The Craft of Pastry Cooking

Pastry Baking is making and baking flour and shortening mixed treats, which is consumed as snacks, with tea, and/or after meals. The three most common forms of pastry baking are: pie pastries, puff pastry, and rough puff pastries.

Pie pastries’ crusts are one part fat (with butter, lard, or pastry fat) and two parts of flour based on their weight. The fat and flour are combined to form the crust and ice water is added to form keep the crust’s form. The filling can be anything from savory quiches to sweet tarts.

Figure 4.


(2015) A photograph of Maggie Beer’s Pheasant Pie. The crust was pressed into a tin and filled with beefy filling. [Photograph] (Beer, M 2015)
Pâte feuilletée fine, or normally called, puff pastries are equal weight of fat and flour. Some of the fat is used to create the crust. When the crust is settled, rest the fat is wrapped by the crust a several times, a process called “turn”. During baking, the puff pastries expand to eight times their original sizes. This treat is served with ice cream, whipped cream and other pastries.

Figure 5.


(2011) Croissants are an example of a puff pastry. The chocolate is “turned” with the crust to get the puffy taste. [Photograph]
Rough puff pastries are less popular, but are easier to bake. These pastries contains a higher fat to flour ratio. The crust is “turned” over itself, causing air bubbles. The air bubbles causes the pastries to become flaky or “rough”, earning their name.

The Craft of Pastry Cooking

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