German Puff Pastry with Pudding and Fruit

In Germany you find many pastries that are made out of puff pastry dough, we call it “Blätterteig” as it is flaky and comes in many layers. Learn today how to make the German puff pastry with pudding and fruit.
Here’s more about this special dough:
Puff pastry dough is not quite the same as “phyllo dough” which is used in baking European pastries and filled pies, especially in the Greek and Middle Eastern cuisine. The phyllo dough is available in the frozen food section of most grocery stores, with alternative spellings of “filo,” and “fyllo”. Wholefoods and Trader Joe’s carry puff pastry sheets in their frozen section. Also check out the brand Dufour  – More product  info here – 

Quality counts
In any case choose quality and choose the all-butter puff pastry for superior taste and texture. This type provides a richer flavor compared to those made with vegetable shortenings or margarine.

How to handle the Puff Pastry Dough
You will find instructions of the most commercial phyllo on its packaging. Here are some valuable tips:

 Frozen Puff Pastry Dough:
– Don’t open the package before it is defrosted.
– The best is to keep it overnight in the fridge, or thaw at room temperature for at least 5 hours.
– Have all your ingredients ready before opening the thawed sheets.
– The best is to have dry hands when handling the dough.
– It’s very good when the dough is at room temperature before you use it.

– Carefully unroll the sheets – here’s a trick how to do it (or watch the video below):
Cover the unrolled phyllo with a sheet of waxed paper covered by a damp towel to keep it moist. It dries out very quickly.
– As you remove one sheet at a time, cover the remainder.
– If the dough should tear it’s easy to patch pieces together by using a middle layer of the pastry. It’s not showing in the baked product.
– For cutting the dough  use scissors or a pizza cutter but not a knife.

Ingredients German Puff Pastry

(makes 8 pastries)
1 package frozen or fresh puff pastry dough sheets like from Trader Joe’s
1 sachet unsweetened vanilla pudding – Find it here on Amazon –
400 ml milk
40 g sugar
1 can (250 g), mandarins, peaches or apricots
alternatively  you can use fresh or frozen blue berries or cherries
powdered sugar, lemon juice as needed
some egg white

Baking Instructions German Puff Pastry

– Defrost the dough sheets per instructions. The German recipe asks to place the sheets on a baking tray that is layered with parchment paper.
– If you use fresh dough: Handle the dough per instructions  and place directly on a baking tray layered with parchment paper.

– Make the pudding per instructions but use only 400 ml milk. Add sugar to taste
– Cut the dough into even square or rectangle pieces. The square pieces have 4 corners, the rectangle pieces 2. For the rectangle pieces use 2 fruit halves.
The photo shows rectangle pieces.
– Spread 2 tbsp pudding each on the dough sheets, start from one corner down to the other one.
– Add the fruit, depending what fruit you are using, it can be 2 pieces or more for the smaller fruit.
– Take the corners and fold them towards the middle as shown on the photo.

– Bake the pastries per baking instructions as provided on the package.
– After they are done dust them with some powdered sugar.

How to Make Puff Pastry Dough from Scratch

recipe/photo source