A pastry is a baked good made from a dough rich in fat, which gives it a tender, flaky, or crumbly texture. This food category is found in nearly every culture, ranging from delicate French confections to hearty Mediterranean pies. The term encompasses everything from a simple pie crust to a complex, multi-layered breakfast item. Understanding the fundamental dough types and preparation methods helps clarify the vast array of products that fall under the pastry umbrella.
What Makes a Pastry
The defining characteristic of a pastry is its high fat-to-flour ratio and relatively low liquid content, which sets it apart from standard bread dough. Fat acts as a “shortening agent” by coating the flour proteins, which physically inhibits them from fully hydrating and forming long, elastic gluten strands. This process creates the desirable tender texture, preventing the baked product from becoming tough or chewy. Many pastry recipes contain between 40 to 50 grams of fat for every 100 grams of flour to achieve this effect.
The preparation method further dictates the final texture, generally falling into two categories: non-laminated and laminated. Non-laminated doughs, like shortcrust, incorporate the fat directly into the flour to create a crumbly structure. Laminated doughs, conversely, involve folding a solid block of fat into the dough multiple times to create distinct, alternating layers. The choice of fat, such as butter, shortening, or lard, also influences the final product’s flavor and melting characteristics.
The Crumbly and Cooked Doughs
One major group of pastries relies on a non-laminated structure, where the fat is cut into the flour to produce a crumbly texture. Shortcrust pastry, the foundation for many tarts and quiches, is a prime example. French variations include Pâte Brisée, a simple dough used for savory applications like quiches, and Pâte Sucrée, a sweeter, richer version often made by creaming butter and sugar. Pâte Sucrée results in a delicate, cookie-like crumb suitable for fruit tarts.
Choux pastry, or Pâte à Choux, is unique because it is cooked twice. The dough is first prepared on the stovetop, creating a paste with a high moisture content from eggs and liquid. When baked, the high heat rapidly converts this moisture into steam, which expands dramatically, pushing the dough outward to create a large, hollow cavity. This steam leavening is the sole rising agent, producing light, airy shells used for éclairs and profiteroles.
Filo pastry (phyllo) is a non-laminated style characterized by its paper-thin sheets. Made from flour and water, the dough is stretched until it is nearly translucent. Flakiness is achieved by layering dozens of these sheets and brushing each one with melted butter or oil. The fat separates the layers during baking, yielding the crisp, flaky texture found in specialties like baklava and spanakopita.
The Flaky and Layered Doughs
Lamination is a process of repeatedly folding a block of fat into a simple dough to create complex pastries. Puff pastry, or Pâte Feuilletée, is the purest form of this technique, relying entirely on the mechanical separation of layers for its rise. A typical puff pastry undergoes multiple “turns” or folds, resulting in hundreds of alternating layers of dough and fat. The only leavening agent is the steam generated when the water content in the butter vaporizes during baking, forcing the layers apart to create a light, airy structure used for Napoleons and vol-au-vents.
Laminated yeast dough, often called Viennoiserie, adds a biological leavening agent to the lamination process. This dough includes yeast, which produces carbon dioxide through fermentation, giving the pastry a bread-like rise and a softer interior crumb. The yeast-driven rise works in tandem with the steam from the butter layers to create the characteristic honeycomb structure of a croissant. Danish pastries are another example of Viennoiserie, often enriched with eggs and sugar.
Sweet and Savory Finished Products
Pastries consistently showcase the unique textures created by their foundational doughs. Non-laminated shortcrust doughs form the basis for classic desserts like fruit tarts and sweet pies, as well as savory items such as quiches. Choux pastry is used for sweet confections like cream puffs and churros, defined by their hollow, steam-leavened shells.
Laminated doughs provide the structure for recognizable breakfast and dessert items. Croissants and Danish pastries are enjoyed as rich, flaky morning treats, while versatile puff pastry is used for both sweet palmiers and savory applications like Beef Wellington crusts. The French term Pâtisserie refers specifically to the art and products of sweet confections, but the broader category of pastry includes all finished goods, whether sweet or savory.