pastries

Pastry is the name given to various kinds of dough made from ingredients such as flour, butter, shortening, baking powder and/or eggs. The pastry is rolled out thinly and used as a base for baked goods. Common pastry dishes include pies, tarts, and quiches.

A good pastry is light and airy, easily broken in the mouth (what is called 'short' eating), but firm enough to support the weight of the filling. The dough must be well mixed but care must be taken not to overmix the pastry. This results in long gluten strands and toughens the pastry. Thus, the manufacture of good pastry is something of a fine art.

Because pastry must be baked to be edible but pie fillings often do not need extra baking, many pie recipes involve blind-baking the pastry before the filling is added.

European traditions of pastry-making are often traced back to the filo-style doughs that were in use throughout the Mediterranean in ancient times. These recipies were popularized in Western Europe by crusaders returning home. However, the Romans, Greeks and Phonoecians all had filo-style pastries in their cullinary traditions. There is also strong evidence that the ancient Egyptians produced pastry-like confections. These recipies were adopted and adapted over time in various European countries, resulting in the myriad of pastry traditions known to the region, from Portuguese "pastis de nata" in the west to Russian "pirozhky" in the east. Pastry-making also has a strong tradition in Asia where Chinese and Japanese pastries evolved based largely on rice or sesame-based doughs and fruit or bean curds for fillings. The use of chocolate in pastry-making in the West, so commonplace today, arose only after Spanish and Portuguese traders brought chocolate to Europe from the New World starting inthe 1500s. Many cullinary historians consider French pastry chef Antonin Carème (1784-1833) to have been the first great master of pastrymaking in modern times.

Small cakes, tarts and other sweet dishes involving pastry are often called 'pastries' after their primary ingredient, and bakers and chefs who specialise in producing them are called Pastry chefs.