Pastry | Culinary Tips

Grating frozen fat for even flakey pastry

Oct 122010

I posted earlier about the proper technique for cutting fat into a dough. While that technique is still the right way to do it, I have a new trick up my sleeve, courtesy of Americas Test Kitchen – grated fat.

Lately whenever I see that a recipe calls for butter to be cut into a dough or batter, I reach into my freezer, and grate, on the large holes of a box grater, the same about of butter.

It takes a bit of elbow grease, but once it’s all grated, simply toss the whole mix together lightly and you are done. This method has the advantages of colder butter than if you used refrigerated butter, which is good for flakiness, and even sizes pieces. No more worrying that you missed a chunk!

My Pastry Kit - Part 1

Baking and Pastry No Responses »

Jul 252009

At work today, doing some monotonous task, daydreaming about what to write about next for the website, it occurred to me that the answer was right in front of me. My knife kit. I use it every day, whether or not I`m at work, and given the shortage of equipment my hotel, it basically has to have everything I need for whatever the day may throw at me. It seemed to me that my kit has most of what a home cook needs in terms of small wares.

First off, knives – 4 basic knives for pastry (more for cooks – boning, tournee, fillet…); 2 serrated and 2 standard knives.

10 Inch Victorinox Bread Knife

A large 8-10 inch serrated knife, called a bread or pastry knife, is ideal for slicing breads, loaves, peeling melons, and even slicing pies and squares. I like a longer blade for the extended reach across items to get an even slice without having to cut twice.

Small Serrated Knife

A smaller serrated knife is also handy to have. Mine is longer than most and was a freebie from a baking supply company that I was lucky enough to get a tour of. I find myself using it a lot, and even though it was free, and has a plastic handle, it is still really sharp (serrated knifes hold their edges longer than ordinary ones, but can`t be sharpened at home without a mechanical sharpener.)

I use this knife for cutting packaging and cardboard, but also for smaller bread and pastry items that the bread knife would be too large to handle nicely. A small serrated knife, say 3-5 inches is useful for slicing tomatoes, bagels and other items that it`s nice to get some bite into. You wouldn’t want to be halving cherry tomatoes with a 10 inch bread knife.

My next knife is the one I would say that I use more often than any other. My French or Chef’s knife. It’s also the knife that I keep sharpest as it gets the most wear and tear. This knife did cost a bit (around $100), but it`s one of the best purchases I’ve made. I see people chop with the wrong knife for the job (my mother uses a fairly dull boning knife for chopping veg, which makes me cringe), which is usually totally unnecessary. If you’re going to be doing any cooking at all, you should get a chef`s knife that feels comfortable to you and a honing steel with which to keep it sharp.

For the record, it’s true that a dull knife will cut you more often than a sharp one, but that said, give a sharp knife the respect it deserves, keep it covered in an edge guard, and watch your fingertips when using it or any other knife. I have fairly large hands for a girl, and an 8 inch blade is more than enough for me, but if you’re going to be chopping a lot of dense vegetables, squash, celeriac…, you might want to consider getting a 10 inch with a taller blade, but only if it feels comfortable in your hands, and isn’t too heavy to easily manipulate. It should be mentioned that a heavier knife, correctly used, can make it easier to get through tough vegetables.

Lagostina Paring Knife

Finally a small paring knife. Mine didn’t cost too much and isn’t the best brand, but it’s made of a soft steel and can get a nice sharp edge on it, though it does dull quickly. I use this knife for strawberries and other small fruit as well as for smaller tasks such as taking the hard white area of a tomato. (Chris: I have Victorinox paring knife made of similarly soft steel, and I love it. The soft metal is very easy to sharpen and get a razor sharp edge on. )

From the first part of my knife kit: Spatula, Silcone grabbers, Citrus reamer, Microplane

A microplane comes in handy all the time, from grating citrus zest to garlic to hard cheeses (parmasan…), it`s a real multi-purpose tool. I also have a citrus juicer which also comes in handy at home (I have 2, one for work and one for home) when making cocktails.

A silicone spatula is another lifesaver. From stiring to scraping the bowl clean after, this tool does everything. I recommend this style as it’s what’s most often used in kitchens and as it has a heat resistant plastic handle. This type also has a head that’s not too flexible which sounds counterintuitive, but is actually better for scraping.

The blue silcione things are to grab pans out of the oven. While they don’t get too hot, they don’t really give you enough room to get a good grip on heavy things, but they are perfect for things like cookies or scones.

More tools: Lighter, wooden spoon, bench scraper, paintbrushes, and scissors

Also seen in the first leaves of my wrap are an assortment of small paintbrushes for painting chocolate on 3D moulds, a decent pair of scissors. Mine are just sharp all purpose scissors as I don’t get called to cut chicken and things like that.

