TLE 9 - Baking Q3 Learning Packet 3 PDF

Q3 TLE 9 – BAKING Learning Types of Pastry/ Special Pastry Packet 3 Characteristics of Quality Pastry DISCUSSION: Making the Best Shortcrust Pastry 1. First, you'll need to choose your recipe and familiarize yourself with...

Q3 TLE 9 – BAKING Learning Types of Pastry/ Special Pastry Packet 3 Characteristics of Quality Pastry DISCUSSION: Making the Best Shortcrust Pastry 1. First, you'll need to choose your recipe and familiarize yourself with the steps involved. 2. Gather your equipment. For most shortcrust recipes, you will need: Large baking bowl Rolling pin Dinner knife Flat spatula Plastic wrap or cling film 3. Keep everything COOL. There is an old saying that cold hands make good pastry. Run your hands under cold water before starting to mix pastry. If the butter or lard warms up too much (like on a hot day, for example), pop it in the refrigerator from time to time. Roll pastry on a cool surface (a marble slab is perfect) dusted with flour. 4. Work quickly. Don't dawdle when making a pastry. It will turn out better and ensure you get a lighter, crisper pastry if you work quickly. This is why the previous suggestions for assembling your ingredients and equipment before you begin and keeping everything cold are so important. 5. Rest, Rest, and Rest Again Once the pastry dough is made, it must be wrapped in plastic wrap or greaseproof paper and rested in the refrigerator for a minimum of 15 minutes. Resting allows time for the gluten (proteins) in the dough to relax. 6. Use a Hot Oven. Always put the pastry into a preheated, hot oven (425 F /220 C). If the oven is too cool the pastry will melt rather than cook. 7. Ensure a Crisp Bottom. To ensure your tart or pie crust is crisp, place a heavy baking sheet in the oven while it is heating up. Making the Best Puff Pastry What Is Puff Pastry? It’s a light flaky pastry made with laminated dough. Laminating dough is a process in which layers of pastry dough and butter are rolled and folded together. Key Ingredients in Puff Pastry Butter Butter is the single most important ingredient when learning how to make puff pastry. It gives the pastry its mouth-watering flavor and signature flaky layers. During the baking process, the water content in the butter evaporates as it melts, creating steam that lifts and separates the layers of the dough, thus, creating air pockets in the dough. Flour Choosing the right is also important. While all-purpose flour is fine and can be used successfully for homemade puff pastry. Bread flour has a higher protein content than all- purpose flour, and therefore, contains more gluten. Gluten is important for making puff pastry because you want to create strong sheets of elastic dough during the lamination process. A weaker dough with underdeveloped gluten strands will yield a crumbly pastry (more like a pie crust) as opposed to a puff pastry with well-defined flaky layers. Water Use COLD water. It will help ensure the butter is incorporated properly into the dough and does not become too warm during the mixing process. Salt It’s important to select the right type of salt for baking puff pastry. While table salt can work in a pinch (pun intended), prefer using a fine kosher salt for this puff pastry recipe. Tools Needed in Making Puff Pastry Stand mixer: While you can mix the dough by hand with a spoon, a stand mixer speeds up the process and prevents overhandling the dough during this initial stage. Rolling pin: Rolling and sheeting the dough is a step that simply cannot be skipped when making puff pastry from scratch. A large, heavy rolling pin will help you create the butter block and evenly roll out the dough during the lamination process. Bench scraper: We like using a bench scraper to help work the flour into the butter block and shape the puff pastry dough into a neat rectangle. How to Make Puff Pastry Step 1: Prepare the dough In the bowl of a stand mixer combine the flour, salt, and butter for the dough. Step 2: Blend, then add water Mix on low until the butter is incorporated into the dry ingredients, then gradually add the water until a shaggy dough forms; about 2-3 minutes. It should hold together when pressed. Step 3: Shape and chill Turn out the dough onto a piece of plastic wrap and shape it into a 1-inch-thick rectangle with your hands. Wrap tightly in the plastic and then chill in the refrigerator for 60 minutes. Step 4: Begin the butter block On a clean surface, make a small mound of butter and sprinkle it with 70 grams of flour. Step 5: Beat Next, using a heavy rolling pin, beat the butter and flour together. As you work, use a bench scraper to lift the butter off of your surface and work the mixture together. Repeat this process until the flour is fully incorporated into the flour and the mixture is soft and pliable. Step 6: Shape the block Cut out a piece of parchment paper that measures 16×12 inches. Transfer the butter block mixture