These flaky puff pastry ghosts are cut out with cookie cutters, filled with fruity jam, and topped with an easy vanilla glaze. Made with just 6 ingredients in about 25 minutes, they're a fun addition to your Halloween party!
Halloween Ghost Desserts with Puff Pastry
I've been making these pastry ghosts for several Halloweens in a row now, and they've become one of my favorite parts of October. Store-bought puff pastry is the easiest way to share something festive and homemade with almost no time or effort. Plus they taste just as good warm from the oven as they are fully cooled, when the glaze hardens and gives you a nice crackle as you break them open, so they're perfect to bake in the morning or early afternoon and bring to a Halloween party.
What sets these apart is the glaze. The ghosts themselves only need two ingredients: puff pastry dough and jam. Then a vanilla glaze needs just four ingredients and about one minute of stirring. It turns them into little white-sheet cartoon ghosts instead of boring pastries that just happen to be cut with a ghost cutter.
My biggest tip for that glaze is to brush it on slightly cooled pastries. In testing, drizzling made it look uneven and let the glaze run into the jam, which ruined the cut-outs. Bonus: you don't need an egg wash, since the glaze covers the tops anyway.
If you love how little effort this takes, try my puff pastry twists with Nutella for another easy baked treat. And if you're planning a full Halloween spread, my Halloween focaccia with marshmallow spiderwebs is a fun bake to add!
Let's Bake Pop Tart Ghosts!
My Tips for Flaky Ghost Pastries
- Don't overfill the pastries with jam, otherwise it'll leak and cause the puff pastry to stick to your baking sheet. I fill mine with strawberry jam because the ruby red shows through the eyes and mouths, making them look extra spooky, though any jam works great.
- You want the glaze to be really thick, almost like icing, so it dries hard & opaque and doesn't drip down the sides or into the cut-outs. If it's too thin, mix in a spoonful of sifted powder at a time.Â
- Warm puff pastry means melting fat, and melted fat means ghosts that lose their definition in the oven. Roll it out within a few minutes of removing it from the fridge. If your dough starts to feel soft & greasy, chill the assembled ghosts on the baking sheet for 15 minutes before baking.
- In testing, an egg was proved unnecessary since the two layers of dough sealed beautifully with just a fork crimping the edges. Just press firmly all the way into the bottom layer.
Easy Puff Pastry Ghosts with Jam
developed & tested by:
Ingredients
- 1 (17.3 ounces) package frozen puff pastry, thawed in the fridge overnight
- â…“ cup strawberry jam
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 1 to 1½ teaspoons milk
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 pinch salt
Instructions
- Prep: Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- Dough: Roll out the two sheets of puff pastry just to seal the creases. Use a ghost-shaped cookie cutter to cut out ghosts from the puff pastry.
- For Half the Ghosts: Use the large end of a piping nozzle, small bottle cap, or a knife and a steady hand to cut out about ½-inch circles for the mouth. Use the small end of a piping nozzle or even smaller bottle cap to cut out two ¼-inch circles for the eyes.
- Assemble: Place one of the ghosts without the eye and mouth cut-outs on your prepared baking sheet. Spread a few teaspoons of jam on top, leaving a ¼-inch space around the edge. Place one of the puff pastry ghosts with the cut-outs directly on top.
- Seal: Gently but firmly press around the edges of the ghosts with the tines of a fork to help seal the top and bottom pastry layers together & prevent jam from leaking out. Repeat with the remaining dough and jam.
- Bake: Bake for 10 to 13 minutes, until your puff pastries are puffed up and golden.
- Glaze: While they bake, mix the sifted powdered sugar, milk, vanilla, and salt in a small bowl until it forms a smooth glaze. Once the puff pastries come out of the oven, allow them to cool for a few minutes, then brush the glaze on top. Let them continue to cool for about 10 minutes, to let the glaze harden a bit, then serve.
Notes
- Jam: Make sure you use thick jam, because if it's really runny, it's more likely to leak out or make your puff pastry soggy.
- Storing: These pastries stay flaky all the way to day 3 when stored (fully cooled first) in an airtight container lined on the bottom with paper towels (to absorb moisture) at room temp. And they taste better at room temperature, so skip reheating, which makes them chewy and melts the glaze.
- Servings: The number of pastries you can make depends on the size of your cookie cutter - I usually make 6 or 7 from the dough.
Nutrition
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