Puff pastry chocolate twists recipe
Over the weekends we like a sweet treat after lunch, so I usually buy pastries or the like for the rest of the family. But over Christmas I decided to try something different – making my own puff pastry chocolate twists.
I find pastry with just chocolate spread in can end up a bit dry, so the custard gives a little moisture. I also love custard, hot or cold. Plus yum to anything with chocolate. With these pastries you don’t even need chocolate spread, just some chocolate chips or mini baking chunks.
Ready made pastry is one of the items I always have in the fridge. It’s so handy for both savoury and sweet pies, other desserts, sausage rolls, and for sweet pastry treats. I tend to have puff pastry ready rolled, but you could use a block of it and roll it out yourself. I just go for the easiest option.
When making these pastries, you could mix up the shape of them. Try a mini hand pie, or one single plait, or for something more special try a fancy single circular set of twists like a flower (you’ve probably seen the ones I mean on social media). But I wanted easy, so twists it was.
What type of custard can I use?
Any custard, as long as it’s not really runny. I used instant custard powder made with water. Tinned custard is usually pretty thick so would be fine. And old fashioned Birds custard powder would be great as you can work how thick you want the custard.
It will thicken slightly as the twists cool, but you want the custard to stay where you spread it on the pastry otherwise it will ooze out before you’ve even make the twists.
In my experience ready to use chilled custards tend to be a bit runnier (in particular the more luxury ranges), but you can experiment to see what works best for you.
What ingredients do you need?
There’s only 3 ingredients needed for this custard and chocolate twists recipe: puff pastry, chocolate chips, custard (preferably cold), and an optional egg or milk to brush over the pastry to help turn it a nice golden brown.
I used dark chocolate chips because that’s what I had in the larder, but you could use milk chocolate. As a last resort you could replace the chocolate chips with chocolate spread over the pastry first instead but it would end up slightly sickly I think.
How to make puff pastry chocolate twists
Prep time: 20 mins (if making the custard up first and cooling it)
Cook time: 20 mins
Serves: 8
Ingredients
- 1 pre-rolled pack of puff pastry
- 1 packet of instant custard made up and cool (or alternative – you want about 200-250ml or 1 cup of custard)
- 100g chocolate chips
Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 180C and prep a baking sheet with baking parchment.
2. Lay out the pastry (landscape) on top of the paper it comes with, or baking parchment). Cut it in half across vertically giving you 2 even pieces of pastry.
3. Spread over the cooled custard on one piece.
4. Sprinkle the chocolate chips liberally over the top.
5. Put the second piece of pastry over the top.
6. Then get out a sharp knife (or pizza cutter), and cut strips about 2cm wide. The last one might end up a bit skew whiff but don’t worry too much about that.
7. Once they’re all cut, pick up each in turn at each end, and twist in opposite directions probably one direction with each hand, placing each twist on the parchment paper.
8. If using, lightly mix the egg and use a brush to add the egg wash over the top of the pastry twists. You can use milk or not bother. I used egg wash for mine.
9. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180C for around 20 minutes until the pastry is cooked through and golden brown.
10. Leave to cool on the baking tray on a wire rack.
Before serving you can use a sieve to sprinkle over icing sugar to make them look prettier.
Ours didn’t last very long, but once cold, store in an airtight container to keep them for a couple of days.
Equipment suggestions:
These chocolate twists are so easy to make, and so much cheaper (and fresher) than buying in coffee shops or the supermarket. Treat yourself for breakfast or with a cup of tea mid morning.
If you like this recipe, why not try one of the below:
What a lovely idea! Homemade puff pastry chocolate twists sound absolutely delightful, especially for a weekend treat! ✨ There’s something so special about making them yourself—bet they were a big hit with the family! ❤️
They were so good. And work out cheaper than buying them too.
These looks so good, just like the one’s I buy from the supermarket! I think I need to try making them myself!
They’re so easy – I did worry about how running or thick the custard had to be, but it worked out fine.