Pastry & its types

PASTRY

Various types of pastries are used in the preparation of sweet and savory dishes in the bakery and confectionery. These include:

1.     Short crust pastry

2.     Flaky pastry

3.     Puff pastry

4.     Danish pastry

5.     Choux pastry

6.     Rough puff pastry

7.     Hot water pastry

SHORT CRUST PASTRY

Short crust pastry is a mixture of flour, fat, sugar and sometimes egg and milk. The flour should have low gluten content, one that is milled from soft wheat flour. The fat will reduce the extensibility of the gluten that is it makes the gluten strands shorter….hence the term shortening for the fat used in the bakery and the term short crust pastry. The usual method of making short crust pastry is by the rub-in method. Chilled fat or butter is rubbed into the sieved flour so that it is finely dispersed and resembles a sandy or bread crumb like texture. The fat forms a thin layer or coating on the glutenin and gliadin molecules, without turning the fat into a continuous paste. Cold water is sprinkled over the mixture to form smooth dough. The ratio of fat to flour is normally 1:2, but the fat can be increased to equal the flour to obtain a rich dough. This dough would be very difficult but not impossible, to work with. Pate Sucre is a sweet version of this pastry and sugar is creamed with butter before the flour and the moisture is added. The ratio of sugar fat and flour is 1:2:4. Various sweet and savoury products are made with short crust pastry. It forms the base of several pies, tarts, flans and also products like cheese straws and turnovers. Few precautions must be taken when making short crust pastry. It is important not to work the dough too much as it will get tough due to the development of gluten. This can also happen when scrapings and trimmings are added to the dough and re worked. The use of too much flour for dusting will also alter the ratio of the mixture and cause toughening as the extra flour proteins – glutenin and gliadin -  does not have a coating of fat around it, and thus come together to form gluten.

Some faults in Short Crust Pastry

-        Hard or tough pastry is due to too much liquid or too little fat. It is also probably due to over mixing.

-        A soft and crumbly pastry is due to too little water for the binding, too much fat or the use of self raising flour instead of plain flour.

-        A shrunken pastry is due to excess stretching during rolling.

-        A soggy pastry is the result of the filling in the product being too moist.

LAMINATED PASTRY

This category of pastry includes Puff, Flaky, Rough Puff and Danish Pastry.

Puff and Flaky are two of the most remarkable products of the Bake Shop. Although they are similar products, they are made differently and it is almost impossible to tell which is. Puff is referred to as the French method whereas the English refer to it as Flaky pastry. The Scots have their own version and call it Rough Puff Pastry. The flour used for laminated pastry must be of high gluten content so that it will stand up to the manipulation involved in building up the laminated structure. Butter is the preferred fat because of its flavour and melt in the mouth quality. Special pastry margarine is also available. It has a low moisture content and good creaming value…ideal for this kind of pastry. This product is easy to work with as it does not get too hard in the refrigerator. A weak acid solution such as lemon juice or cream of tartar is added to the dough, as it will confer greater extensibility to the gluten.

Puff pastry has equal amounts of fat and flour. A dough is made with flour, salt, and the lemon juice. After allowing it to rest, the dough is rolled out into a square and the creamed block of fat is placed in the centre. The dough is then folded around the fat and it is refrigerated for a while. The dough is then rolled into a rectangle about ½ “thick. Fold the two ends to the centre and then into half (book fold). Make sure that the edges /corners are even. Refrigerate/rest the dough to relax the gluten. Do not refrigerate for too long as the fat will harden. Now turn the dough 90° on the table so that the length now becomes the breadth. This step must be repeated before subsequent rolling’s so that it helps to stretch the gluten in all directions, not just lengthwise. Failure to do this will result in the product that shrinks unevenly when they are baked. Repeat the rolling and folding a total of four times. The dough is now ready to be rolled out for the final shaping and cutting.

