheet
Brush every sheet with melted butter and stack them, then use the stack as you would a rolled sheet of puff pastry.
What changes
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.
3Refrigerated crescent roll dough or canned biscuit dough
Taste and texture differ
Use 1 tube (about 8 oz) for every 1 sheet
Unroll, press the perforations together into a single sheet, and use immediately while cold.
What changes
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.
4Pie crust or shortcrust (pate brisee)
Different texture
Use the same amount by area
Store-bought rolled crust or homemade shortcrust, used as a base or a lid in place of the puff pastry sheet.
What changes
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.
5Spring roll or egg roll wrappers
Taste and texture differ
Use 2 wrappers for every portion, brushed with butter
Brush with melted butter or oil, wrap the filling, and bake at 400F until deep golden.
What changes
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.
6Pizza dough or bread dough, rolled thin
Taste and texture differ
Use 8 oz dough for every sheet
Roll as thin as it will go, brush generously with melted butter, and bake hot.
What changes
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.

What is Puff Pastry?

Puff Pastry is Puff pastry, or pate feuilletee, is a dough made of hundreds of paper-thin layers of flour dough alternating with solid butter, which steam apart in a hot oven into a tall, crisp, flaky pastry.

Cooking tips

Puff pastry's job is mechanical, not flavour. The lift comes from water in the butter turning to steam and forcing hundreds of layers apart, which means any substitute that is not layered will not rise, and no amount of extra butter fixes that.
Whatever you swap in, keep it cold and bake it hot. A 400 to 425F oven is what sets the layers; a moderate oven just melts the fat out and leaves you a greasy, flat base.
If you use phyllo, brush every single sheet with melted butter and keep the stack covered with a damp towel while you work. Those two habits are the whole difference between crisp layers and dry paper.
For rough puff, grate the butter frozen on a box grater and stop mixing while you can still see visible flakes. Visible butter is the entire point.
Thaw frozen puff pastry in the fridge overnight, not on the counter. Warm sheets tear at the folds and the butter smears into the flour, which is exactly what kills the rise.

Frequently asked questions

Can I just leave the puff pastry out?

Not if it is the structure of the dish, which it usually is. The better move is to change the dish rather than bake without a base: a tart becomes a crustless bake, a pot pie gets a biscuit or mashed potato topping, and sausage rolls become meatballs. All three are better than a filling with nothing holding it together.

Is phyllo the same as puff pastry?

No. Phyllo (also spelled filo) is unleavened tissue-thin sheets with no butter in the dough, so you butter it yourself as you stack it. Puff pastry has butter laminated into the dough in layers. Phyllo goes crisp and flaky; puff pastry goes crisp and tall. Use phyllo where you want crunch and skip it where you need height.

Can I use pie crust for vol-au-vents or palmiers?

Not for vol-au-vents, which are entirely dependent on the rise to make the hollow case. Palmiers sort of work: you get crisp caramelised sugar crackers rather than curled layers, which is pleasant but not the same thing.

What is the difference between puff pastry and rough puff?

The method. Classic puff pastry encloses a solid block of butter in dough and folds it six or more times to build very even layers. Rough puff grates or cubes the butter into the flour first and folds four or five times. Rough puff rises about three-quarters as high with less regular layers, which nobody notices in a turnover and everyone notices in a mille-feuille.

Can I use crescent roll dough instead of puff pastry?

Yes, for savoury wrapped things like sausage rolls and hand pies. Expect a soft, bready lift rather than crisp layers, and notice that it is sweeter and saltier than puff pastry, so cut back any sugar or sweet glaze the recipe calls for.

Related substitutes

More baking substitutes

Puff Pastry substitute

Other puff pastry substitutes

2Phyllo (filo) dough, stacked and buttered

3Refrigerated crescent roll dough or canned biscuit dough

4Pie crust or shortcrust (pate brisee)

5Spring roll or egg roll wrappers

6Pizza dough or bread dough, rolled thin