Most expert pastry chefs know the tricks behind making perfect pastry dough, but what about all the other people out there who want to try their hand at baking and are not at an advantage when it comes to professional baking knowledge? To help you out, here are 4 simple tips that can help beginners like you make perfect pastry dough. The tips are not that difficult to follow. In fact, even children can follow these tips with ease. Remember: if you want to make an excellent batch of pastries that will be loved by your relatives and friends, pay close attention from the very beginning when you are still making the pastry dough. Read on to know more:
Measure Out the Ingredients Carefully
A pastry dough gone wrong is a pastry dough made from poor measured-out ingredients that were mixed together to form the dough. The result of not following the correct measurements of the ingredients is anything but perfect pastry dough. You may either have a rock-hard, crumbly ball of dough or a mixture that resembles that of cake batter due to too much liquid. For that perfect pastry dough, always follow instructions to the milligram and milliliter for utmost accuracy.
Add Milk or Water in Small Amounts
What makes the dry ingredients of the dough form into one elastic ball are the liquid ingredients like milk, water, and eggs. To form perfect pastry dough, measure out the required amount of milk and water properly. Then, slowly pour the liquid ingredients on the dry ingredients. Mix the dough carefully until it forms into one elastic ball that is not too crumbly or too wet. If the mixture is too wet, simply roll the dough on flour. If it is too dry, add milk or water to achieve the right amount of elasticity.
‘Folding’ the Dough
The best way to achieve perfect pastry dough is to know the right way of ‘folding’ the dough. The folding process is how you knead the dough using your hands. The idea is to flatten the ball with a rolling pin, fold the dough in half with the lower half overlapping over the upper half, then folding the half-circle dough from left to right. Continue the folding process until the dough feels elastic and easy to move like clay. However, do not over ‘fold’ the dough because this may cause the pastry to harden like rock when backed.
Checking the Elasticity
To have perfect pastry dough, the elasticity of the dough should be just right. The dough should be soft enough to let your finger form a hole on the dough when you push it, but not too hard that your fingernail feels the pressure when you try to punch a hole into the balled-dough. Perfect pastry dough is ideally achieved after 4 minutes of gentle kneading.
