Finding pre-made vegan food is a struggle to say the least.
A lot of the time foods are just not made with the vegan consumer in mind and considering that people who are vegan or trend toward vegan food are in the minority of the population this is not going to change anytime soon.
With that said, it is getting better, though, with many brands and other people recognizing that veganism is here to stay and that we should accommodate for others dietary needs.
One of the most problematic foods in the area of finding a vegan alternative is that of baking and pastry dishes.
These are typically two areas where there were not many, if any, vegan products in the past, and this is especially true of puff pastry products.
With this in mind, we’ve decided to create a vegan puff pastry brand list for your benefit.
Is Puff Pastry Vegan Or Not?
Before we dive face-first into this issue, we need to discuss just exactly what puff pastry is. Puff pastry is a type of pastry that is made to be light, flaky, and incredibly rich.
This is done by rolling out the dough, before spreading butter over one side before folding it. The dough is then folded and rolled out many, many times before it is baked.
The resultant layers of butter in the dough means that during the baking process the butter melts, leavening the dough, and as the butter melts, the water within the butter becomes steam and rises pushing up the pastry.
This results in a very flaky pastry that is often used for sweet treats or decadent pies.
So, as to the question. Normally, puff pastry is not vegan, and traditionally it has never been vegan.
The original recipe has always used a butter composed of cow’s milk, and sometimes they also use eggs in the recipe, depending on what it is.
However, amazingly – despite tradition and general baking practices – store bought and premade puff pastry is accidentally vegan a lot of the time. This is because traditional puff pastry is not shelf stable, due to the dairy products inside it.
As such, companies tend to make vegan puff pastries because they are shelf stable and last a long time, making unintentional vegan puff pastry which is absolutely amazing for all the vegans out there looking to do some pastry baking.
Do make sure that if you buy puff pastry, though, to check the labels and that it is actually vegan before you buy whole buckets loads of puff pastry.
Vegan Puff Pastry Brands
Now that we have clarified that, we can move on to talking about what vegan brands of puff there are actually on the market today.
Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry
If you are looking for puff pastry brands, then Pepperidge Farm puff pastry is probably the most reliable and best source of it for vegans.
While the puff pastry products do include monoglycerides and diglycerides, which can be taken from animal sources, it has been clarified by the parent company of Pepperidge Farms – Campbell’s – that all their puff pastry products are vegan.
Pepperidge Farm products are also pretty ubiquitous as well, with many stores having their products in stock, including Walmart, Kroger, and Winn-Dixie.
WeWalka Puff Pastry
WeWalka is another brand of puff pastry that is also completely plant based. The reason they are slightly lower down the list than Pepperidge Farms is that their sugar is not organic sugar, so it may or may not be vegan.
Unfortunately, there is no confirmation whether their sugar is vegan, so you will need to make up your own minds about this and whether you want to risk it.
One great thing about WeWalka is that their puff pastry is not frozen. While freezing dough makes the product last longer, the ice crystals in the dough change the texture and overall taste. As such, it is always preferable to get the refrigerated version.
Once again, WeWalka puff pastry is pretty ubiquitous and can be found in most large grocery stores, including Walmart, Safeway, and Ingles.
Annie’s
Unfortunately, WeWalka is the last puff pastry brand that offers a vegan or probably vegan product. While this is annoying, this doesn’t mean we can’t find close approximations of other vegan foods.
Annie’s does a great job of this, with them offering two puff pastry alternatives that are completely vegan, with their Organic Crescent Rolls and Original Flaky Biscuits.
While this might be exactly what you wanted, it can still kick that craving and give you the pastry dish you really want.
Making Vegan Puff Pastry
Of course, if you can’t find any of these products or if you really want to give it a go, you could always try your hand at making a vegan puff pastry for yourself. This may seem very difficult to do, but just know that you are not alone.
With the advent of the internet, vegan cooking – and especially baking – has become a whole lot easier. Now there are lots of recipes online for making vegan puff pastry that you can not only try, but that you can perfect and spread to others.
If you are looking to make vegan puff pastry, you will still probably have to use a type of vegan butter or shortening to do so and it will be a bit more difficult to do than making normal puff pastry, but it can be fun and really tasty.
Here we have put a list of some of our favorites:
– Vegan Puff Pastry – Heart of a Baker.
– Vegan Puff Pastry – Vegan’s First.
– Vegan Puff Pastry – Delicious Everyday.
Conclusion
There are not many ready-made vegan puff pastry brands out there, unfortunately, with only one confirmed one and one that probably is vegan.
Luckily, these brands have products in most shops, and you can find them almost everywhere. Failing that, though, you can easily make vegan puff pastry for yourself at home, should you need to.
I love cooking at home, but for those who don’t like cooking at all, there are more and more restaurants that offer vegan options as well nowadays.
I hope you enjoy my website and have fun preparing your own homemade vegan meals.
Love, Eve
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