This site uses only a few technical cookies necessary for its operation. By continuing to browse, you accept their use.
To find out more...
To find out more...
Different kinds of pastry and dough
When cooking in general, and particularly in baking, we can make and use many different kinds of pastry and dough. All built on the same "base": flour - a powder to which we add fat, liquid or both to produce the dough which is then cooked.
Last modified on: November 6th 2012
Different kinds of pastry and dough
Here is a brief overview of these different doughs.
[Translator's note: in French, all doughs, pastries, batters and pasta are covered by just one word: “pâtes” , a feature of the original article that has been somewhat lost in this English version!]
Shortcrust pastry (pâte brisée) is the most basic pastry, used for sweet or savoury tarts (it contains little or no sugar). The French version consists of around 50% flour and 50% butter and eggs. The British version is plainer: without eggs and traditionally made with lard (these days, this is more usually a white vegetable fat, possibly with some butter).
This is the pastry of our grandmothers, particularly my own, Jeanne, who made tarts for me when I was a nipper with apples from her orchard – a memory that still moves me.
Sweetcrust pastry
Sweetcrust pastry (pâte sablée) is the pastry for sweet tarts. This is similar to shortcrust pastry, but with 15% sugar added, sometimes also (a great improvement!) with 15% ground almonds. It is fragile and crumbly, delicious on its own, so can be used just as it is to make biscuits.
Choux pastry (pâte à choux) is the famous French dough used for éclairs, Saint-Honoré and profiteroles. It starts as a butter+water+milk+flour mixture, called “panade” in French, into which eggs are then incorporated. During cooking, the water contained in the dough turns to steam to form bubbles. This is trapped by the light crust forming on the outside, causing the choux pastry to puff up.
Puff or flaky pastry (pâte feuilletée) is used for thin tart bases, pies, pasties, turnovers, mille-feuilles. This is a more technically involved pastry, consisting of a basic dough (the "détrempe" in French,) which is like a shortcrust pastry made with more water. This is rolled out and wrapped around a slab of butter, then folded and re-rolled a number of times to produce alternate layers of butter trapped between layers of dough.
During cooking, flaky layers form within the dough. The butter melts and the water turns to steam, so creating the puff pastry's characteristic light open texture.
Brioche dough is the dough used for brioches, Kouglof and certain types of bread. The name covers rich doughs, made with yeast, which need time to rise. Brioche dough is enriched with butter and eggs and is best handled cold (the butter keeps it firm), but should then be left in a warm place to rise.
Croissant dough is a flaky raised dough used to make croissants and "pains au chocolat". It is like a sweetened cross between a simple yeast-raised dough and puff pastry. The dough is rolled with butter to create layers and is then left to rise, creating a very light texture. The downside is that it is technically involved and requires a great deal of work.
The dough for fresh pasta is definitely the simplest of all to make: a mixture of flour, eggs and a little salt (a proportion of 1 egg to 100g flour). This dough is designed to be poached, i.e. cooked in boiling water for around 3 minutes.
[Translator's note: in French, all doughs, pastries, batters and pasta are covered by just one word: “pâtes” , a feature of the original article that has been somewhat lost in this English version!]
Shortcrust pastry
Shortcrust pastry (pâte brisée) is the most basic pastry, used for sweet or savoury tarts (it contains little or no sugar). The French version consists of around 50% flour and 50% butter and eggs. The British version is plainer: without eggs and traditionally made with lard (these days, this is more usually a white vegetable fat, possibly with some butter).
This is the pastry of our grandmothers, particularly my own, Jeanne, who made tarts for me when I was a nipper with apples from her orchard – a memory that still moves me.
Sweetcrust pastry (pâte sablée) is the pastry for sweet tarts. This is similar to shortcrust pastry, but with 15% sugar added, sometimes also (a great improvement!) with 15% ground almonds. It is fragile and crumbly, delicious on its own, so can be used just as it is to make biscuits.
Choux pastry
Choux pastry (pâte à choux) is the famous French dough used for éclairs, Saint-Honoré and profiteroles. It starts as a butter+water+milk+flour mixture, called “panade” in French, into which eggs are then incorporated. During cooking, the water contained in the dough turns to steam to form bubbles. This is trapped by the light crust forming on the outside, causing the choux pastry to puff up.
