Shortcrust, Pate Sucree And Puff Pastry
Recipes for pastry can vary according to the filling ingredients.
Sugar in pate sucre5e not only makes it sweeter, but also more crisp, more difficult to handle and more likely to scorch when baked.
Egg yolks add richness and enable you to patch the dough more easily, if necessary, after rolling out.
Make sure the ingredients; equipment and your hands are cool before starting to make the pastry and throughout the process. If the dough becomes sticky because it is too warns, cover it and put it ill the refrigerator to cool and firm up. Equipment can also be popped in the refrigerator. To cool your hands, allow cold running water to flow over them and your wrists; dry well before handling the pastry.
A cool atmosphere is also important, so avoid making pastry when your kitchen is hot. In hot. weather, if your kitchen becomes hot during the day, try to make the pastry in the morning before it heats up or in the evening after it has cooled down. If central heating makes it hot, try turning it off in the kitchen for a short while before making the pastry and during the process.
Handle the dough quickly, lightly and sensitively, as heavy or over-handling will make the dough sticky and tough, and will prevent puff pastry rising.
Cover the dough and leave it in the refrigerator for at least 20-30 minutes before it is rolled out for the final shaping and refrigerate it again afterwards for at least the same amount of time, before baking it. Puff pastry must also be chilled in between the rollings and foldings.
If the dough is left so long in the refrigerator that it becomes hard, allow it to soften a little at room temperature bcfbre rolling it out.
When rolling out, sprinkle a light covering of flour over the work surface and rolling pin and form the dough to the shape required, i.e. round or rectangular. Roll away from you in short, quick movements in one direction only, run a metal palette knife under the dough and then turn it.
Even if the dough becomes sticky, do not sprinkle flour directly onto it, as this can produce tough pastry.
car When making pastry cases, always use metal, not heatproof glass, earthenware or ceramic containers.
To prevent pastry from becoming soggy when filled with a cooked or liquid filling, such as a custard mixture, bake it blind first (see opposite). Once a filling has been added, the pastry must be baked immediately. Further insurance against soggy pastry is given by brushing the baked pastry with egg white and never adding a hot. filling to pastry, whethe-r raw or baked.
Pate sucree and nut pastries arc fragile when they are taken from the oven, so leave them to stand for a few minutes before moving them.
Pastries are at their best if eaten fresh from the oven, either whilst still warm or within a few hours.
