Getting to Know Your Pastry Dishes

Pastry is differentiated from other baked products by its used of ingredients such as flour, sugar, milk, butter, shortening, baking powder and eggs. Pies, tarts and quiches are common pastry dishes. Using these basic ingredients, renowned dishes worldwide had been made. What set a good pastry from others is that a good one melts in the mouth and brings out the full flavor of its filling. Pastry dough can also be rolled out and used as a base for baked products.

Nowadays, there are five basic types of pastry dishes: shortcut pastry, flaky or rough puff pastry, suet pastry, choux pastry, and phyllo (filo) pastry. Shortcut pastry is considered as the simplest pastry because it is only made with flour, fat, salt and water. This dates back to the medieval period and is used for pies, pastries and tarts. It traditionally uses lard or butter as the fat ingredient to make it crisp but light, crumbly pastry. Its savory version is used in Cornish Pastries from England and the Quiche Lorraine of France. The Chinese use their own version for their Moon Cakes. Its sweet version is used for the English apple pie. Flaky pastry is a simple pastry that expands when cooked due to its number of layers and is baked into a crisp, buttery pastry. It has two sub-types: flaky and puff pastry. This is best known for its use in French croissants, German Apple Strudel and Danish Pastries. Puff pastry is very light, thick, but melting pastry which is done by using butter. This is prepared by rolling the pastry into thin sheets before being buttered, folded and rerolled and repeating this process many times which can produce up to 240 layers. Suet pastry uses pure beef instead of butter or margarine. Examples are the English Puddings, savory Steak and Kidney Pudding and the sweet Treacle. Firm but not hard; this pastry can be used for fillings with sauces which may be unsuitable with other pastries. Choux pastry is very light and is often filled with cream. This was invented by Antonin Carême who first incorporated art in pastry making and is being used in confection of Eclairs, Choux buns and Profiteroles. This is considered as the most difficult pastries to make because the three normal ingredients are added to the dough in a different order and supplemented with eggs. The resulting paste is beaten instead of rolled prior to cooking and baking. It will form hollow shells of light pastry which can be filled with various flavor of cream and topped with chocolate. It can also be filled with cheese, tuna, or chicken and served as appetizers. Phyllo or filo pastry is the original precursor of all pastry. It is usually paper thin and greatly stretched which makes them break easily. It is often brushed with butter before cooking or soaked in honey mixture for desserts. www.pastries.com has all the necessary information you need if you are looking for ingredients and the like.