Patty shells rewards a little know-how: how to choose them, cook them, store them, and substitute in a pinch. Browse 7 recipes to cook with them.

What are patty shells?

Patty shells are pre-formed cups of puff pastry, the classic vol-au-vent. Each one is a hollow, many-layered case with a lid, baked from frozen until it puffs into a tall, golden, flaky shell ready to hold a filling.

They come a half-dozen to a box in the supermarket freezer, raw and stamped into rounds with a scored inner circle. In the oven the butter and dough steam apart into dozens of crisp sheets, leaving a deep well once you lift off the cap.

The point of a patty shell is convenience. You get the drama of vol-au-vent without laminating the dough yourself.

Working With Patty Shells

Bake them straight from the freezer. Do not thaw first and do not let them sit out, because warm pastry slumps and the butter leaks before the layers can rise.

Most brands go onto an ungreased sheet at around 400°F (200°C) for twenty to twenty-five minutes, until tall and deeply golden.

When they come out, the centers will have a soft, slightly underbaked core. Lift off the top cap with a fork and scoop out the doughy center to make room for the filling. That hollowing is not optional; skip it and the filling sits on raw pastry.

Fill them just before serving. Hot pastry plus a wet filling equals sogginess within minutes, so the shell should be crisp and the filling hot when they meet at the table.

Fillings and Keeping Them Crisp

The traditional fillings are savory and creamy. Creamed Oysters in Patty Shell and Lobster Tails in Patty Shells both spoon a rich seafood sauce into the cup, and Chicken Saronno does the same with poultry.

A thick, well-reduced sauce holds its shape in the well. A thin, watery one runs out and softens the walls.

Sweet versions work just as well. Cherries 'N' Cream Patty Shells fills the baked cups with whipped cream and fruit, the same idea as a quick fruit tart in a flakier package.

The enemy is moisture. A filling that weeps will turn the bottom to paste, so reduce sauces until they coat a spoon and drain fruit before it goes in. For a buffet, keep the shells and the filling separate and assemble in small batches as people eat.

Patty Shells Compared

Phyllo shells are paper-thin and shatter-crisp rather than puffy, with far less butter and structure, so they suit small, light, bite-sized fillings, not a ladle of creamed seafood. They also stale quickly once filled.

Tart and pie shells are short, crumbly pastry built for slicing, not puffed layers. They hold a set custard or a baked filling well but lack the airy lift and the deep well of a vol-au-vent.

If you have a sheet of puff pastry but no pre-formed shells, cut it into rounds, score an inner border, and bake; the border rises into walls around a sunken center. It is the same dough doing the same trick, just shaped by hand.

Buying and Storing

You will find patty shells in the freezer case near the puff pastry sheets, usually six to a box. Check that they are rock-hard, since pastry that has thawed and refrozen has lost its lift.

Keep them frozen in their box until baking day, well sealed so they do not pick up freezer odors or frost. Unopened, they hold for several months; a half-used box keeps best double-wrapped to keep ice crystals off the raw layers.

Baked shells are best eaten the day they are made. Unfilled, they will sit in an airtight tin overnight and crisp back up with a few minutes in a warm oven.

A filled shell does not keep at all. Assemble and serve it the same hour.

Quick facts

In Chinese

馅饼壳

British (UK) term

Patty shells

en français

coquilles patty

en español

conchas patty

Recipes using patty shells

There are 7 recipes that contain this ingredient.

All 7 recipes