If you are looking for a tasty pastry-style dessert, these Pistachio Cream Puffs are perfect! Made with easy to find ingredients, there is no fussing with pastry dough, or complicated ingredients. Your guests will love these pretty green desserts.
If you love desserts made with pudding and real whipped cream, these cream puffs are ideal! They are similar to Napoleons, but thanks to the nature of the easy to bake puff pastry, and whipped cream, we thought Pistachio Cream Puffs would be more fitting.
Regardless, these pretty pastel green pastries are totally perfect for your next event, potluck, or holiday celebration!
Why I love these Pistachio Cream Puffs
I love these so much because they are easy to make, and I am all about easy desserts! While I do have a cream puff recipe on the site, these are short cut style pastries that use instant pudding, heavy whipping cream, powdered sugar, and frozen puff pastry dough.
Plus, did I mention how delicious they are? Like, holy wow! If you love pistachio-flavored treats, these are for you! They can be made in the morning, and refrigerated for later in the day!
Ingredients
Puff pastry– One 17.25 box is all you will need!
Heavy whipping cream or whipped topping- 16 ounces works well for this dessert.
Powdered sugar- This fine sugar will sweeten your real whipped cream and provide a sweet dusting for your puff pastry which is not naturally sweet.
Vanilla extract- This provides the whipped cream with a nice taste.
Instant Pistachio Pudding- You can find this in the baking aisle by JELL-O. They are available in 3.4 ounce boxes and require two cups of cold milk to prepare. Whole milk works best in my opinion.
Puff Pastry Tips
Frozen puff pastry is a baking lifesaver. I love working with it for both sweet and savory desserts, but there is a trick to using it.
Do not refrigerate your puff pastry as this can ruin the baking process. Only thaw it from the freezer on the day you plan on baking with it.
When thawing your puff pastry you can take the paper package out of the box. Remove both sheets from the paper package and unfold once just thawed.
You do not want to over thaw which will cause the dough to be warm, sticky, and floppy. It is best to unwrap the dough (in 3 quarters) and cut when it is still slightly firm using a pizza slicer.
To slice, place one sheet of pastry on a large cutting board and unwrap. Remove any paper pieces. Try to cut slices evenly into 9 total squares.
I used a large oven-size baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Since puff pastry does not really spread (they rise upwards) you can line them about 1/2 inch apart.
I bake mine for 13-15 minutes each at 400 degrees Fahrenheit which produces a fluffy, golden brown pastry shell.
Allow the pastry to cool for 5 minutes before gently pulling it apart into two halves.
How to Make Pistachio Cream Puffs
Once whipped cream is made (see recipe card below), add it to a piping bag. I used a large star tip and had to refill my bag multiple times.
I added about 2 tablespoons of pistachio pudding per puff. Then, I piped on a swirl of prepared whipped cream on each.
Then, I carefully topped the pastries with the top puff square, and sprinkled them with a dusting of powdered sugar.
Substitutions
Milk- You can use any milk you prefer. I find whole milk firms up the most.
Pudding- You can really change the pudding to any you prefer. It will change the dessert, but these work well with fresh fruit too. Try these Raspberry Lemon Napoleons.
Cherries- These taste so good with chopped, and drained maraschino cherries mixed into the pudding. You can also layer 3-4 inside the squares.
Storing
These cannot successfully be frozen as a whole dessert. They can however be made in the morning for up to 24 hour consumption. The dough will stay crisp for 24 hours, but starts to get soggy after that. To store in the refrigerator, add puffs in a single-layer to a baking sheet. Cover with multiple layers of plastic wrap and refrigerate. Keep cool until eating since these are made with real whipped cream.
More Tasty Puff Pastry Desserts
Pistachio Cream Puffs
Equipment
- stand mixer
- Pizza Cutter
- parchment paper
- Large Baking Sheet
- Piping Bag
- large star tip
Ingredients
- 17.3 ounces puff pastry dough I used Pepperidge Farms frozen puff pastry dough
- 3.4 ounces pistachio pudding mix
- 2 cups whole milk *to prepare pudding
- 16 ounces heavy whipping cream
- 4 tablespoons powdered sugar divided
Instructions
- Allow puff pastry to full thaw until it is cool and workable.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Slice puff pastry into 9 even squares per sheet.
- Bake puff pastry for 13-15 minutes. Pastry will rise and be golden brown. Be sure not to over bake or the pastry will get scorched bottoms.
- Cool puff pastry for 15 minutes before carefully separating the tops from the bottoms.
- Add whipping cream and 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar to the stand mixer bowl. Whip for 3-5 minutes on high speed or until soft firm peaks appear. Do not over whip or you will be making butter. Place whipped cream in a large piping bag.
- After each puff pastry square is separated, layer the bottom with 2 tablespoons of instant pistachio pudding.
- Pipe whipped cream onto each square. Add the top layer of the puff pastry and sprinkle each with a pinch of powdered sugar. Store in the fridge until ready to eat.
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