Understanding Food

Chapter 26: Pies and Pastries

Types of Pastry•All pastries fall into one of two basic types: –Plain pastry –Puff pastry

Types of Pastry

• Plain pastry: Pastry made for producing pie crusts, quiches, and main-dish pies.

• Puff pastry: A delicate pastry that puffs up in size during baking due to numerous alternating layers of fat and flour.

Types of Pastry

• There are a wide assortment of puff pastry variations, including:– Blitz or quick

puff pastry– Strudel– French

pastries

– Phyllo (fee-low)

– Danish pastries

– Pâte à choux (pot-a-shoe)

Preparation of Pastry

Ingredients of Pastry•Most pastry flour mixtures

usually contain at least four ingredients: – Flour – Fat– Liquid – Salt

Preparation of Pastry•Tenderness •Gluten-

concentration and distribution

•Flakiness•Fat

–Cold–Plastic, firm

•Water •Temperatur

e

Preparation of Pastry

Preparation of Pastry

Flaky Crust

Preparation of PastryF I G U R E 2 6 - 5 Mixing pastry ingredients.

Preparation of Pastry

•Rolling:•Both plain and puff pastry

dough must be rolled

•Lamination: The arrangement of alternating layers of fat and flour in rolled pastry dough.

Preparation of Pastry

•For plain pastry, the dough is rolled out in a circle 1 to 2 inches larger than the bottom of the pan.

Preparation of Pastry

•A top crust is placed over the filling using the wedge procedure, or by lifting the wax paper and dough together, gently turning it over onto the filling, and slowly peeling off the wax paper.

• Streusel topping

(For additional suggestions refer to p. 463)

Preparation of Pastry

•To avoid a soggy bottom crust–fully thicken the filling before adding it into the pie shell.

–prebake the bottom crust.

–Prepare mealy crust.

Preparation of Pastry

•Puff pastry relies on first folding the fat block and dough together before rolling.

•Repeated folding creates numerous layers of alternating fat and dough. – These numerous folds

contribute to the puffing up that occurs when the steam generated during baking forces the layers apart.

Preparation of Pastry

Baking

• Whether using a conventional oven, convection oven, or microwave oven– type of pan

– temperature

– method of testing for doneness

–Blind bake: To bake an unfilled pie crust.

Storage of Pastry

• Pastries are best consumed while fresh

•Pastry doughs freeze up to six months.

• Unbaked pies will last about four months in the freezer, while baked berry pies can be frozen for six to eight months.