to the parchment and shape it into a neat 9×6-in. rectangle with sharp edges that is about an inch thick. Fold over the excess parchment then wrap the butter block in plastic. Place in the fridge to chill for at least 20 minutes. Step 7: Roll out On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to a rectangle that is 12×10 inches. Step 8: Position the Butter Block Remove the butter block from the fridge and peel away the plastic and parchment. Place the butter block on one-half of the dough, leaving a half-inch margin around the edges. Step 9: Encase the Butter Block Fold the top half of the dough over the butter block, and pinch the edges closed with your fingers to seal. Then pat the edges back into a neat rectangle. Wrap the pastry dough tightly in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes. Step 10: Roll Remove and unwrap the dough. Roll it out, on a lightly floured surface, to a rectangle that is 18×12 inches in and about a half-inch thick. Step 11: First Fold Taking one of the shorter sides of the dough, fold it in, toward the center, about 1/3 of the way across the dough. Repeat with the other side, overlapping the folds, so you have three layers of dough. It should look like a brochure. Step 12: Mark and Chill Use your finger to make an indentation in one end of the dough to remind you that the first fold has been completed. Wrap the dough back in the plastic and return to the fridge to chill for 30 minutes. Step 13: Second Fold Remove the dough from the fridge and repeat the process outlined in steps 10, 11, and 12. Chill for another 30 minutes. Step 14: Third Fold Complete your third (and final) fold. Remove the dough from the fridge and repeat (again) the process outlined in steps 10, 11, and 12. Chill for another 30 minutes. Step 15: Use as Desired After completing your final fold, the lamination process is complete, and the dough is ready to be used as desired. Kitchen Notes: To freeze, fold the dough in thirds and wrap it tightly before freezing. Defrost in the refrigerator before using. It is not necessary to work with the entire block of dough when making small puff pastry cases that can be filled with savory or sweet fillings, cookies, or the like. Cut the block into thirds or quarters and work with one of these portions at a time, keeping the rest chilled until needed. There are two methods to form the dough: by hand or using a food processor. Both are equally effective. Making your puff pastry from scratch is not difficult, but it is a time-consuming and painstaking process. Plan on three days to make this puff pastry, as the first and last steps require overnight refrigeration. WHAT IS PERFECT CHOUX PASTRY (PÂTE À CHOUX)? A pastry with a light and crisp outer shell, and a delicious, soft, creamy, custard-like inside. And it’s airy with large air pockets inside as well, perfect to be filled with a sweet filling. A few cracks will be visible on the outside, but it still retains the shape it was piped in. Inferior Quality Perfect Choux Pastry (PÂTE À CHOUX)? Cream Puffs or eclairs have collapsed. They are flat or look deflated. The eclairs look like they have a concave bottom or a crack on the bottom. Choux pastry is too soft and soggy. Usually, profiteroles or eclair shells have a crisp shell. The crispness doesn’t last long when it’s exposed to air or filled with pastry cream. However, they should never be soggy. REASONS: 1. Chances are the dough was too wet and runny. When you pipe out the batter, it probably didn’t hold its shape (see the picture above – the runny batter kind of spreads out). That means it has too little flour, or too much liquid in the form of water, eggs, and/or butter. 2. Removing the choux pastry from the oven too early is another reason why your choux shells will be flat. If they were soggy to start with, then they would not rise  properly. But even if they do rise, they will deflate when they cool down, due to too much moisture inside the shell, especially if you take them out of the oven too soon. The shells didn’t have enough time to form a stable crust, so they collapsed as they cooled down. 3. You need to prick the shells towards the end of the baking time (and/or after), to allow the shells to dry out. If you don’t, the hot humid air will collapse the soft shell as it cools down. The choux pastry shells have too many cracks or it looks irregular. REASONS: 1. Pâte à choux dough has undissolved solids or is not smooth. The salt or sugar hasn’t dissolved properly. The dough isn’t smooth because of flour lumps that haven’t been mixed properly, or you added raw flour to the dough after adding eggs. 2. Choux pastry was baked at too high of a temperature. The rapid rise of the dough at high temperatures can cause it to crack as well. 3. Many recipes call for pâte à choux to be baked at two different temperatures. First at a higher temperature for a few minutes, and then finish off at a lower temperature.