The wide metal blade with the wooden handle is a bench scraper or dough divider. It’s very useful for scooping things after you’ve chopped, and as the names suggest, scraping tables or cutting boards, and dividing lumps of dough into the sizes you want.

A long handled wooden spoon is indispensible.

The barbeque lighter is for lighting gas elements on the stoves at work, and maybe the occasional torch if the ignitor ins’t working.

The knife wrap itself is wonderful (both Chris and I have the same one, but mine is gray and his is black) and is available online from www.Koobikit.com

Types of flour and their substitutions

Baking and Pastry 3 Responses »

Jul 142009

0010495

Lately, Culinary Tips has been getting a lot of searches for types of flour, substitutions of flour types, and uses of flour, so I’ve expanded the entry here on flour. Hopefully this helps answer some questions. If not, as always, drop us a comment below or email a question.

Firstly, to understand flour, it helps to understand its source, wheat. There are several varieties of wheat, which I won’t delve into here. They vary in colour, protein content, and texture. The seed of which, has three distinct parts: the hull or bran, the endosperm, and the embryo or germ. In whole wheat flour, the husk of the wheat grain is left on and ground, hence the term whole wheat. In white flour is it removed, and only the endosperm and embryo are ground.

Inside flour are two important proteins that make baking possible – glutenin and gliadin. When these are kneaded together in the presence of water, they interlink and form a network called gluten. Gluten gives baked goods a chewy/firm texture, and captures the gases released from yeast during fermentation, and the carbon dioxide released from chemical leaveners in baking.

For many baking projects the right type of flour can make all the difference, but how do you know what the right type is? First lets discuss the types of flour, and what they are used for. The four basic types of wheat flour on the market are:

All Purpose
Cake and Pastry
Bread
and Self-Raising

Apart from self-raising, which has a chemical leavener (baking powder) already added, the others differ from each other in respect to how much protein is left in during the milling process.

Though there are many different proteins found in flour, the ones that are of concern to bakers are gliadin and glutenin. These proteins form gluten. Gluten is what makes dough elastic. When making bread you want maximum gluten formation, so the CO2 from the yeast will have a place to stay, but when you’re making say, scones or pie dough, the less gluten the better so the product will not be chewy.

Strong / Hard / Bread Flour

Bread flour has the highest protein content of them all, and though it varies from brand to brand and place to place, the protein content is 12-14%. It is often made using a type of wheat called Durum. Due to the high protein content, when worked with water, the most gluten is formed resulting in a chewier product. Strong flour is typically used for making pasta, bread, and other yeast leavened baked goods. Strong flour is also the type that should be used when dusting a workbench because of the large particle size. Unless you are using yeast in your product, or making pasta, consider another type of flour.

All Purpose Flour

Next in strength comes all purpose, which has an 8-10% protein content, putting it basically in the middle of the road when it comes to gluten forming potential. It is a blend of hard and soft flours. If you are going to be making a variety of products, but only want to buy one type of flour, this is the one for you.

Cake Flour / Pasty Flour

At the grocery store, you will often see a single product called Cake and Pastry Flour, with generally the lowest protein content of around 7-10%. Cake and pastry flour has the lowest protein content of all common types of flour, and should be used in making products with a light texture as gluten development is to be avoided. For example, using a high protein flour will make your cake tough, causing it to not rise when baked.

If you only have bread flour and you want some scones tonight, by all means use it, but be extra aware that the potential for chewy scones is higher with bread flour than cake flour. If you are making bread, and you only have cake flour, you may be in for a little more trouble. Soft bread depends on proper gluten development to trap the gases from the yeast, creating leavening, and therefore a nice soft crumb. With cake flour, there is only about half the protein in bread flour, so the potential for gluten development is lesser. To get fully developed dough, you may have to knead for so long that the heat from the friction in the bowl kills the yeast, leaving you with a big sticky pile of mess.

Quite a few British recipes call for self-raising flour because in the UK, self raising flour is roughly the same price as regular flour. For each cup of unleavened flour, add 1 1/2 tsp baking powder. If you only have self-raising flour, and your recipe calls for regular, omit the baking powder and/or salt (if your flour already has it mixed in).

Keep that galette from getting soggy

Baking and Pastry No Responses »

Jun 222009

Galettes are free form pies that are made without a pie pan and with only a single sheet of pastry. The filling is placed in the middle of a pastry disk and the sides are folded inwards an inch or two around the filling, creating an edge.

One thing to watch with galettes is the amount of liquid in the filling. Since there isn’t really a steep edge to hold in the juices released during baking, if the filling is too wet it can seep out and make the pastry soggy. One solution is to use a thickener, such as cornstarch, just as you would a regular pie. Another option is to drain the filling before baking and reserve the juices for another purpose (such as a sauce for the pie), and just put the fruit in the pie. A third option is to line inside of the pastry with some white cake crumbs that will absorb the moisture released when it bakes.

