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Danishes, donuts, sweet rolls, quiches, and MORE are found in this collection of our favorite breakfast pastry recipes!
More Collections: Waffle Recipes, Breakfast Smoothie Recipes, Brunch Recipes
EVERYONE Loves Pastries!
An item is considered a pastry when it contains a higher fat content that yields a flakier texture. Many breakfast pastries are also eaten as sweet desserts, but not all of them are.
Why we love them:
- Delicious. This goes without saying, there are so many tasty flavor options!
- Variety. Pastries can be sweet or savory, baked or fried, large or bite-sized.
- Enjoy any time. Almost a treat, these breakfast pastry recipes can be enjoyed any time of the day, but are especially good to start the day!
10 Popular Pastries
- Croissants are made with yeast dough, layered with butter, and rolled into a crescent shape with a light and flaky texture. They can be sliced and filled with sweet or savory ingredients.
- Danishes have several layers of flaky deliciousness. They are often shaped in circles with a fruit jam or cream cheese filling right in the center.
- Donuts are fried yeast dough. They can be a ring shape, a solid circle with a filling, or the shape of a rectangle (Long John). They can have a sugar topping, glaze, or frosting.
- Eclairs may look like a donut, but they are made from a choux pastry (a very light egg-based dough), filled with a flavored creme, and typically topped with a chocolate glaze.
- Quiche uses the same pastry as pie, but is typically more shallow and is not covered. Quiche is savory and filled with different combinations of eggs, cheese, cream, vegetables, meat, or seafood.
- Savory pastries often include eggs, cheese, herbs, and meats to flavor the dish.
- Strudels have a thin sheet of flakey pastry dough that is used to wrap around a filling and baked. Most frequently filled with apples, but can be a savory egg and cheese filling to a mixed fruit and creme filling.
- Sweet pastries. Berries such as strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries are often used, but apples and peaches are popular as well.
- Sweet rolls are made from a sweetened yeast dough and baked. They can be filled with spices, nuts, and candied fruits. Some are topped with a drizzle of glaze or frosting. Cinnamon rolls and orange rolls are prime examples.
- Tarts have a thick crumbly crust and are much more shallow than a standard pie. They are generally filled with pastry cream and fruit. It is not topped with a crust.
Breakfast Pastry Tips
- Water. Pastry becomes less tender as more water is added so make sure to keep the correct balance.
- Flour. Adding too much flour can throw off the balance and create a stiffer dough.
- Fat. Adding too much fat will cause the dough to crumble.
- Handling and rolling the dough too much will cause gluten to overdevelop which then reduces the tender flakiness of the dough.
- Chilled dough. For the fat to work its magic, it needs to stay cold. Many recipes call for chilling the dough at least once for this reason.
- Cut in the fat. Most breakfast pastry recipes instruct you to combine the flour and fat (shortening or butter) by cutting them together. This is a really important step.
- The easiest way to do this is to use a pastry cutter, but a fork or food processor works too. Simply press the cutter down through the fat and flour over and over until the pieces of fat are the size of a grain of rice or the texture of cornmeal.
Best Breakfast Pastries
Do you dream of making a breakfast pastry worthy of being displayed in a bakery window?? That’s exactly what these are! Skip the trip to the bakery and try these recipes at home.
1 Best Scone Recipe
2 Homemade Donuts Recipe
Recipe Video
Get the recipe3 Easy Cinnamon Roll Recipe
4 Cinnamon Cream Cheese Crescent Rolls Recipe
5 Cream Puff Recipe
6 Chocolate Eclair Recipe
7 Cinnamon Twists Recipe
8 Cherry Danish Recipe
9 Pop Tart Recipe
10 Old Fashioned Donuts
More Breakfast Pastry Ideas + Rolls
Sometimes there isn’t enough time in the morning to produce a beautifully crafted homemade breakfast pastry. Each of these pastries is made quickly (under 35 minutes!) with the help of a canned dough shortcut.
11 Biscuit Donuts Recipe
12 Breakfast Hand Pies Recipe
13 Orange Rolls
14 Cinnamon Roll Recipe
15 Crescent Rolls
16 Mini Cinnamon Rolls Recipe
17 Nutella Cinnamon Rolls Recipe
18 Maple Bacon Cinnamon Roll Recipe
19 Puff Pastry Sausage Rolls
20 Sausage Cream Cheese Crescent Rolls Recipe
21 Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls Recipe
Recipe Video
Get the recipeEasy Breakfast Pastries
We love EASY breakfast pastry recipes and hope this list inspires you to make some soon.
One of our favorites (because of its simplicity and how quickly it’s made) is the Breakfast Danish.
Add the cherry filling on top or as is with just the cream cheese, but we think you’ll agree that it’s delicious and SO easy!
Here’s the recipe:
20+ Breakfast Pastry Recipes
Ingredients
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp water
- 1 egg yolk
- 8 oz cream cheese softened
- 3 tbsp sugar plus some for dusting
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 (17.3 oz) package frozen puff pastry sheets thawed
- 1 can cherry pie filling, optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F. Prepare two baking sheets by lining them with parchment paper.
- Crack the whole egg into a small bowl. Add the water and beat together. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, add egg yolk, cream cheese, sugar, lemon juice and vanilla. Mix the ingredients together using an electric mixer on medium high speed.
- On a clean surface, spread out both puff pastry sheets. Cut each sheet into 4 even squares. Make the squares into octagons by folding over each corner about 1 inch.
- Add a dollop of the cream cheese mixture into the center of each of the octagon shapes. (about 2 tbsp each). Keep the cream cheese in a dollop shape. Don't spread it out.
- Optional Cherry topping: Add cherry pie filling on top of the dollop of cream cheese.
- Dip a pastry brush into the egg/water mixture. Brush the top of the exposed puff pasty with the mixture. Add a dusting of sugar over the exposed pastry.
- Bake for 15-18 minutes until the pastry is an even golden brown. Cool and serve.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
So Many to Choose From!
There are so many tasty breakfast pastries to choose from, you may just want to create a spread and include a few. Enjoy your next breakfast or brunch!!
Make sure to check out all of our Breakfast Recipes.
More Collections: Muffin Recipes, Pancake Recipes, Breakfast For Dinner
I made the cherry danish recipe and was so happy with how they turned out. It was next best thing to a bakery danish. I’ll be making them again with different fillings.
We make breakfast for dinner all the time. The more ideas the better! Thank you!
We absolutely love pastries for weekend breakfast! This collection is making me hungry. So many delicious recipes to try!
Oh, my goodness, do I have to pick just one?? Ha! I want to make them all. We started working our way through the list with the danish. Delish!
What an awesome list, and the pastry recipe here is my favorite!! So good, thank you!
You’re welcome!