38 Pastry Recipes From Around The World
Skip the bakery trip and make all your favorites at home.
If you’re like us, you’ve got a favorite local coffee shop or cafe, where the atmosphere is welcoming, the coffee is always great, and the pastries… oh, the pastries! While simple, classic options like banana bread or peanut butter cookies are staples, what we really get excited for are the mysteriously buttery and flaky options full of unexpected and unfathomable flavors and textures. We’re here to tell you, should you be up for the challenge, they’re totally achievable at home. In fact, with a little patience and creativity, you can make a variety of these sweet desserts from around the world, right in your own kitchen. Check out our 38 pastry recipes for ideas—you might just discover some new favorites among them.
Pretty much anywhere you could travel to will have their own variety of region-specific pastries that they’ve been known for for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. French pastries are some of the most well-known, and we’ve got recipes for all the classics here. Well-laminated dough (meaning it has had butter folded into it several times) is a lengthy, multi-day process, so we’ve admittedly taken some shortcuts to make some of them more achievable at home. Check out our shortcut croissants, macarons, madeleines, beignets, and profiteroles. Looking to expand your pastry knowledge? Try our Middle Eastern ma’amoul cookies, our Italian zeppole, our Jewish sufganiyot, our Mexican concha, our Japanese mochi, or our Chinese mooncakes. Remember—pastry chefs can take years to master these recipes, so if yours don’t turn out perfectly the first time, don’t stress! Pastries are as much about the process as they are about the end result, so enjoy the journey.
And don’t think it’s just sweets. Traditional pastry methods can translate to some very tasty savory options too, like Indian samosas, Turkish borek-inspired scrunch bread, Jewish potato knish, Greek spanakopita, and Chinese baozi (steamed buns). The great thing about these recipes is that once you’ve got their basic concept down, you can get as creative as you like with the fillings.
Want more dessert inspiration? Check out our favorite cookie recipes, our favorite pies, and our top dessert bars too.
Fast(er) Homemade Croissants
There's really no such thing as a quick croissant, but this recipe is about as fast as they come. The dough is basically a borrowed pie crust technique, cutting large chunks of cold butter into flour and skipping the intimidating traditional laminating process.
Get the Fast(er) Homemade Croissants recipe.
Homemade Samosas
We almost never order Indian food without getting some samosas along with it, and good news: They aren't hard to make at home! The spiced potato filling is quick and easy, and the dough comes together fast using melted ghee. The crust is sturdy, but still fries up extra crisp and shatter-y. 😍
Get the Homemade Samosas recipe.
Cheese Danish
A danish is a type of laminated dough—in other words, dough that has had butter folded into it several times—but to help make the process a little more straightforward, we borrow from our croissant recipe, which relies on a “rough” puff pastry. These have warm, buttery, flaky layers and a just-sweet-enough cream cheese filling that make the effort SO worth it.
Get the Cheese Danish recipe.
Spanakopita Spinach Pies
Spanakopita is a popular savory Greek spinach pie frequently served as cut pieces from a whole slab pie, but we made individual pockets to save you the waiting time between baking, cooling, then slicing. As soon as they pop out of the oven, they're ready to be plated and devoured by your hungry guests, no knives necessary.
Get the Spanakopita Spinach Pies recipe.
Zeppole
Say ciao to your new favorite Italian treats, zeppole! (Fun fact: One donut is called a zeppola, while zeppole is plural.) These tiny donuts are fried until perfectly golden brown, then tossed in an orange sugar (or powdered sugar, if you prefer).
Get the Zeppole recipe.
Walnut and Pistachio Baklava
Sticky and rich, baklava is a Turkish and Greek dessert made of layered sheets of phyllo dough, nuts, spices, sugar, and/or honey. Our version uses walnuts and pistachios, but feel free to use whichever nuts you like the most.
Get the Walnut and Pistachio Baklava recipe.
Sufganiyot (Jelly Donuts)
This lightly fried, gorgeous Jewish pastry serves as a reminder that life can be sweet sometimes—which is exactly why we make it exclusively for the most festive of Jewish holidays. You can really fill the donuts with whatever filling makes you happy...as long as it's sweet.