Flaky pastry is a similar product. The dough is similar but the amount of fat is only 2/3 that of the flour. The fat is creamed into a homogenous mass and divided into three parts. The dough is rolled out into a rectangle about ½ “thick. One third of the fat is then spread onto 2/3^rd of the dough surface. The dough is then folded into three so that there are alternate layers of fat and dough. The dough is then rested/refrigerated to relax the gluten. The process is repeated twice more to use up all the fat and then once again without fat (blind fold). Remember to rest the dough between each rolling. The pastry is now ready for the final make up.

Khari biscuits, vol-au-vents, cream horns, cheese straws, meat and vegetable puffs are some of the sweet and savory products made with puff and flaky pastry. 

Rough Puff pastry is the Scottish answer to Puff and Flaky pastry. This is the quickest method of making a laminated pastry. Old books describe it as the Blitz method, the term being derived from the German Blitzen. Meaning lightening.  In this method, the fat is mixed into the sieved flour in pieces, the size of walnuts. A dough is made using water and a little lemon juice, without using too much pressure so that the fat does not completely blend into the dough. The dough is then rolled out like the Flaky pastry method and the process is repeated two more times. The dough is now ready for rolling cutting into the desired shape.

When laminated pastries are baked, the fat melts and forms oil layers between the layers of dough, preventing them from sticking to each other. As the heat penetrates into the product, the water in the dough layers changes into steam and pushes the lubricated leaves of dough apart. This produces an increase in the volume of the dough. Later, the gluten in the flour coagulates while the water is dried out so that by the time the pastry is properly cooked, it is able to retain its distended puffy volume. The temperature of the oven has an important role to play in the success of this product. The temperature must be hot enough to generate the steam required.

Danish pastry is a rich, sweet and fermented dough. The fat is laminated into the dough and therefore, Danish is also considered a laminated pastry. A ferment of yeast, sugar, eggs and milk is added to the flour to make a soft dough. After resting and knocking back the dough, it is then rolled into a rectangle and the fat spread evenly. The dough is then cut into three uneven sizes and a spool is made….that is….rolling the smallest into the medium and then that into the largest piece of dough. The dough is wrapped into a moist cloth and refrigerated for 15-20 minutes. It is then rolled and cut into the desired shapes. Egg wash is applied and the product is allowed the second prooving and then is baked at 200°C for 20 minutes. The pastry is brushed with sugar syrup after baking.

Croissants, windmills, turnovers, napoleons, and breakfast Danish are products.

CHOUX PASTRY

The French term for this pastry Pate a choux literally means cabbage paste, because the profiteroles and cream puffs made from this pastry resemble little cabbages. These are hollow shells which have a crisp and brittle texture. They are then filled with a variety of fillings both sweet and savoury – including creamed cheese, fresh cream, crème patissiere, fish, and meat pate. Water, butter and salt are boiled together and then the flour is added in to form a partly gelatinised paste. It is mixed vigorously with a wooden spoon and then cooked once more till the mixture has a shiny appearance and leaves the sides of the pan. Beaten eggs are added gradually to the paste, beating continously to form a smooth pliable and piping consistency mass. It is then piped into the desired shapes – rosettes, fingers or balls. Choux paste is baked at 200°C so as to achieve maximum rise. The temperature is then reduced to 150C to dry out the shells and to obtain the crisp and brittle texture. During the baking, the products should not be subjected to unnecessary movements, otherwise the structure will collapse. Shells can be stored in airtight containers and used as and when required. Eclairs, Cream Puffs, Duchesses, profiteroles and cream puffs are all choux pastry based items.

HOT WATER PASTRY

This is also known as the cooked pastry and is seldom used these days. It is a lean dough made by cooking the flour, salt and a little fat in water to a paste. This paste is then used to line the sides of pie tins, using the hands to apply the mixture, the filling was then placed inside the tin and then covered with more of the paste. After baking, the dough was often discarded and it was more like a protective layer over the filling. Welsh miners oven carried their food wrapped in this pastry to work. At lunch time, the pastry was broken open and the filling- meat or fish - was consumed. Cornish Pasties, a traditional Welsh favorite was originally made with Hot Water Pastry.