Joy the Baker

French Onion Pastry Puffs

by 93 Comments

French Onion Pastry Puff Bites

There are two phrases that when placed together make me rrreeaaalllyy nervous:  “It’s cool.  There’s a method to my madness.”

No.  There seems to be no method at all.  Mostly I just think that your pot is about to boil over, you’re about to burn me and everyone in the room with that hot glue gun, please put that staple gun down, and your new parallel parking technique is totally not working out.

I say this with kindness… mostly because I’m talking to myself.  If you ever hear me say “there’s a method to my madness” you should run, because the oven is probably about to explode.  Wait… maybe there is a method.

Mostly there’s just a madness to my madness.  Let’s be real.

French Onion Pastry Puff Bites

Original photography shot with the Canon EOS 5D Mark III digital SLR. The filmmaker’s camera.

I assume that there’s going to be a method to your Thanksgiving meal-prep madness this week.  It’s totally a balancing act.  The turkey goes in at a certain hour.  The basting is thorough and often.  The mashed potatoes will have extra butter.  Someone will burn the marshmallows on top of the sweet potato casserole (most likely my sister).  It’s all so precarious.

These French Onion Pastry Puffs are my effort to help you get ahead.  They’re little appetizer bites that can be made ahead of time and kept frozen until ready to bake.

They are like little flakey biscuits with French Onion Soup filling inside.  Soooo delicious.  When eaten in moderation they should not at all interfere with mashed potato and stuffing consumption.

French Onion Pastry Puff Bites

Onions + salt and pepper + a big pinch of sugar + butter and olive oil + fresh thyme + beef broth (or beer or wine or whatevs).

French Onion Pastry Puff Bites

The smell of onion cooking in butter and olive oil could be a perfume.  You’d wear it, right?

French Onion Pastry Puff Bites

Patience with these onions.  Let them really cook down over medium heat.  They shouldn’t burn, but they will wilt and yield to the heat, salt, sugar, and broth.

I insist on using all-butter puff pastry.  It’s more expensive, but you know where your fats are coming from and the flavor is supreme.

I also cut out my little puffs as circles using a 1 1/2-inch biscuit cutter.  This comes at a cost.  Some puff pastry scraps were left over and I was unable to reuse them.

If you’d like to make this recipe as rectangles, you’ll get more out of the batch.  Use these instructions found with the Bite-Sized Baked Brie Bites.

French Onion Pastry Puff Bites

Let’s layer these flavors.

First, egg wash.  This will help the pastry stick to itself.

Next, a tiny smear of whole grain mustard.

Up next, caramelized onions!

French Onion Pastry Puff Bites

Gruyère goes on top of the caramelized onions!

Just a small pinch of each flavor.  No need to overstuff.

French Onion Pastry Puff Bites

The egg wash will act like glue in sticking the two pieces of puff together, but these little suckers will fluff up like you wouldn’t believe!  We need some extra sealing security.  A good crimp with a fork will do the trick!

French Onion Pastry Puff Bites

Now the question is, how much convincing do you need?  We’ve combined buttery puff pastry with caramelized onions and sharp Gruyère cheese.  Do I need to twist your arm any further?

These bites can be assembled, placed on a parchment lined baking sheet, and frozen.  Once they’re chilled through you can remove them from the baking sheet and place them in an airtight bag.  Bake from frozen or thaw in the refrigerator and bake from chilled.  You can also bake these off, and freeze them once baked.  They reheat very easily in the oven.  Whatever works for you and your holiday madness!

French Onion Pastry Puffs

makes 12 puffs

Print this Recipe!

For the Onions:

2 medium yellow onions, peeled cut in half and sliced into 1/4-inch thick semi-circles

3 tablespoon unsalted butter,softened, plus more for buttering the bread

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 scant teaspoon coarse sea salt

1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves

1/2 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper

pinch of granulated sugar

3 tablespoons beef broth, beer, or white wine to deglaze the pan

For the Puffs:

2 9×9-inch sheets all-butter puff pastry, thawed but still cold

1 large egg, beaten

2 tablespoons whole grain mustard

1/3 cup finely grated Gruyère cheese

Place a medium, heavy bottom sauce pan over medium heat.  Add the butter and olive oil and stir until butter is melted.  Add the sliced onions all at once.  Stir to coat the onions in the fat.  Allow onions to cook, undisturbed, for about 4 minutes.  Add salt, thyme, pepper, and sugar, and stir.  Place lid on the pan and allow to onions to cook for about 4 minutes at a time.  Lower the heat if the onions are browning too quickly.  Remove the lid to stir the onions every so often.  The onions will begin to brown, break down, and resemble an onion jam.

When onions are entirely browned and completely soft, add your liquid (beef broth, beer, wine, or water) to the pan.  Using a wooden spoon, scrape any burned bits off the bottom of the pan as the liquid evaporates.  This takes about 30 seconds.  Remove pan from heat and allow to rest while you assemble the ingredients for the pastry puffs.

Unfold the thawed puff pastry on a lightly floured work surface.  Use a rolling pin to roll out the pastry about 1/2-inch on all sides. Use a 1 1/2-inch round cookie cutter to cut circles out of the pastry.  Two sheets should produce at least 24 pastry rounds.

Brush each round lightly with beaten egg.  Top 12 of the pastry rounds with a tiny smear (about 1/8 teaspoon) mustard.  Top the mustard with about 1 teaspoon caramelized onions and 1/2 teaspoon grated cheese.

