Pastry and Bakery Products
Senior 1 · Home Science
Pastry and Bakery Products
Lesson 1 of 4
20 min
Let's begin
A Kigali bakery counter in the morning holds crusty baguettes, soft sweet buns, flaky croissants, meat pies, queen cakes and a tray of mandazi. They are all made mainly from wheat flour, yet each is a different kind of product, made from a different kind of mixture. Bakers and pastry cooks have a precise vocabulary for these mixtures and the ways they are handled, and you need it to follow any recipe.
In this lesson you will learn the key terms of pastry and bakery, the difference between a dough and a batter, the main families of bakery products, and the three kinds of bread dough, including yeast bread.
| Dough | Batter | |
|---|---|---|
| Consistency | Stiff enough to knead, roll or shape by hand | Soft enough to pour or drop from a spoon; cannot be kneaded |
| Liquid | Less liquid compared with flour | More liquid compared with flour |
| Examples | Bread, chapati, pastry, biscuits, mandazi | Pouring batter: pancakes, crêpes. Dropping batter: cake mixtures, fritters. Coating batter: for fried fish or vegetables |
| Family | Examples |
|---|---|
| Breads | Tin loaf, rolls, baguette, sweet buns |
| Pastries | Meat pies, fruit tarts, sausage rolls, éclairs, sambusa |
| Cakes | Sponge cake, queen cakes (cupcakes), banana cake |
| Biscuits and cookies | Plain biscuits, groundnut cookies |
| Fried doughs | Mandazi, doughnuts |
| Dough | What is in it | Result | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lean dough | Flour, water, yeast and salt, with little or no sugar or fat | Crisp crust, chewy crumb; goes stale quickly | Baguette, crusty rolls |
| Enriched (rich) dough | A lean dough plus sugar, fat, milk and often eggs | Soft, tender, golden; keeps fresh longer | Sweet buns, brioche, soft rolls |
| Laminated dough | A yeast dough folded and rolled many times around a layer of butter | Many thin, flaky layers | Croissants, Danish pastries |
Croissants and Danish pastries look like pastry but are made from a yeast dough, so bakers often treat them as a separate group, between bread and pastry (in French, viennoiserie).
A yeast bread is any bread raised by yeast: living yeast cells feed on sugar and give off carbon dioxide gas, which is trapped in the stretchy gluten of the dough and makes it rise. A basic yeast bread needs four things: strong flour, yeast, water and salt. You will study the science of yeast and the steps of bread making in more detail in S2.
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Sift | Pass flour through a sieve to remove lumps and add air |
| Rub in | Rub fat into flour with the fingertips until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs (shortcrust pastry, scones) |
| Cream | Beat fat and sugar together until pale, light and fluffy, trapping air (cakes) |
| Fold in | Gently mix a light ingredient into a mixture with a metal spoon, in a figure-of-eight, so as not to lose air |
| Knead | Stretch and fold a dough by hand to develop gluten (bread) or, lightly, to smooth it (pastry) |
| Prove | Leave a shaped yeast dough in a warm place to rise before baking |
| Rest (relax) | Leave pastry in a cool place so the gluten relaxes and it does not shrink when baked |
| Laminate | Build up layers of dough and fat by folding and rolling repeatedly |
| Bake blind | Bake a pastry case empty (weighed down with baking beans or rice on paper) before adding a moist filling |
| Glaze (egg wash) | Brush beaten egg, milk or sugar syrup on the top to give shine and colour |
| Dock | Prick pastry with a fork so it does not bubble up |
| Crimp | Pinch or press the edge of a pie to seal it and decorate it |
| Pipe | Press a soft mixture through a piping bag and nozzle to make shapes |
Task: Classify each product by family and by the kind of mixture it is made from: (a) baguette; (b) soft sweet bun; (c) croissant; (d) meat pie; (e) queen cake; (f) mandazi.
| Product | Family | Mixture |
|---|---|---|
| (a) Baguette | Bread | Lean yeast dough |
| (b) Sweet bun | Bread | Enriched yeast dough (sugar, fat, milk) |
| (c) Croissant | Between bread and pastry | Laminated yeast dough |
| (d) Meat pie | Pastry | Pastry dough (usually shortcrust) |
| (e) Queen cake | Cake | Dropping batter |
| (f) Mandazi | Fried dough | Soft enriched dough, fried instead of baked |
The key test for dough or batter is simple: if it can be rolled or shaped by hand, it is a dough; if it must be poured or spooned, it is a batter.
Tip
Memory hook: "Lean is plain, rich is rich, laminated is layered."
Exam technique: do not mix up proving (a yeast dough rising in warmth) and resting (pastry relaxing in the cool). They sound similar, but one is warm and one is cool.
State one difference between a dough and a batter.
Solution: A dough is stiff enough to knead, roll or shape by hand; a batter contains more liquid and is poured or dropped from a spoon.
What is the difference between a lean dough and an enriched dough?
Solution: A lean dough has only flour, water, yeast and salt (little or no fat or sugar). An enriched dough also contains sugar, fat, milk and often eggs, making it softer and richer.
Why is a pastry case sometimes baked blind?
Solution: So that the pastry is crisp and cooked before a moist filling is added; otherwise the base stays soggy.
Name the term for each: (a) beating margarine and sugar until pale and fluffy; (b) pricking pastry with a fork; (c) brushing beaten egg on a pie.
Solution: (a) creaming; (b) docking; (c) glazing (egg wash).
Summary
Sources and credits
This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
