We Style-Examined 6 Retailer-Purchased Puff Pastries—This One Was the Clear Winner

Home made puff pastry is a labor of affection. Making it requires laminating—encasing a block of butter in dough, then rolling and folding it over itself repeatedly—to create quite a few layers that bake into crisp, flaky pastry. For that cause, most individuals choose to go the store-bought route after they want some to make an appetizer, elegant entrée (good day, beef Wellington!), or spectacular dessert. The query is: Which model is value shopping for?

To search out the perfect puff pastry, our editors taste-tested six extensively obtainable manufacturers you are more likely to discover at your native grocery retailer. We baked them in line with bundle instructions and sampled them in random order, with out figuring out which was which, then tabulated the outcomes and topped an total winner and a runner-up.

The Standards

Puff pastry needs to be crisp and flaky. It ought to have quite a few layers and a wealthy, buttery taste. The pastry needs to be impartial sufficient to pair with all kinds of flavors, however should not be bland—nor ought to it’s overly candy or salty. When baked, it needs to be good and lightweight, and mustn’t come throughout as greasy. I might even go as far as to say that puff pastry needs to be scrumptious sufficient that you simply’d fortunately eat it by itself, sans toppings or sauces.

General Winner

Dufour Puff Pastry Dough

This puff pastry was a success with virtually all of our tasters—it was the highest choose for all however one of many tasters,who all commented on how buttery it tasted. “Crisp, tender, good,” our editorial director, Daniel, famous. “I style butter!” Equally, our affiliate editorial director, Megan, appreciated that it was “good and buttery,” with good flakiness. Each Daniel and Megan named it their clear favourite total, as did visuals editor Jessie and our affiliate culinary editor, Laila. Jessie appreciated that it was rich-tasting, whereas Laila appreciated that it had a “good quantity of salt.”

Runner-Up

Dealer Joe’s All Butter Puff Pastry Sheets

Nearly each editor loved this puff pastry—simply not fairly as a lot as they liked our winner above. “The butter taste is not as pronounced as my total winner, but it surely’s there,” Daniel famous, rating this one simply behind Dufour. Like Daniel, Megan—who additionally put it in second place on her record behind Dufour—thought this pastry had “good texture, however not fairly as properly buttery” as our successful puff pastry. Jessie described its texture as “very, very flaky,” whereas our affiliate visuals director, Amanda, loved its “good and buttery style.” Although Laila appreciated its crisp exterior, she thought it was a contact too chewy. 

The Contenders

• 365 by Complete Meals Market Puff Pastry
• Dufour Puff Pastry Dough
• JusRol Puff Pastry
• Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry Sheets
• Dealer Joe’s All Butter Puff Pastry Sheets
• Style of Inspirations Puff Pastry Dough

Key Takeaways and Conclusion

Historically, puff pastry is made with only a handful of components: flour, butter, water, salt, and an acidic part, corresponding to vinegar or lemon juice. Our winner, Dufour Puff Pastry Dough, is one in all solely two manufacturers that make their puff pastry with butter. It’s also the one model that specifies the grade of butter used—USDA Grade AA butter, the best doable normal within the US—and the one product that lists butter as its first ingredient. Dufour’s puff pastry is made with simply 5 components: butter, flour, water, salt, and lemon juice. 

Our runner-up, Dealer Joe’s All Butter Puff Pastry Sheets, is the one different model that makes use of butter of their dough and, like Dufour, makes their pastry with simply 5 components: flour, butter, water, distilled vinegar, and sea salt. If you cannot discover Dufour, it is a nice possibility. It was additionally a cut price, at $5.49 in comparison with Dufour’s $11.99.

General, our editors strongly most well-liked puff pastry made with actual butter. Different manufacturers we sampled use vegetable shortening, palm oil, canola oil, soybean oil, and/or hydrogenated cottonseed oils. Although these components could also be excessive in saturated fat—which is nice for producing flaky layers—they lack the wealthy taste of butter, which was a transparent draw back for our tasting panel. Some additionally tasted barely bitter, which may occur when oils grow to be rancid. For these causes, we advocate in search of puff pastry made with butter. 

Our Testing Methodology

All style checks are performed with manufacturers utterly hidden and with out dialogue. Tasters style samples in random order. For instance, taster A might style pattern one first, whereas taster B will style pattern six first. That is to stop palate fatigue from unfairly giving anybody pattern a bonus. Tasters are requested to fill out tasting sheets, rating the samples in line with varied standards. All knowledge is tabulated, and outcomes are calculated with no editorial enter to offer essentially the most neutral illustration of precise outcomes doable.