Carefully place the remaining pastry puffs atop the onion and cheese mixture, brushed egg side down.  Pinch ends closed with your fingers, them use the tines of a fork to more securely press the pastry together.

(These bites can be assembled, placed on a parchment lined baking sheet, and frozen.  Once they’re chilled through you can remove them from the baking sheet and place them in an airtight bag.  Bake from frozen or thaw in the refrigerator and bake from chilled.  If baking from frozen, add 3 to 5 minutes to the baking time.  You can also bake these off, and freeze them once baked.  They reheat very easily in the oven.)

Place a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Place pastry on the prepared sheet and brush lightly with egg.  Prick the top of each pastry with the tines of a fork for ventilation.  Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until puffed and golden brown.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool for at least 15 minutes before serving.  These are lovely served warm, but are also delicious at room temperature.  

 

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. ROBERTA FLANNERY

    I was repelled by the disgusting exterminator ad on your website, right in the middle of the delicious-sounding recipe for French onion puffs.
    While I recognize that rodents and roaches exist everywhere, exterminator ads with photos of mice do not belong on a website featuring food.

    Reply

  2. Nelle

    It would be helpful if the comments were made by those who have actually tried the recipe, which I have. Not only do these puffs have eye appeal, they are wonderfully delicious and not hard to make. I have baked them shortly after making them, and also from frozen. They turn out equally as well.

    Reply

  3. Elise

    I made these 5 days before thanksgiving day, froze them, and then popped them in the oven just before folks started arriving. They turned out really well! I think next time I might make them with an all butter really flaky pie crust instead of puff pastry though. Puff pastry is so expensive and made the bites messy to eat as nibbles.

    Reply

  4. rachel porter

    I’m making these tonight for a baby shower at 10:30 tomorrow morning. Can I just refrigerate in a single layer with maybe plastic wrap on top? :) THanks!

    Reply

  5. Laura Osmond

    What happened to your apple pie pastry puffs?? I made them once and absolutely loved them!! If you could upload the recipe or email it, I would greatly appreciate it. Happy baking :)

    Reply

  8. Adri

    What a lovely post. It’s a funny thing – puff pastry. Everyone is so afraid of it, and yet I find it the easiest of all pastries to make, if one is patient. It is really is quite forgiving, and at the first hint of trouble, all it wants is a little rest in the fridge – and then back to rolling. The genius of this appetizer is that one can do it ahead, and with, again, a bit of patience and the application of stove top heat, the humble bulb onion is transformed into wonderful caramelized goodness. Brava!

    Reply

  11. Rachel

    When do I add the sugar? I didn’t see that part. Thanks! I’m making them right now and just guessed its at the beginning :(

    Reply

  12. Linda

    last minute addition to the Thanksgiving menu…these were sooo amazing!! my son-in-law asked if he could have these instead of cake for his upcoming birthday! all i could find was the Pepperidge Farms puff pastry and they were still delicious!

    Reply

  15. tiffany

    I made these using brie and didn’t use the mustard. They were amazing! After I had some left over onions and brie so I whipped up some brown sugar bacon and made a grilled cheese. It was HEAVEN!!

    Reply

  16. Sharon Graves

    I made these today for a family gathering, drawn in by the concept and your gorgeous photos. I have to say I found the ratio of pastry to filling to lean a little too far towards pastry (not that there is anything wrong with that, actually), but I was definitely hoping for more of the scrumptious middle. Thinking maybe I didn’t roll the pastry sheet thin enough…

    Reply

  19. Christina

    I feel like the solution to puff pastry scraps is just to bake them off by themselves and dip them in any leftover French onion goodness in the pan. No scrap left behind, man.

    Reply

  27. onceuponarecipe

    i have the sneaking suspicion that i would have trouble with the “when eaten in moderation part”, but then again, thanksgiving has passed here in canada, so I can just make these for dinner…right?

    Reply

  36. RAR!

    These look great! In your puff pastry experience, do most regular grocery stores carry all butter puff pastry, or do I need to go to a fancier establishment to procure it?

    Reply

  42. lee

    So…I thought you were brilliant when you made French Onion Soup Sandwiches. But this? A entirely new level of genius.

    Much thanks for a huge fan – of you, and of French onion soup. =)

    Reply

  56. Joan

    these sound delicious. we always have appetizers for our Christmas Eve supper so I think these are going to be added this year. Thanks for another wonderful sounding recipe.

    Reply

  62. Kezia

    We don’t do Thanksgiving here in the UK (i have no idea why, it sounds amazing!) but these would be the perfect snack for a Christmas party we are hosting in a few weeks. If I can resist making them for that long!

    Reply

  66. TaylorMay

    I love your madness.
    Btw. “Parchment lined baking cheese..” but you should totally leave it as is. :]
    Wishing you an yours happiness an joy this thanksgiving.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  11. […] So on top of these little guys, I wanted something I could eat! So now it’s time for a just as savory vegetarian snack. I stumbled across this recipe on Pinterest and it just looked too delicious not to make. Drum roll please…. french onion soup bites in puff pastry! Yes! Caramelized onions and cheese packaged up in buttery flaky dough, I won’t even be thinking about that bacon. The recipe I’ll be following is from Joy The Baker. […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Scroll Up