How To Make Quick and Easy Flaky Pastry. Simple to follow instructions, great for pies, strudels, turnovers and freezer friendly too! (2024)

FAQs

How To Make Quick and Easy Flaky Pastry. Simple to follow instructions, great for pies, strudels, turnovers and freezer friendly too!? ›

Shortcrust pastry is the simplest and most common pastry. It is made with flour, fat, butter, salt, and water to bind the dough.

Shortcrust pastry is the simplest and most common pastry. It is made with flour, fat, butter, salt, and water to bind the dough.

While butter, shortening, or lard make equally light and tender crusts, an all-butter crust will be flakier due to butter's higher water content: as the crust bakes the butter melts and its water turns to steam, creating thin, crisp layers (flakes).

General rules

Keep everything as cool as possible otherwise the fat may melt which would spoil the finished dish. Introduce as much air as possible during making. Allow to relax after making to allow the fat to harden. Handle the pastry as little as possible.

The main ingredients used in pastry making are, flour, fat, water and a little salt.

The pros: Butter has the best flavor. A butter pie crust forms light, lofty, flaky layers while it bakes. The flakiness comes partially from the water content of butter, which evaporates as the pie bakes and turns to steam, separating and puffing up the layers in dough.

What you want for pie is flour that yields a tender, flaky crust, which means medium-protein all-purpose flour or low-protein pastry flour.

The first golden rule of making pastry; keep the ingredients, the bowl and the hands as cool as possible. Sieve the flour to add extra air and lightness to the pastry.

What is the most important thing to get right in baking a pastry? ›

A fine-grained table salt that will blend easily into the mix is best. Gives pastry its flavour, so it's the most important ingredient to get right.

Egg (optional) – the fat of the egg yolk enriches the pastry whilst the egg white gives it structure (making it easier to work with). They're both also wet so help to bind the dry ingredients together.

Plain flours are best for pastry. The gluten strands in bread flour are stronger than plain flour and can make pastry tough to roll out. If you used the wrong flour try resting the dough for half an hour to relax the gluten then follow our rescue tips below.

Adding lemon juice to the water helps tenderize the flour's gluten, resulting in a more delicate pastry. A touch of sugar helps promote browning for a crisper result.

1. Flour. There are no more Essential Ingredients for baking than Flour. Without it - and the gluten it creates - your baked goods won't get the right structure: it is the ingredient that binds everything together.

For the flakiest pastry, be sure your fats (butter and vegetable shortening) are very cold. Before you start your dough, dice the butter and portion the shortening into a few clumps and place the fats on a plate, then cover with plastic wrap.

Sugars improve the crust colour of baked products, improve flavour and help to retain moisture, keeping products softer for longer and so reducing staling. Examples of sugar forms are granulated sugar, castor sugar and icing sugar. Sugar also comes in liquid forms such as syrup, treacle, corn syrup, honey and caramel.

3 Basic Ingredients and Simple Equipment

Pie crust starts with three basic ingredients—flour, fat, and water. Some recipes will add salt, sugar, eggs, milk, vinegar, leavening and other ingredients which can enhance a pie crust, but the 'basic three' are the only ones necessary.

Shortcrust pastry is the best for pies that fully encase a filling as they tend to be firmer and less likely to leak. Puff pastry is great if you prefer just a pastry lid on top of the filling. Ready rolled shop-bought pastry are easy to handle and quite reliable - even professional chefs appreciate the convenience!

Gluten strands make it tough to roll out for flaky pie crust dough, to stretch it for phyllo or strudel dough, or to make more layers for puff pastry, but on the other hand, gluten strands make it possible to stretch a pastry recipe for flakiness and texture.

Why put vodka in pie crust? ›

Unlike water, alcohol does not contribute to the formation of gluten, the network of proteins that can cause a crust to turn leathery. Because the alcohol burns off quickly in the oven, drying out the crust, we could add enough vodka to keep the dough wet and extremely supple.

The acidic properties of vinegar inhibit gluten, some will say. This theory proposes that once the water and flour are combined, gluten starts forming, causing the dough to grow tough. Adding an acid, the theory goes, stops the gluten in its tracks and rescues the crust from toughness.

Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes, or up to overnight. Tip: Chilling hardens the fat in the dough, which will help the crust maintain its structure as it bakes. And the short rest before rolling relaxes the dough's gluten, helping prevent a tough crust.

#2—Add cold water

Before you start making the dough, fill a glass with ice and water. Add the ice water gradually to the dough, about one tablespoon or so at a time, and stop when the dough is just moist enough to hold together when a handful is squeezed.

Egg white + water. This is the egg wash I use most often in my kitchen. One of my very favorite kitchen tricks is to brush a bottom pie crust with an egg white wash before filling. This keeps the filling from seeping into the crust and creating a soggy bottom.

