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Top 38 Sweet Pastry Recipes

Last update: Sun Feb 16 2025
Top 38 Sweet Pastry Recipes
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01

Sweet Pastry

LISBON DISTRICT, Portugal
4.6
Pastel de nata
Pastel de nata infographic
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Flaky, laminated pastry shells filled with a creamy egg yolk custard, flavored with cinnamon, or pastel de nata for short, is the world-famous Portuguese dessert invented by Catholic nuns and monks sometime before the 18th century. The preparation is a lengthy one, and every step should be done with the utmost care.


First, the pastry is made by laminating the dough with butter — however, lard was used before, and margarine is commonly used today. The custard is made with just milk, water, sugar, and egg yolks, and flavored with cinnamon, or in some recipes also with vanilla and lemon, which has the purpose of cutting the sweetness of the custard. 
TIME
  • Preparation time: 1 h 15 min
  • Cooking time: 20 min
  • Total time: 14 h 15 min
02
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One of the true classics of French cuisine, croissants are not at all easy to make, but the result — if done right — is truly worth the trouble. This crescent-shaped pastry is usually made with puff pastry dough, but alternatively, it can also be made with leavened dough.


A classic croissant is on the verge of sweet and savory, and it can either be plain or filled with chocolate, jam, cheese, ham, or raisins, although a filled version could not be considered a true croissant. The process starts with mixing the yeast with some milk and flour and leaving it to rise. 
TIME
  • Preparation time: 50 min
  • Cooking time: 20 min
  • Total time: 6 h 10 min
03

Sweet Pastry

EGYPT and  one more country
4.5
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Often dubbed the queen of Arab sweets, kunāfah or konafa is rather simple to prepare — that is if all the ingredients are available. The process starts with kunāfah dough, which is soaked with butter or sometimes ghee (clarified butter) and divided in half.


The first half is then spread on a round-shaped tin to cover the bottom and the sides. Since there are two ways to serve kunāfah — inverted or straight from the pan — the topping made from chopped pistachios or other nuts, such as almonds and walnuts, is placed on either top or the bottom of the kunāfah. 
TIME
  • Preparation time: 40 min
  • Cooking time: 1 h
  • Total time: 1 h 40 min
04

Sweet Pastry

GAZIANTEP, Turkiye
4.5
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Rich, indulgent, juicy, and flaky at the same time, the Turkish katmer is, without a doubt, a dish you should skip if you are on a diet. The preparation of this satiable dessert starts with kneading some flour, salt, and water into a soft dough: the process is similar to the one used for flatbread (yufka) or baklava, but the main difference is that generous amounts of oil are used.


The dough needs to sit in oil under a wet cloth for one hour, and what happens next is a matter of skill and experience. Flipped in the air and stretched manually until it becomes paper-thin, the dough is spread over a working surface and folded into a traditional form of an envelope. 
TIME
  • Preparation time: 1 h 20 min
  • Cooking time: 15 min
  • Total time: 2 h 35 min
05
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Probably the most famous Swedish food export, kanelbulle or cinnamon rolls, are so revered in their home country they’ve even got their own holiday — each October 4 is celebrated as Kanelbulle Day. They are made with rich, buttery dough that is often flavored with cardamom and filled with butter, sugar, and cinnamon filling.


The rolls, or buns as some call them, can be shaped in many ways and are sprinkled before baking with pearl sugar or cardamom sugar. The cinnamon rolls are usually eaten for a coffee break, or fika as Swedes would call it, and typically paired with coffee.

TIME
  • Preparation time: 1 h 20 min
  • Cooking time: 20 min
  • Total time: 7 h 40 min
06
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This famous dessert consists of three essential components – phyllo dough, a nutty filling, and syrup. As opposed to the simplicity of the ingredients, making the dough is a difficult endeavour that takes some practice to master. Many recipes today will skip the dough-making process entirely and opt for pre-made phyllo sheets instead.


