Easy Puff Pastry Dessert: this dessert will remind you of a homemade version of a Flakie. The perfect combination of pastry, jam, cream, and fresh fruit. It's quick, easy and perfect for guests.

Remember Flakies? My favourite lunch box Vachon treat, I think maybe they're just a Canadian thing? For my American friends, let me explain. When I was kid we often got these these little packaged treats in our lunch boxes There were lots of different varieties, like moon cakes, and caramel filled cakes, but my favourite was a Flakie. It consisted of puff pastry, some kind of icing/whip cream -ish layer, and then jam, followed by a puff pastry lid, coated in a light sugar topping. Yum! .

Easy Puff Pastry Dessert: this dessert will remind you of a homemade version of a flakie, quick, easy and perfect for guests.

Here's my homemade and more grown up version -an easy puff pastry dessert with jam, pastry cream and fresh berries. It's a really quick and easy dessert made with store bought ingredients but guaranteed to impress your guests.

This weekend I made my version for guests and it was a total hit. Not exactly like the flaky version, but really good. It is so easy -like a little bit of a cheaters version easy, so I thought you might want to put it into your own rotation over the holidays if you're looking for a little wow factor, without too much work. 😉

Cheater's Pastry Cream

I made a bit of a cheater's version of pastry cream. Pastry cream is a custard filling used in French pastries. It's a little lighter and thicker than an English custard or custard sauce. We made our cheater's version by combining whipped cream and canned custard. I made homemade whipped cream with sugar and vanilla, and then folded in the canned custard. This makes a beautiful velvety cream more substantial than just whipped cream, but lighter than custard. It's easy to make and really delicious. It's a great addition to lots of different pastries and deserts, and worked wonderfully with our puff pastry desserts.

Different Flavors

I thought it would be fun to create different flavors of our cream and jam pastries. I was guided by what fresh berries were easily available. Strawberry jam with fresh strawberries would be a great one to try too. You could make a version of this dessert with almost any fruit and sweet jam or pie fillings. The combination of the sweet and concentrated jam flavor with the freshness and tartness of the fresh berries works really well together. The fresh fruit really elevates this dessert, and makes it look and taste so wonderful.

puff pastry with jam and whip cream dessert

You can make these puff pastry part of this dessert a day ahead of time and store in an airtight container at room temperature. Assemble the dessert up to a few hours ahead of serving.

Variations

You could also make this dessert with a hazelnut chocolate spread like Nutella. Add some cocoa powder to the whipped cream and pastry cream filling for a chocolate version. Top with strawberries for a great combination, or just sprinkle the top with some powdered sugar.

For a Valentine's Day verison try cutting out your puff pastry with a heart cookie cutter before you bake it. The heart shape is such a cute twist on these delicious desserts for Valentine's Day.

puff pastry with jam and whip cream dessert 046

This is such an impressive dessert, with just a few simple ingredients. These berry and jam puff pastries are the perfect sweet treats for a quick last minute dessert, because they don't take a lot of time or energy to put together and taste so great. They're great with a cup of coffee and the perfect size for afternoon tea. We love the different flaky layers and the creamy sweet filling combined with the tart fresh berries on top. It's a wonderful combination and one of my favourite jam desserts.

Recipe

Easy Puff Pastry Dessert

Flaky puff pastry with custard and fruit.

5 from 1 vote

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Course: Desserts

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 10

Cook Time: 20

Total Time: 30

Servings:

Calories: 441kcal

Author: Dannyelle Nicolle-Ramjist

Ingredients

▢ 2 sheets of frozen puff pastry
▢ 1 teaspoon milk
▢ 1 tablespoon coarse sugar
▢ 473 mL container whipping cream
▢ 1 teaspoon vanilla
▢ 3 teaspoon sugar
▢ 1 cup custard
▢ 6 tablespoon jam -I used blackberry raspberry, and blueberry
▢ ½ pint of berries -I used blackberries raspberries, and blueberries

Instructions

First, defrost your store-bought puff pastry, then roll out each puff pastry sheet. There are two, and cut each sheet of puff pastry into six equal squares with a sharp knife, giving you 12 pieces in total. Brush six with a little milk and sprinkle with coarse sugar. Bake on a baking sheet until golden brown, according to the package directions and then let cool completely on a cooling rack.
Meanwhile, make the cheaters pastry cream. First whip your cream and near the end of whipping add 1 teaspoon of vanilla and 3 teaspoons of sugar. In a small bowl combine about half a can of custard with equal parts whipped cream, save the other whipped cream for the top.
Now to assemble the desserts, lay down a square of puff pastry, and then top with your pastry cream. Spoon 2 tablespoon of jam filling over the cream and then put the lid on. Top that with more whipped cream and the same fruit as the jam you used inside.