Lard produces the flakiest crust, but processed lard can have a chemical aftertaste. Some butchers or farmers' market stands might sell fresh rendered lard. Some of the best pie crusts are made with a combination of fats: half butter, for flavor, and half shortening or lard, for flakiness.

The perfect pie crust is both flaky and tender. It has light flaky layers. A tender and golden brown crust that has flavor good enough to eat on its own.

Putting the dough back in the fridge to rest for any time longer than 15 minutes – but ideally at least 30 minutes – allows the gluten to relax and allows the pastry to chill. Cool and relaxed pastry is far more likely to hold its shape when cooking.

Should pastry always be chilled before baking? ›

Chilling the dough allows time for the gluten strands in the flour to relax, which makes the dough easier to roll out and keeps it from shrinking while baking. Chilling helps moisture work throughout the dough, making it smoother and easier to roll out.

Sugar is hygroscopic - what this means is that sugar draws out and holds water. With less sugar, there is less hydration within your dough, and this can cause a tougher, drier baked product. Hydration also affects the shelf-life of your baked products.

Making ahead

This pastry (and all the variations below) can be made up to 3 days before using. Wrap well in plastic wrap and keep in the fridge. Stand at room temperature for 20-60 minutes (depending on the weather) until softened slightly, enough to roll easily.

A popular choice for creating dessert tarts and pies, shortcrust pastry is commonly made with half the quantity of fat to flour and has a crisp but crumbly texture. This pastry dough is a more forgiving variety of dough that can be resilient if overworked.

For a crisp crust with a matte, classic pie appearance, use just milk. Many biscuits and rolls are brushed with milk or buttermilk to give them that finishing touch. For a little more shine than an all-milk wash, but not as much as an egg wash, use heavy cream or half-and-half.

Without egg wash, the pastries look dull and dry, and not appetizing. Egg wash is also a great glue for making two pieces of pastry stick together (like the edges of a double pie crust), or adhering seeds and grains to the top of bread and rolls. So next time, don't skip the egg wash. Your pastries will thank you!

Egg wash is often used to make toppings on pastries stick. It's also used as a glaze to help the pastry achieve the perfect golden brown color and shine. Butter will not help toppings stick to pastry since it isn't a binder like an egg is, but butter can work in place of an egg wash for some foods.

Many chefs prefer unsalted butter, as it has a fresher, purer flavour, but salted butter can be used in all recipes. You will need to adjust the amount of salt added to the pastry according to the type of butter used. Margarine: This will produce a short pastry.

What flour do professional bakers use? ›

Pastry flour is the middle ground between cake flour and all-purpose flour. Professional bakers love that it's finely milled with a protein content that hovers around eight to nine percent, striking the perfect balance between flakiness and tenderness while maintaining structure.

Since milk contains a higher water content than cream, it allows the surface to remain wet longer, so it's best used on expansive doughs, like dinner rolls. Similar to an egg white, milk will provide a semi-gloss shine or matte finish to the final baked dough.

As the fat is mixed with the flour, it is warmed slightly. Then, the water is poured in, and the ice-cold temperature of the water prevents the fat from warming any further, which could potentially melt it into the flour rather than retaining the small bits of fat.

Besides making your mouth water, acidity cuts greasiness and heaviness and gives food a fresh, clean taste.

There are five main types of pastry dough for creating pastries: flaky, shortcrust, puff, choux and filo. All of them are made primarily from flour, water and fat. However, these five types of pastry dough each have slightly different core ingredients, different ratios of ingredients and, ultimately, different uses.

Baking is usually used regarding bread, pastries, and other bakery items. Baking is also commonly used when referring to cooking fish and other seafood items.

Some common examples include pies, tarts, donuts, croissants, Danishes, and scones.

1) Cream Brulee (FRANCE) -

Back in the 17th century, this dessert was introduced by Francois Massialot, a chef of a kitchen of a Duke of Orlean, who wrote about its recipe in a book. A creamy pastry a thin, crisp caramel layer is what is referred to as cream brulee and which has stolen everyone's heart.

What is the most common flour used for pastry? ›

Pastry Flour: An unbleached flour made from soft wheat, with protein levels somewhere between cake flour and all-purpose flour (8 to 9 percent). Pastry flour strikes the ideal balance between flakiness and tenderness, making it perfect for pies, tarts and many cookies.

Shortcrust pastry is the best for pies that fully encase a filling as they tend to be firmer and less likely to leak. Puff pastry is great if you prefer just a pastry lid on top of the filling. Ready rolled shop-bought pastry are easy to handle and quite reliable - even professional chefs appreciate the convenience!

1. French Macarons. Everybody knows how tasty the Macarons are, but hardly anybody knows they're the hardest pastry to make.

The clear winner for the United States as a whole was (not surprisingly) apple pie with more than 27% of sales going to the traditional flavor.

It's gotta be apple pie!

Red Velvet Cake

This American classic is traditionally made for Valentine's Day and Christmas.