Today, there are numerous different types of baklava with different fillings, but the Turkish original uses pistachios with no added flavorings or spices. Other nutty fillings are used depending on the region, such as walnuts and hazelnuts, which are then paired with spices like cinnamon or cardamom. 
TIME
  • Preparation time: 45 min
  • Cooking time: 1 h 30 min
  • Total time: 2 h 15 min
07

Sweet Pastry

VIENNA, Austria
4.4
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To make the famous Viennese apfelstrudel, two things must be perfect — the dough and the filling. While the type of dough should be either regular strudel pastry, puff pastry, or shortcrust pastry, store bought pastry is also a good substitute.


In addition to spices, the original recipe calls for hazelnuts to be added to the apple filling, but these can be either substituted with a different kind of nut or left out entirely. Another important ingredient in the filling is breadcrumbs, which soak up the juice the apples release during baking and keep the strudel from becoming too soggy. 
TIME
  • Preparation time: 1 h 30 min
  • Cooking time: 50 min
  • Total time: 2 h 20 min
08

Sweet Pastry

HAMBURG, Germany
4.4
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This recipe is published with the permission of The German National Tourist Board.

TIME
  • Preparation time: 30 min
  • Cooking time: 20 min
  • Total time: 1 h 50 min
09
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The layered pastry reminiscent of a sea shell, sfogliatella, is the pride and joy of Italy’s Campania region, with origins in the 17th century when it was supposedly created in the Santa Rosa monastery. Today, there are many kinds of sfogliatella, but Campania boats two varieties: sfogliatella frolla and sfogliatella ricca.


The more famous of the group is sfogliatella ricca which is made with puff pastry, while the less known is sfogliatella frolla which is made with shortcrust pastry. And while making the puff pastry version is very time-consuming and requires a lot of work, the shortcrust pastry sfogliatella is much simpler. 
TIME
  • Preparation time: 2 h
  • Cooking time: 50 min
  • Total time: 29 h 50 min
10
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This crispy sweet is made with laminated dough, meaning the yeast-leavened dough is covered with butter and repeatedly folded over itself, which is a process fairly similar to one used to make puff pastry. Depending on the shape and ingredients, there exist various types of Danish pastry, such as frøsnapper, which is pastry twists sprinkled with sesame and poppy seeds, cinnamon rolls kanelsnegle, and poppy seed rolls tebirkes.


There is also a chocolate bun chokoladebolle, a chocolate-glazed cinnamon roll direktørsnegl, and many more, as this is just the tip of an iceberg. However, the Danish pastry braid and spandauer, a round pastry filled with custard and jam, are the most popular varieties out of the entire Danish pastry family. 
TIME
  • Preparation time: 1 h
  • Cooking time: 30 min
  • Total time: 1 h 30 min
11
Sweet Pastry
DOUARNENEZ, France
4.3
12
13
14
15
16
17
Sweet Pastry
CZECH REPUBLIC
4.2
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
Sweet Pastry
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
4.0
28
29
30
31
Sweet Pastry
BORDEAUX, France
3.9
32
Sweet Pastry
NORTHERN EUROPE
3.9
33
Sweet Pastry
DALMATIA, Croatia
3.9
34
35
36
Sweet Pastry
CALATAFIMI, Italy
3.6
37
Sweet Pastry
GUANGDONG, China
3.4
38
Sweet Pastry
STOCKHOLM, Sweden
n/a

TasteAtlas food rankings are based on the ratings of the TasteAtlas audience, with a series of mechanisms that recognize real users and that ignore bot, nationalist or local patriotic ratings, and give additional value to the ratings of users that the system recognizes as knowledgeable. For the “Top 38 Sweet Pastry Recipes” list until February 16, 2025, 31,903 ratings were recorded, of which 20,876 were recognized by the system as legitimate. TasteAtlas Rankings should not be seen as the final global conclusion about food. Their purpose is to promote excellent local foods, instill pride in traditional dishes, and arouse curiosity about dishes you haven’t tried.