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The pastry world is quite complicated, especially with so many variations available. Whether you crave puff pastry or flaky pastry, the options are endless. The interesting part is with useful recipes available online, you can prepare everything from scratch. For instance, you can buy puff pastry sheets online from Swiggy Instamart and be a chef yourself at making impressive desserts.
Pastry has served as a facet of society long before popular baking shows came into existence. In the modern era, you do not have to travel long to come across fine pastry. With the help of basic ingredients, like puff pastry sheets and others, available online on Swiggy Instamart, you can order groceries at your doorstep and prepare the delicacies yourself.
Pastry Types 101: Know the Different Forms
Unlike conventional cakes, the preparation of pastries calls for fewer ingredients. In addition to ingredients, their preparation also involves specific methods that might have taken years to perfect. For delicate pastries like puff pastry and danishes, there is a special handling of the dough, including kneading, rolling, and flattening.
If you are a dessert-lover, here are some of the popular types of pastry you must try at least once:
- Puff Pastry
The preparation of puff pastry is no easy task. This style of pastry dough is prepared by effectively layering and interspersing fat in a dough block. Once you have baked the puff pastry dough, you will observe that the fat starts melting and the water inside releases steam. It is with the help of the steam that the ‘puff’ effect and its desirable characteristics are delivered.
The key to achieving perfection in the preparation of a puff pastry is ensuring that the dough remains cold. If you are using butter as the source of fat, you will find that a warm dough will make the butter seep out of the dough while baking. It will not produce the right puff shape of the dough. At the same time, it is also imperative for you to keep the oven hot. It is because a cold oven will not make the butter to steam properly.
With the help of the right preparation items, including the puff pastry sheets, you can prepare yourself a delicious puff pastry of your preference.
- Shortcrust Pastry
It is a basic, widely-used type of pastry prepared by combining chunks of butter with flour. Once the butter starts forming smaller chunks in combination with the flour, cold water is added to the dough to prepare the final pastry dough.
The butter prevents the water from soaking the flour entirely and creating any mess. The ultimate objective of the shortcrust pastry is to ensure that the dough is immensely soft and crumbly without any gluten development. If you are baking, you should be extra careful that you are adding water slowly to the dough to minimise the risk of over-saturation.
Once your pastry has come together, you should chill the same on a rolled-out & floured surface. As you allow the dough to chill for around 30 minutes, it will enable the gluten to reduce and fat to come up. As a result, you get a pastry that is soft, crumbly, and filled with smaller pockets.
- Hot Water Crust Pastry
This type of pastry is mostly used for pies due to its overall durability. You will usually come across hot water crust pastry being used for roasted root vegetable pies and meat pies as it is capable of withstanding heavy fillings. To prepare the hot water crust pastry, you are expected to heat water and fat (vegetable shortening or animal lard) until the mixture comes to a boil.
Then, this fat is poured into flour and stirred continuously until the mixture becomes moist. In comparison to other types of pastry, hot water crust pastry is expected to be kneaded to make sure that that dough remains hydrated.
As the name indicates, this pastry differs significantly from a regular pie crust. In a hot water crust pastry, hot water remains the primary ingredient for starching the flour. As a result, you get a dough that is more pliable, sturdy, and thick. If you are only trying out baking by leveraging basic ingredients from Swiggy Instamart, you should understand that this pastry is easier to repair with the help of leftover dough.
- Filo Pastry
Filo dough, or phyllo dough, is a type of thin pastry that is quite different from a puff pastry. Filo dough boasts its origins in the Mediterranean region. Eventually, it spread to other parts of the European subcontinent. During its preparation, bakers make use of flour, fat, water, salt, and vinegar to develop highly thin sheets of dough.
Once the sheets are ready, you can stack, shape, and form the dough into other items like spanakopita and sticky baklava. Filo dough serves to be quite fragile. Therefore, once it is converted into thin sheets, the dough is eventually frozen until it becomes ready to be used.
If you aim at preparing filo dough at home, it is recommended to keep melted butter with you. As per the traditions, filo sheets are stacked with butter in between and baked until they turn golden brown & flaky. As a result, you get a pastry that is similar in taste to puffy pastry.
Conclusion
Pastries, like puffy pastry and crisp shortbreads, are crucial in both savoury and sweet dishes. With the right ingredients, you can prepare yourself delicious pastries to satisfy your cravings. Swiggy Instamart comes forth to your rescue by providing essential grocery items online, on the go. You can order groceries online from Swiggy Instamart and get essential items delivered right to your doorstep.