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12/8/08

What Are Frozen Puff Pastry Shells


For many of my readers this month is a time of holiday parties and gatherings. It's a time of finger foods, appetizers and desserts. While going through my photo files this morning I saw a couple pictures I took of a package of frozen puff pastry shells I bought about a month ago. Maybe today would be a good day to do a "What Are Frozen Puff Pastry Shells?"




There is one overwhelming popular brand for this sort of thing that you'll find in most of your area grocery stores. It's in the frozen food section, near the whipped cream, frozen pie shells, frozen fruit and desserts.

When you open the package you might be surprised to see they are not puffy and simply need reheating, but instead are flat, like a perforated piece of cardboard.



You snap them apart and bake according to directions on the package which includes baking quickly at a very high temperature to help in the raising process of the many, many layers of puff pastry.

When done correctly you end up with a little tiny pastry that is not yet a shell to be filled. Instead, you have to carefully 'scoop' out the center, leaving a tiny little vessel in which to fill with either a savory filing like a mini quiche, tiny little ham and a sauce or even a cream cheese and chive filling, etc. or can also be used for a sweet dessert bite when filled with mousse, pudding, whipped cream, etc.


My personal opinion is that although cute, they are rather greasy for our tastes. I didn't like the taste (very chemical tasting) and thought the greasy layers were just a bit too much for me. I would prefer to whip up a batch of mini cream puffs I think instead, and use those for a delicious mini puff appetizer but in a pinch or if I was serving mini quiche or something savory instead of sweet I would buy these again.Print Friendly and PDF