Pastry refers to a variety of Dough (often enriched with fat or eggs), as well as the sweet and savoury Baking goods made from them.
The French word pâtisserie is also used in English (with or without the accent) for many of the same foods, as well as the set of techniques used to make them. Originally, the French word italic=yes referred to anything, such as a meat pie, made in dough ( paste, later pâte) and not typically a luxurious or sweet product.[Jim Chevallier, A History of the Food of Paris: From Roast Mammoth to Steak Frites, 2018, , p. 73, 102] This meaning still persisted in the nineteenth century, though by then the term more often referred to the sweet and often ornate confections implied today.
Definitions
The precise definition of the term pastry varies based on location and culture.
Common doughs used to make pastries include
Filo,
puff pastry,
choux pastry,
short dough,
pâte brisée,
pâte sucrée, and other enriched doughs.
Pastries tend to have a delicate texture, often flaky or crumbly, and rich flavor
—simple
Bread are thus excluded from the pastry category. Pastries also tend to be baked.
- Pastry bag or piping bag
- A disposable or reusable bag that is often cone-shaped, used to make an even stream of dough, frosting, or flavored substance to form a structure, decorate a baked item, or fill a pastry with a custard, cream, Fruit preserves, or other filling.
- Pastry board
- A square or oblong board, preferably marble but usually wood, on which pastry is flattened.
- Pastry brake
- Opposed and counter-rotating rollers with a variable gap through which pastry can be worked and reduced in thickness for commercial production. A small version is used domestically for pasta production.
- Pastry case
- An uncooked or blind baked pastry container that is used to hold savory or sweet mixtures.
- Pastry cream
- Confectioner's custard. An egg- and flour-thickened custard made with sweetened milk flavored with vanilla. It is traditionally used as a filling for flans, cakes, pastries, tarts, etc. The flour prevents the egg from curdling.
- Pastry cutters
- Various metal or plastic outlines of shapes, e.g. circles, fluted circles, diamonds, gingerbread men, etc., sharpened on one or both sides and used to cut out corresponding shapes from biscuit, scone, pastry, or cake mixtures.
[Sinclair, Charles. International Dictionary of Culinary Terms. Grand Rapids]
- Pastry blender
- A kitchen implement used to chop the fat into the flour, which prevents the melting of the fat with body heat from fingers, and improves control of the size of the fat chunks. Usually constructed of wire or plastic, with multiple wires or small blades connected to a handle.
History
The European tradition of pastry-making is often traced back to the shortcrust era of flaky doughs that were in use throughout the Mediterranean in ancient times. In the ancient Mediterranean, the Romans, Greeks, and Phoenicians all had filo-style pastries in their culinary traditions.
In the plays of
Aristophanes, written in the 5th century BC, there is mention of sweetmeats, including small pastries filled with fruit. Roman cuisine used flour, oil, and water to make pastries that were used to cover meats and
during baking in order to keep in the juices, but the pastry was not meant to be eaten. A pastry that was meant to be eaten was a richer pastry that was made into small pastries containing eggs or little birds and that were often served at banquets. Greeks and Romans both struggled in making a good pastry because they used oil in the cooking process, and oil causes the pastry to lose its stiffness.
[ History of Baking and Pastry Cooking ]
In the medieval cuisine of Northern Europe, pastry chefs were able to produce nice, stiff pastries because they cooked with shortening and butter. Some incomplete lists of ingredients have been found in medieval cookbooks, but no full, detailed versions. There were stiff, empty pastries called coffins or 'huff paste', that were eaten by servants only and included an egg yolk glaze to help make them more enjoyable to consume. Medieval pastries also included small tarts to add richness.
It was not until about the mid-16th century that actual pastry recipes began appearing.
Pastry-making has a strong tradition in many parts of Asia. Chinese pastry is made from rice, or different types of flour, with fruit, sweet bean paste or sesame-based fillings. The mooncakes are part of Chinese Mid Autumn Festival traditions, while cha siu bao, steamed or baked pork buns, are a regular savory dim sum menu item. In the 19th century, the British brought western-style pastry to the Far East, though it would be the French-influenced Maxim in the 1950s that made western pastry popular in Chinese-speaking regions starting with Hong Kong. The term "western cake" (西餅) is used to refer to western pastry, otherwise Chinese pastry is assumed. Other Asian countries such as Korea prepare traditional pastry-confections such as tteok, hangwa, and yaksik with flour, rice, fruits, and regional specific ingredients to make unique desserts. Japan also has specialized pastry-confections better known as mochi and manjū. Pastry-confections that originate in Asia are clearly distinct from those that originate in the west, which are generally much sweeter.