Puff or flaky pastry
Puff or flaky pastry (pâte feuilletée) is used for thin tart bases, pies, pasties, turnovers, mille-feuilles. This is a more technically involved pastry, consisting of a basic dough (the "détrempe" in French,) which is like a shortcrust pastry made with more water. This is rolled out and wrapped around a slab of butter, then folded and re-rolled a number of times to produce alternate layers of butter trapped between layers of dough.
During cooking, flaky layers form within the dough. The butter melts and the water turns to steam, so creating the puff pastry's characteristic light open texture.
Brioche dough
Brioche dough is the dough used for brioches, Kouglof and certain types of bread. The name covers rich doughs, made with yeast, which need time to rise. Brioche dough is enriched with butter and eggs and is best handled cold (the butter keeps it firm), but should then be left in a warm place to rise.
Croissant dough
Croissant dough is a flaky raised dough used to make croissants and "pains au chocolat". It is like a sweetened cross between a simple yeast-raised dough and puff pastry. The dough is rolled with butter to create layers and is then left to rise, creating a very light texture. The downside is that it is technically involved and requires a great deal of work.
Fresh pasta dough (for lasagne, spaghetti, etc.)
The dough for fresh pasta is definitely the simplest of all to make: a mixture of flour, eggs and a little salt (a proportion of 1 egg to 100g flour). This dough is designed to be poached, i.e. cooked in boiling water for around 3 minutes.
Lasts posts
XO Cognac Explained: Meaning, Aging, and Flavor Profile
XO Cognac always goes beyond the labels on the bottle: it is often associated with tradition and quality. You get to appreciate the artistry, character and ageing process when you understand what defines this smooth Cognac. The section below tackles everything about XO Cognac, from complex flavour...January 28th 20261,146 Sponsored article
Butter vs. grease
We often read in a recipe where a pastry is put into a mould that, just before pouring, the mould should be buttered or greased. But what's the difference between these 2 terms?December 1st 20252,7125
Getting out of the fridge early
Very often when you're cooking, you need to take food or preparations out of the fridge, to use them in the recipe in progress. There's nothing tricky about this: you just take them out of the fridge and use them, usually immediately, in the recipe. But is this really a good method?November 24th 20251,7265
Who's making the croissants?
When you look at a bakery from the outside, you naturally think that in the bakery, the bakers make the bread, and in the laboratory, the pastry chefs make the cakes. It's very often like that, with each of these professions having quite different ways of working, but sometimes there's also one...November 23th 20251,574
Oven height
When we put a dish or cake in the oven, we naturally tend to put it on the middle shelf, and that's what we usually do. But in some cases, this position and height can be a little tricky, so let's find out why.October 8th 20255,4055
Other pages you may also like
In Praise of the Vegetable Mill
When a recipe or preparation calls for something solid to be pureed, as in a soup for example, the natural reflex is to take out the blender and plunge it into the saucepan. This works very well in most cases, but there are times when you'd like to puree something and at the same time remove the...July 12th 202312 K5
The golden-brown finish on puff pastry
Let's take a look at the tricky matter of producing puff pastry with an attractive, golden-brown finish. French pastry chefs call this "dorure" (literally, "gilding"). Behind this quirky term there lurks a real problem (and the solution): when using puff pastry (pâte feuilletée) for a pie, or...February 8th 201849 K 24.6
How to avoid lumps
You've probably come across this unpleasant phenomenon where, when you try to incorporate an ingredient (usually a solid or powder) into a preparation (usually a liquid), the mixture doesn't mix properly and you end up with little "balls" or little lumps of the solid part that refuse to mix with the...October 9th 202024 K4.8
The 3 kinds of meringue
Meringue – what could be simpler? Just beaten egg whites with sugar added. This makes a fairly stiff mixture which can then be cooked in a cool oven to create those lovely, light confections. But in the world of professional patisserie, meringue comes in three different kinds. Even if the...June 14th 201365 K4.5
Raising (or leavening) agents
When we want to make a dough or batter rise when baking, either in patisserie or bread-making, we need to use a raising agent or leavening agent, one of which is called leaven. In the context of baking, a raising agent is simply what "makes something rise". It is a substance which, when added to...June 16th 202158 K4.8
Follow this page (as 2 people already do)
If you are interested in this page, you can "follow" it, by entering your email address here. You will then receive a notification immediately each time the page is modified or a new comment is added. Please note that you will need to confirm this following.
Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.
Alternatively: you can subscribe to the mailing list of cooling-ez.com , you will receive a e-mail for each new recipe published on the site.
The 1 comment already posted on this page