Pastry Bakery Knowledge: Pastry Dough
What is Pastry Dough?
- Pastry dough is made up of flour, water, and fat as the main ingredients.
- Additional ingredients: Egg, baking powder, sugar, milk, etc.
- Every type of pastry dough is made with the ratio of main ingredients and additional ingredients and how they are combined to form a dough to determine the name of pastry dough.
- The taste can be sweet or savory
- The dishes of pastries such as Pies, tarts, Eclairs, Apple strudel, Danish, Profiterole, Quiches, etc.
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| Pastry Dough Product |
Types of Pastry Dough
- Shortcrust Pastry
- Choux pastry
- Puff or Flaky pastry
- Phyllo Dough - Filo Pastry - Phyllo Sheet
- Strudel Dough
1. Shortcrust Pastry
- The most basic pastry, used for sweet or savory 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).
- Common dishes: Pies and Tarts
- Visit Savory Tart Recipe from Sugar Love Spices
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| Shortcrust Pastry Pies and Tarts |
Sweet Shortcrust Pastry
- The pastry dough 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.
How to make Sweet Shortcrust Pastry
- Sift the flour, sugar, and salt into a large bowl.
- Add the butter and shortening.
- Rub the fats between your fingertips and thumbs, or use a pastry blender, until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
- One tablespoon at a time, work in enough ice water just until the dough comes together, being careful not to over mix.
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| How to Make Shortcrust Pastry |
2. Choux Pastry
- 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.
- Common dishes: Eclairs and Profiterole
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| Choux Pastry Product Eclairs and Profiterole |
How to Make Choux Paste
- Gently heat milk, butter, and water until the butter has melted, then bring to the boil.
- Once boiling, turn off the heat and quickly shoot in flour (and sugar, if using).
- Beat vigorously with a wooden spoon until the mixture is well combined and comes away from the sides.
- Cool to hand temperature and beat in the eggs gradually to a smooth dough the texture should be a reluctant dropping consistency.
- To make eclairs, fit a piping bag with a 1.5 – 2cm round nozzle.
- Wet your finger and press down any peaks.
- Pipe 8 - 12 cm lengths onto a greased baking sheet.
- Place in a heated oven and bake until golden and firm.
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| How to make Choux Pastry |
3. Puff Pastry/ Flaky Pastry
- Puff is used for thin tart bases, pies, pastries, 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 several 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
- Common dishes: Danish, Spinach turnover, Vol au vin/ Vol au vent, Curry puff, etc.
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| How to make Puff Pastry |
4. Phyllo Dough - Fillo Dough - Filo Pastry
- The flaky, flavorful, layered sheets of tissue-thin pastry are best known for use in traditional Greek and Mediterranean dishes such as baklava, and spanakopita
- Filo-based pastries are made by layering many sheets of filo brushed with olive oil; the pastry is then baked.
- But light, elegant fillo adds a sophisticated taste and texture to almost any dish you can make from dish dough (from appetizers and snacks to main dishes and desserts).
- Common dishes: Spanakopita, Baklava, Phyllo dough roll, Goat cheese filo parcel, Phyllo cheese pie, etc.
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| Phyllo Dough Product Baklava, Strawberry cup pastry, Spanakopita |
5. Strudel Dough
- The strudel is Austrian in origin, and its name comes from the German word Strudel, meaning "whirlpool" - which the pastry resembles when cut to reveal its thin sheet of dough rolled around the filling.
- Strudels can be sweet or savory, but the sweet apple strudel is the most famous.
- Common dishes: German Apple Strudel, Moroccan Vegetable Strudel, Austrian Potato Strudel, etc.
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| Strudel Dough Product Potato, Vegetable, and Apple Strudel |
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| How to make Strudel Dough |
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