38 Pastry Recipes From Around The World That You Can Make At Home (2024)

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 sound fancy, but don't be intimidated. They're basically just little ice cream-filled, chocolate-covered puffs of goodness.

Get the Profiteroles recipe.