Get the Sufganiyot (Jelly Donuts) recipe.
French Madeleines
Madeleines are French butter cakes that can carry whatever flavoring you add to them. This recipe uses browned butter and almond extract for extra nuttiness with orange zest instead of the traditional lemon zest to add a pop of brightness and color.
Get the French Madeleines recipe.
Tomato Galette
This tomato galette uses an herb-speckled, savory pie crust and is topped with ripe heirloom tomatoes and fresh ricotta for an extremely easy yet impressive looking dish. Serve it for a light summer dinner or as an appetizer at your next outdoor party.
Get the Tomato Galette recipe.
Concha Bread
Conchas are a traditional Mexican pastry with a chocolate- or vanilla-flavored seashell design. These pan dulce (meaning sweet bread in Spanish) is kind of like the brioche of Mexico.
Get the Concha Bread recipe.
Mochi
Mochi is a sweet, chewy rice pastry that hails from Japan. Traditionally made from cooked and pounded rice, mochi are also easily made with rice flour. Here, each ball is filled with a sweet red bean paste, but you're just as likely to see ice cream, a matcha green tea filling, or black sesame paste inside mochi.
Get the Mochi recipe.
Potato Knishes
Brought to the city by Eastern European (mostly Ashkenazi Jewish) immigrants at the turn of the 20th century, knishes quickly rose in popularity among working class New Yorkers. These hearty pastries—mashed potatoes, studded with bits of caramelized onion, enveloped in a thin crust—accomplished three things very well. They were delicious, they were filling, and they were extremely cheap. Now you can make them at home!
Get the Potato Knishes recipe.
Scrunch Bread
This Turkish borek-inspired recipe gets its name from "scrunched"-up layers of phyllo and a spanakopita-esque filling that result in a stunning, pleated spiral shape. Fresh dill, feta, and spinach make it a grand slam you can enjoy any time of day.
Get the Scrunch Bread recipe.
Ma'amoul
Ma’amoul cookies are a type of Middle Eastern pastry that are usually filled with a variety of dried fruits or nuts. Made with semolina flour, the shortbread-like exterior has a slight crunch to it, giving way to a softer filling. While these are especially popular during the holidays, they can be enjoyed all year round.
Get the Ma'amoul recipe.
Cheesy Beef Empanadas
This filling is loosely based on a very traditional Mexican (top-secret!) recipe. It’s delicious as is, but if you want to give it even more pizzaz, we highly recommend adding a splash of red wine vinegar, finely chopped capers and green olives, and a good squeeze yellow mustard. Once you've got the pastry down, you can pretty much stuff them with anything!
Get the Cheesy Beef Empanadas recipe.
Easy French Macarons
These delicate French pastries are somehow simultaneously crispy, chewy, soft, and light as air. This makes them the perfect blank canvas for creative flavors and colors. Make sure all your ingredients are room temperature to achieve the greatest success.
Get the Easy French Macarons recipe.
Galette De Rois
While king cake is made of a yeasted dough rolled with a cinnamon sugar filling, galette de rois is made of puff pastry sheets filled with almond frangipane and jam. Prior to baking, the puff pastry is scored and egg washed, giving the final pastry a beautiful golden hue.
Get the Galette De Rois recipe.
Tarte Tatin
This classic tart construction relies on fruit being laid over caramel, then topped with puff pastry. The caramel might be a little tricky, but we promise going low and slow and resisting the urge to stir is the way to make sure that you have the perfect caramelized bottom.
Get the Tarte Tatin recipe.
Fruit Tart
The mascarpone filling is light, slightly tart, and just sweet enough to pair well with the apricot preserve-glazed fruit of your choice. Bonus: The shortbread-like crust here gets pressed in rather than rolled out, which makes it no-fuss and stress-free.
Get the Fruit Tart recipe.
Profiteroles
Profiteroles sound fancy, but don't be intimidated. They're basically just little ice cream-filled, chocolate-covered puffs of goodness.
Get the Profiteroles recipe.
