Pastry Making Principles

Principles of Pastry Making

• Shortcrust pastry uses the rubbing in method, incorporating fat into flour with your fingers

Function of Fats in Pastry

• Fats create a shortening effect by coating flour particles, preventing water absorption and gluten development, resulting in a crumbly texture
• More fat makes a shorter (crumblier) texture

Types of Fat

• Butter adds colour and flavour, and it is high in saturated fat
• Low-fat spreads are soft, difficult to rub in, and create sticky dough due to high water content
• Oil, high in unsaturated fat, cannot be used for rubbing in and minimizes gluten development due to its liquid consistency
• Hard block baking fat is suitable for rubbing in, with less saturated fat but also less flavour than butter
• Lard comes from pig fat, which is 99% fat; it is softer and white, rubs in easily and adds flavour, but it's not vegetarian
• Plasticity refers to fats that are pliable to surround and coat the flour particles to create a shortening effect

The Science Behind Pastry Making

• Air expands during cooking, stretching the gluten
• The fat melts during cooking
• Starch grains swell and gelatinize, absorbing fat and some water when heated
• Gluten coagulates and forms the structure of the pastry
• Extra water evaporates during cooking
• Surface starch grains become dextrinized, browning the pastry as amino acids and sugars form brown products via the Maillard reaction
• Fat will melt before starch gelatinizes if the oven is too cool, which ruins the pastry

General Rules

• Measure ingredients carefully
• Use good quality flour and sieve with salt
• Keep ingredients cool to prevent fat from melting

Best Pratices

• Maximize air introduction during the process
• Let the dough rest to allow the fat to harden
• Handle the dough minimally
• Roll pastry with light, short, and quick strokes
• Avoid overstretching when rolling
• Bake in a hot oven so starch absorbs fat and water turns to steam
• Cool away from draughts

Pastry and Flour Ratio

• Use half the mount of fat compare to flour in shortcrust pastry recipes
• For example, use 75g fat for 150g plain flour
• Therefore, use 100g of fat if the recipe needs 200g of flour

Faults in Pastry Making

• Blistered pastry: caused by ingredients being too warm, over-kneading/handling, oven too cool, or too much flour/water used for rolling
• Hard, tough pastry: caused by uneven water distribution, oven too hot, or fats are insufficiently rubbed in
• Soggy pastry: caused by steam not escaping during cooking and/or sugar being under the pie lid in a fruit pie
• Fragile and crumbly pastry: caused by too much fat, over-rubbing the fat, or too little water Shrinking pastry: is caused by over-stretching the pastry while preparing it
• Oily, greasy pastry: is caused by fat being too soft and/or the oven being too cool