3 Ingredient Jam Puffs with Cream

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These 3 Ingredient Jam Puffs with Cream are one of the first things I ever learned to bake. Flaky pastry surrounds a filling of fluffy whipped cream and lashings of strawberry jam. Add fresh strawberries for the super Instagram-able look. So easy to bake and assemble, and are great to double up the quantity to feed a crowd. These are gorgeous to make mini for an afternoon tea!

Of course, you can make the pastry yourself. I have a rough puff pastry recipe on my site that will work a treat, but in the interest of keeping life easy, I love to use store-bought for this one! This recipe is a total homage to both my mum and her nan, so I’ve tried to keep it as true to that as possible. Hence my recommendation for store-bought puff because “who has the time”.

That said, I do recommend whipping the cream yourself rather than buying the stuff in a can. And as the strawberry jam/preserve makes up the key component here, try to buy something a little higher quality if it fits your budget. By adding sliced fresh strawberries into the filling, you can create something even prettier. Entirely up to you whether you do that or not though!

The difference between jam puffs and cream puffs

Jam Puffs:

• Typically, jam puffs are made with flaky pastry and are filled with a sweet jam— as the name suggests.
• They often have a fruitier flavor profile due to the jam filling.
• The texture contrast in jam puffs comes from the crisp pastry and the sticky, gooey jam inside.
• They may be made more visually appealing by adding fresh fruit, such as strawberries, which also add a fresh flavor component.

Cream Puffs:

• Cream puffs, on the other hand, are generally made with choux pastry, which puffs up in the oven to create a light and airy shell.
• They are classically filled with whipped cream, which provides a rich and creamy taste.
• The texture of cream puffs is characterized by the soft and tender puff with a cloud-like whipped cream center.
• They might be dusted with powdered sugar or drizzled with chocolate, serving as a canvas for various decorative and flavor additions.

So while jam puffs offer a fruit-filled bite with a flaky crust, cream puffs provide a more delicate texture and a rich cream filling. Each has its own unique preparation and flavor characteristics but are equally indulgent in their own ways.

Ingredients Required

There are no specialist ingredients or equipment required for this bake. I can find everything I need at my local supermarket or grocery store. To bake, do so on a large baking sheet or tray. I recommend lining with baking parchment to avoid any possibility of the pastry sticking to the tray. With bake time for pastry, the key is to work it as little as possible. This means the pastry can still be as cold as possible before going in to bake, leading to super tall, flaky pastry.

• Store Bought Puff Pastry
• High Quality Strawberry Jam/Preserve
• Heavy (Double) Cream
• Optional: Powdered Sugar (Icing Sugar)

Top Tips for the best 3 Ingredient Jam Puffs with Cream

• Puff Pastry: As mentioned, I do recommend store bought to keep things simple. I have my own recipe for rough puff if you’d really like to make your own. I don’t think it’s always worth the effort. This recipe is a hit because of the simplicity and ease.
• Cold Pastry: Try to keep the pastry cold as long as possible. If pastry is cold when it goes into the hot oven, it ensures that mega rise we want. This results in gorgeous flaky layers!
• Cream: Use double/heavy cream that’s suitable for whipping. Keep cold until ready to whip, and do so using an electric mixer ideally. Whisk on high until very soft peaks form, then finish by hand or go super slow until those stiffer peaks form. It doesn’t take much to go from perfectly whipped to overmixed. Still delicious, just not as pretty!
• Strawberry Jam: This makes up the main flavor in this recipe, so choose your jam accordingly! Of course, pick one you really like, but opt for higher quality where possible. I’m not saying you need to reach for the top price jar, just something nicer than the one that I would choose for a PB&J!
• Optional Extras – Egg Wash: The egg wash is totally optional. If you want to do this, it adds that glossy shine and golden color to the pastry! Simply whisk up an egg and use a pastry brush to brush over the pastry prior to baking.
• Optional Extras – Powdered Sugar: Another optional finishing touch. Powdered sugar adds such a cute final flourish to these jam puffs. This makes them look a little more ‘polished’ but it is entirely up to you whether to add or not!

Make Ahead and Storage

For my 3 Ingredient Jam Puffs with Cream, I use a basic large baking tray/cookie sheet. If you want more wild pastry recipe ideas, check out my Copycat McDonald’s Homemade Apple Pies. For videos and baking inspiration, head on over to my Instagram. If you make this recipe, don’t forget to drop it a star rating, leave a review or share a photo on your socials! 

To make ahead, you can bake the pastry the day before, and fill when ready. But they do come together so quickly that this feels a little redundant! Do whatever works for you! Baking the pastry ahead can be great if you’re making this recipe for a big crowd, the way my mum used to. We’d have a whole assembly line to fill over 100 of these for church on Sundays.

To store, you can keep these in the fridge. Because the cream is perishable, try to get leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge as soon as possible. That said, the pastry can get soggy fairly quickly so don’t expect these to keep that well past a day!