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
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 20251,3685
The importance of sieving
In recipes that use a fine powder (flour, powdered sugar, etc.), you'll often see the advice to sift before using it. To sift is to pass the powder in question through a sieve (a very fine strainer) before incorporating it into your recipe. It's often advice, but is it really useful?September 3rd 20256,8503
The grease spray
As soon as you have something in a recipe that sticks to the mold, the question always arises as to how difficult it is to remove from the mold. There's nothing more frustrating than breaking your cake when unmolding it, because part of it has stuck in the mold. The classic way to avoid this is...August 26th 20256,2935
Cake moulds
When we make a cake, or a cake of the same rectangular shape, we usually take out our usual mould and tell ourselves that the recipe is anyway "for a cake", but is it really that simple?August 25th 20256,3995
Thinning out herbs
If you need to add a long-stemmed herb (tarragon, mint, verbena, thyme, etc.) to a recipe, you'll probably only need the leaves and not the stem, so you'll need to remove the leaves. Leaf removal means keeping only the beautiful leaves, and eliminating the ugly stems and leaves, but how do you do...August 8th 20254,5255
Other pages you may also like
Should I believe my oven?
Can you really trust your oven? This is an important question as we are always tempted to take the temperature indicated as gospel truth and, unfortunately, this is rarely very precise. .July 4th 201132 K4.6
The art of the charlotte
In cooking, a charlotte is a delicious moulded dessert, with biscuits around the outside that have been soaked in a flavoured syrup, filled with a light cream or mousse. The charlotte is left to set in the fridge before being turned out and served in slices. It is very light and a lovely sweet...February 27th 201346 K4.3
Fruits which can ruin your jelly
There are many ways of making a fruit mousse, but one of the simplest is to prepare a fruit jelly (basically a fresh fruit coulis with gelatine) and then mix this jelly before it sets completely with whipped cream. The result is perfect for filling a charlotte, for example. But do beware;...March 6th 201378 K4.0
The right way to use a blender
You may well have a blender in your own kitchen. You know, that useful gadget that allows you to liquidize stuff at high speed into a smooth liquid. Of course, the most obvious use that comes to mind is for soups: if you have boiled some vegetables in water, with just a quick blast of the blender,...May 31th 201723 K5
Rosemary in recipes
Rosemary, as I’m sure you know, is a culinary herb, one of the famous French "herbes de Provence", and is very effective in bringing a real taste of the Mediterranean to any dish. The classic way to use it in a recipe is to add a sprig or two and leave it in during cooking as a way of...April 18th 201823 K4.7
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