What seven varieties of pastries are there?

Clarence Boyd III
3 min readMar 22, 2023

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The pastry is most often associated with desserts. However, numerous savoury dishes may be made with pastry. The four most fundamental forms are short crust, filo, puff, and choux pastry. Each of these dishes is adaptable since it may be prepared with a wide range of ingredients and flavors.

For handmade pies, tarts, and quiches, short crust pastry is essential. One of the most accessible pastries to make at home, it is well worth the time and effort!

All-purpose flour, salt, butter, and lard are the main ingredients. To make it seem like breadcrumbs, mix the ingredients. Chilling the dough for at least an hour is the next step. In that state, it may be implemented and put into use.

The unleavened dough known as filo (or phyllo) is used in a wide variety of baked goods. It’s common practice to spread it with oil or butter and bake it until it turns brown and crunchy.

To make the best phyllo dough, you should use white bread flour that has a high gluten content. Making a sheet that is crisp, soft, and crusty without tearing is impossible without it.

Puff pastry is a versatile pastry that’s light, flaky, and buttery. Turnovers and palmiers are two more everyday uses. However, pies and tarts are the more common applications.

The method, which has now become standard in bakeries everywhere, was refined by the French. The degree, a water-based dough, is rolled out and folded over a butter block to form the dough. (barrage).

Before being baked, this dough/butter mixture is repeatedly rolled out and folded. The flaky, light texture of the pastry is the result of steam pockets formed in the dough by the butter before baking.

Choux pastry may be used to make savory and sweet pastries of varying textures and flavors. Included in this category are a wide variety of pastries such as eclairs, cream puffs, eclair au chocolat, Bossche bollen (a Dutch delicacy), profiteroles, and many more!

Choux pastry relies on three essential ingredients: butter, flour, and water. The combination of them makes for a dough that is easy to handle and still holds its shape when piped or spread. When making choux pastry, adding the egg gradually allows you to manage the dough’s consistency and prevents it from becoming too saturated. The amount of egg is critical since too much will cause the dough to crack while piping.

Puff pastry is a flaky dough sheet that may be used to encase a variety of fillings. It’s excellent for producing savory or sweet snacks for gatherings.

This is a great summery version of a basic pastry dish. A delightful dessert may be made using fresh strawberries, cream cheese, and puff pastry. Puff pastry may be prepared in a number of ways, and one of them is to wrap it into a long rope and stuff it with a variety of ingredients. Even a sausage roll is possible.

Pastry sheets are a common choice for the bottom layer of pies and other baked dishes. Light, airy, and crisp best describe these pastries. Made in a similar fashion to pie crusts, room-temperature butter is cut into bits and worked into the dough. After that, you roll out the butter and fold it to make layers.

Puff pastry sheets are stacked and laminated before baking, as opposed to short crust pastry, which is a rolled-out block of flour. Because of this method, the dough will rise while baking.

The pie crust may be produced by hand or in a food processor and is a basic buttery dough. For optimal flavor, texture, and structure, it is often cooked with a mix of butter and shortening.

Fillings of fruit or cream are standard with this dough. In order for the crust to tolerate the moisture in the filling, it must be made, rolled out, and baked before the fillings are added.

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Clarence Boyd III

Clarence Boyd III is the Director of a meal solutions provider in Collin County, Texas.