Cutting in fat for perfect pastry

Baking and Pastry No Responses »

Jun 012009

Rubbing butter or another type of fat into flour or dry ingredients is a common first step in many recipes such as pie dough, scones, and cookies. Under or over mixing the fat can lead to less than perfect results. For all of these purposes you want to use cold fat. If flakiness is something that is of the utmost importance, you can even freeze and pre-cut the fat beforehand.

The next step is to cut the cold fat into small chunks — rough 1-2 cm cubes are best. If you want to be very dedicated, you can chill everything from the flour to the bowl. Cold hands are best, but working fast will compensate for this if you don’t’ feel like rubbing ice cubes on your wrists until they are painfully cold. You can cut the fat into the dry ingredients using forks, hands, a pastry cutter (a special tool for just this purpose), or even the paddle on an electric mixer. What you’re trying to avoid is gluten development which is what makes doughs tough and chewy.

Two things need to be present for gluten development, flour and moisture. While butter does contain a certain amount of moisture, there is not a sufficient amount to develop gluten. When mixing, I like using either my hands or an electric mixer as forks are too messy and hard to control, and a pastry cutter is another gadget that only does one thing (Alton Brown’s much hated unitaskers!). When you mix with your hands, put the cold cubed butter into the bowl, and stir it around gently just to get all the chunks coated in flour. Now you can start to rub the chunks between your thumb and first 2 fingers. Don’t rub too much, just enough to break the chunk of fat up. Any larger pieces can be come back to.

The mixer method is basically the same with a slight difference. You will need to, after a couple of minutes, turn the mixer off and scrape the bottom to make sure all the flour gets a chance to be coated in fat.

Eventually after enough rubbing or mixing, the mix will change colour becoming more yellow and the texture will become more and more fine. For items like flaky pie pastry and scones, stop when the fat is still in visible chunks the size of your little fingernail. For less flaky doughs, continue cutting in the dough until it is the texture of soil or sand. During baking, the fat will melt trapping the moisture released from the butter or shortening which will leaven the item.

Cheap weights for blind baking pastry

Baking and Pastry No Responses »

May 312009

When blind baking a pastry shell, whether for further baking with or without filling, it is best to weigh down the parchment with something to further prevent rising of the crust.

You can use any number of things, from old dried beans to special pie weights, but the thing I like to use best is change. Any old loose change like pennies will work. They conduct the heat of the oven which will enable to base to cook through and also weigh down the shell to prevent it rising up. The only problem with this method is that the sides can still brown as you only need one layer of coins, if this is an issue, you can cover the sides with a layer of tin foil.

Since change can be dirty [as can old baking beans or pie weights], it is best to use a circle of parchment paper to cover the pastry.

Tips for perfect dough rolling

Baking and Pastry No Responses »

May 232009

Learning to work with pastry can be one of the most difficult things in the dessert field, but once you have mastered the basics, your repertoire will increase exponentially. One of the trickiest things to master can be rolling out the dough.

The best way to ensure that you both have enough dough and don’t have too much scrap is by only making 10-20% more dough than the recipe needs. This way you will be sure that even after scraps, your dough will be the right thickness for the size it is rolled out to. Example: A recipe calls for 140g of dough to be rolled out, so make about 160g to account for scraps.

Another key to minimizing waste is by considering the shape of the final product. When rolling for a round pie or tart, the best thing to do is to start with a round piece of dough of an even thickness. This may mean playing with the dough a little, but as long as you work quickly, and don’t kneed it, it shouldn’t affect the final product.

Starting with your disk, make sure that both the table and the top of the dough are well floured. Every now and then, make sure that the dough is still lose from the table and well floured underneath, and that the rolling pin isn’t sticking to the top surface. For round dough, turn the dough often, after every roll or so of the pin, making sure that you’re rolling out the same distance on each roll, and working the dough back into shape lightly with your hands if necessary. When your dough looks to be roughly the right size, check the size of the pan by placing it on top, making sure to account for the height of the sides. No matter how carefully you made the pastry, it will still shrink a little in the oven if it’s not chilled first. Many pie shops freeze the fully assembled raw pies overnight before they are baked to reduce shrinkage.

For a square or rectangle the theory is the same, only you should start with a square or rectangle piece of dough of even thickness and rotate the dough 90º each roll. As for the thickness, the more even the pressure you rolled with, the more even the dough will be, but you can even it out a little at the end if it’s a little off. The best way to check if the dough is an even thickness throughout is to run the edges between your fingers, and roll out more where necessary.

It is important to note that if you start out with an irregularly shaped blob of dough, all that you`ll ever end up with is a larger, thinner blob.

Culinary Tips

Grating frozen fat for even flakey pastry

My Pastry Kit - Part 1

Types of flour and their substitutions

Keep that galette from getting soggy

Cutting in fat for perfect pastry

Cheap weights for blind baking pastry

Tips for perfect dough rolling

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