In this Instructable, I will show you how to make a braided strawberry puff pastry. This easy puff pastry recipe only takes a few minutes to put together and then about 25 minutes to bake. Start to finish you are eating it in under 45 minutes. It is perfect to have for breakfast or for a dessert. Have an extra puff pastry sheet, make one of these! And you can easily swap out the strawberry pie filling with other pie fillings or danish fillings. If I can do it, you can do it. Let's get baking!

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Follow the super easy steps below or watch the video tutorial or do both.

Step 1: Ingredients and Tools

Ingredients:

1 puff pastry sheet, homemade or store-bought approx 10.5 x 9 inches
10 oz of strawberry pie filling or use homemade or another pie filling flavor (approx 300g)
1 egg for eggwash
Cinnamon and sugar, optional
Powdered sugar, optional

Tools:

Sheet pan
Parchment paper
Basting brush
Knife or pizza roller
Wire rack

Step 2: The Puff Pastry

Begin by taking out the frozen puff pastry and thaw it out for about 30 minutes. Use store-bought or this homemade puff pastry recipe.

Place it on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.

Preheat the oven to 400F/205C.

Step 3: The Filling

Now time to use whatever filling that you like. I have so many pie recipes here on Instructables that you can use the filling from those, or store-bought pie filling. In this example, I just used a yummy strawberry pie filling from a can.

If you like you can also do the cream cheese filling from this cheese danish recipe.

Add about 10 ounces or 300 grams of it to the center of the pastry. The folded ones are super nice because it already gives you a guide to follow.

Step 4: Cut and Braid

Now time to cut and braid the pastry. On the other two-thirds of the pastry cut about 9 to 10 cuts towards the middle, which will create flaps. You can make them as wide or as narrow as you want.

Then start at one end and fold the first flap at an angle over the middle on top of the topping. Then fold the other one from the other side.

Continue doing that to form the braid. Super easy right?

Step 5: Egg Wash and Sugar

Next, take an egg and beat it with a whisk or fork to create the egg wash. Take a basting brush and brush the egg wash onto the whole top of the pastry. It is ready to go.

An optional step is to shake some cinnamon and sugar on top, or just use larger crystals finishing sugar, or just leave it as is, and top it with powdered sugar later.

Step 6: Bake It!

Now place it in the oven, middle rack position, and bake it for 25 to 30 minutes until it is nice and golden brown.

Remove it from the oven and allow it to cool. I usually lift up the parchment paper with the pastry and place the whole thing on a wire rack to cool completely, but you can just leave it on the sheet pan too if you like.

Once cooled you can cut into it and enjoy it. I usually get 6 servings out of one puff pastry sheet.

Print the full recipe here if you like.