Pastry is various unleavened doughs, often enriched with fat or eggs. The dough may be called pastry dough. Common pastry dishes include börek, pies, tarts, and turnovers. In North America, the term Pastry is used for sweet baked goods made with dough, however, it is generally used colloquially to describe all sweet baked or fried goods. This usage is a modern term, as historically, as per The American Heritage Dictionary, the term was similar to that used in British and Australian English. Items like croissant and Danish pastry may look like puff pastry (one of the types of pastry dough) but are made with a leavened dough, called Viennoiserie, and are described by some as a meeting point between bread and pastry, or, as by the Dictionnaire Petit Robert, as neither a pastry nor a bread.
Definitions and terms
The precise definition of the term pastry varies based on location and culture. Common doughs used to make pastries include filo dough, puff pastry, choux pastry, shortcrust pastry, and flaky pastry. Pastries tend to have a delicate texture, often flaky or crumbly, and rich flavor. This is caused by the crystals found in solid fats, which forces the starch particles apart and stops the formation of elastic gluten, making the pastry short. Pastries also tend to be baked.
Pastry terms Pastry blender A kitchen implement used to chop the fat into the flour, which prevents the melting of the fat with body heat from fingers, and improves control of the size of the fat chunks. Usually constructed of wire or plastic, with multiple wires or small blades connected to a handle. Pastry board A square or oblong board, preferably marble but usually wood, on which pastry is flattened. Pastry brake/Dough sheeter Opposed and counter-rotating rollers with a variable gap through which pastry can be worked and reduced in thickness for commercial production. A small version is used domestically for pasta production. Pastry case An uncooked or blind baked pastry container that is used to hold savory or sweet mixtures. Pastry cutters Various metal or plastic outlines of shapes, e.g. circles, fluted circles, diamonds, gingerbread men, etc., sharpened on one or both sides and used to cut out corresponding shapes from biscuit, scone, pastry, or cake mixtures.
History
The European tradition of pastry-making is often traced back to the shortcrust era of flaky doughs that were in use throughout the Mediterranean in ancient times. In the ancient Mediterranean, the Romans, Greeks, and Phoenicians all had filo-style pastry in their culinary traditions. In the plays of Aristophanes, written in the 5th century BC, there is mention of sweetmeats, including small baked goods filled with fruit. Roman cuisine used flour, oil, and water to make the pastry dough that were used to cover meats and fowls during baking in order to keep in the juices, but the pastry was not meant to be eaten. A pastry that was meant to be eaten was a richer pastry that was made into small baked goods containing eggs or little birds and that were often served at banquets. Greeks and Romans both struggled in making a good pastry because they used oil in the cooking process, and oil causes the pastry to lose its stiffness. In the medieval cuisine of Northern Europe, chefs were able to produce nice, stiff pastry dough because they cooked with shortening and butter. Some incomplete lists of ingredients have been found in medieval cookbooks, but no full, detailed versions. There were stiff, empty pastry dough called coffins or 'huff paste', that were eaten by servants only and included an egg yolk glaze to help make them more enjoyable to consume. Medieval pastry based baked goods also included small tarts to add richness. It was not until about the mid-16th century that actual pastry recipes began appearing. These recipes were adopted and adapted over time in various European countries, resulting in the myriad pastry traditions known to the region, including Portuguese "pastéis de nata" to Pasty in the United Kingdom. Throughout the world pastry has developed. In China, Chinese flaky pastry (Chinese: 中式酥皮; also known as Chinese puff pastry) is made in two distinct styles, Huaiyang-style (淮揚酥皮) and Cantonese-style pastry (廣式酥皮). In Asia, spring rolls are made with a simple pastry dough of water, flour and oil.
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