Types of Pastry dough
- Flaky pastry
- Flaky pastry is a simple pastry that expands when cooked due to the number of layers. It bakes into a crisp, buttery pastry. The "puff" is obtained by the shard-like layers of fat, most often butter or shortening, creating layers which expand in the heat of the oven when baked.
- Choux begins as a mixture of milk or water and butter which are heated together until the butter melts, to which flour is added to form a dough. Eggs are then beaten into the dough to further enrich it. This high percentage of water causes the pastry to expand into a light, hollow pastry. Initially, the water in the dough turns to steam in the oven and causes the pastry to rise; then the starch in the flour gelatinizes, thereby solidifying the pastry.
- Phyllo (Filo)
- Phyllo is a paper-thin pastry dough that is used in many layers. The phyllo is generally wrapped around a filling and brushed with butter before baking. These pastries are very delicate and flaky.
- Hot water crust pastry
- Hot water crust pastry is used for [[wikt
Chemistry
Different kinds of pastry doughs are made by utilizing the natural characteristics of wheat flour and certain fats. When wheat flour is mixed with water and kneaded into plain dough, it develops strands of gluten, which are what make bread tough and elastic. In a typical pastry, however, this toughness is unwanted, so fat or oil is added to slow down the development of gluten. Pastry flour can also be used, since it typically has a lower level of protein than all-purpose or bread flours.
Lard or suet work well because they have a coarse, crystalline structure that is very effective. Using unclarified butter does not work well because of its water content; clarified butter, or ghee, which is virtually water-free, is better, but shortcrust pastry using only butter may develop an inferior texture. If the fat is melted with hot water or if liquid oil is used, the thin oily layer between the grains offers less of an obstacle to gluten formation and the resulting pastry is tougher.[Jaine, Tom, and Soun Vannithone. The Oxford Companion to Food. New York: Oxford UP, 1999]
A good pastry is light and airy and fatty, but firm enough to support the weight of the filling. When making a shortcrust pastry, care must be taken to blend the fat and flour thoroughly before adding any liquid---to ensure that the flour granules are adequately coated with fat and less likely to develop gluten. On the other hand, overmixing results in long gluten strands that toughen the pastry. In other types of pastry such as Danish pastry and , the characteristic flaky texture is achieved by repeatedly rolling out a dough similar to yeast bread dough, spreading it with butter, and folding it to produce many thin layers.
Pastry chefs
use a combination of culinary ability and creativity for baking, decoration, and flavoring with ingredients. Many baked goods require a lot of time and focus. Presentation is an important aspect of pastry and dessert preparation. The job is often physically demanding, requiring attention to detail and long hours.
Pastry chefs are also responsible for creating new recipes to put on the menu, and they work in restaurants, bistros, large hotels, casinos and bakeries. Pastry baking is usually done in an area slightly separate from the main kitchen. This section of the kitchen is in charge of making pastries, desserts, and other baked goods.
[ Pastry Chef Job Profile ]
Gallery
File:Foto.Linzertorte.JPG|A Linzer torte
File:Mignon14hpA3.jpg|A petit four
File:Weihnachtskeks(RobertK).jpg|Assortment of cookies (also called in some areas)
File:Moorkoppen.jpg|Cream puff pastry, Dutch Moorkoppen
File:Feesttompoucen0865.jpg|Tompouce, a Dutch and Belgian pastry
File:Gaufre liege.jpg|Liège-style
File:Pork and cherry picnic pie.jpg|English pork pie topped with red currants
File:Piononos dulces argentinos caseros.jpg|Argentine sweet pionono
File:Pionono dulce argentino casero cortado.jpg|Slice of Argentine sweet pionono
File:Crocette di Caltanissetta.jpg|Crocetta of Caltanissetta of lemon, left, and orange, right
File:Spina santa composizione 04.JPG|Spina santa of Caltanissetta
File:Pecan and Maple Danish.JPG|Pecan and maple Danish pastry, a puff pastry type
File:Cream puff Spivack.jpg|Profiterole or cream puff, a choux pastry
File:Runebergstårtor.JPG|Runeberg torte, a traditional Finnish pastry flavored with almonds and arrack (or rum)
File:Omas Apfelstrudel aus Prag.jpg|Strudel, a pastry made from hand-stretched leaf dough
File:Pork pie on plate.jpg|Pork pie on a plate
File:BougatsaAthens.webm|Preparation of custard bougatsa in an Athens cafe
File:Blackberry Pie 956px.jpg|Blackberry pie made with a pastry crust
File:Zolbia & Bamieh.jpg|Persian Zolbia and Tulumba
File:Bradje.jpg|Bradje from Algeria
See also
External links
