Overview

Pastry is a broad category of baked goods made from flour, fat, water, and often sugar and eggs. The term refers both to the finished product and to the dough from which it is made. Pastry dough is distinguished from bread dough by its high fat content, which inhibits gluten development and produces a tender, flaky, or crumbly texture [1][2].

Origin and history

The earliest forms of pastry appear in ancient Mediterranean and Mesopotamian cultures, where oil and flour were combined to make early crusts for meat and fruit fillings [1]. The modern European pastry tradition developed in medieval France, where butter replaced oil and lard, and techniques such as lamination (folding butter into dough repeatedly) were refined. The French pâtisserie tradition, codified in the 17th and 18th centuries, established the foundational pastry types still used globally: pâte brisée (shortcrust), pâte feuilletée (puff pastry), pâte sucrée (sweet shortcrust), and pâte à choux (choux pastry) [2]. Pastry spread through European colonialism and migration, adapting to local ingredients and tastes in every region it reached.

Varieties and aliases

  • Shortcrust pastry (pâte brisée): a simple mixture of flour, fat, and water, used for pies and tarts.
  • Puff pastry (pâte feuilletée): laminated dough that rises into hundreds of thin, buttery layers when baked.
  • Choux pastry (pâte à choux): a cooked dough that puffs into a hollow shell, used for éclairs, cream puffs, and profiteroles.
  • Phyllo (filo) dough: paper-thin sheets of unleavened dough, used in Greek, Turkish, and Middle Eastern pastries.
  • Flaky pastry: a simplified laminated dough, common in British and American baking.
  • Hot-water crust: a dense, sturdy pastry used for savory pies like pork pie and game pie.
  • Suet pastry: a British pastry made with beef suet instead of butter, used for steamed puddings and dumplings.

Culinary uses

Pastry serves as the structural base or wrapper for a vast range of sweet and savory dishes. Sweet pastries include pies, tarts, turnovers, danishes, croissants, éclairs, baklava, and strudel. Savory pastries include quiches, pot pies, empanadas, samosas, pasties, and sausage rolls. The choice of pastry type depends on the desired texture: shortcrust for a crumbly base, puff pastry for flaky layers, choux for a light hollow shell, and phyllo for crisp, shattering layers [1][2]. Pastry is typically baked at high temperatures (350–425°F / 175–220°C) to set the structure and develop color.

Cross-cuisine context

Pastry is a universal culinary technique, not tied to any single cuisine. Every major food culture has developed its own pastry traditions using locally available fats and grains. In the Mexican and Mesoamerican tradition, masa-based doughs (not wheat-based) serve analogous roles: empanadas use masa or wheat dough, while tamales use nixtamalized corn masa steamed in husks. The French-influenced pan dulce tradition in Mexico includes cuernos (horn-shaped rolls, denser than croissants) and hojaldras (puff-pastry sheets).

In the LA-relevant cuisines represented in the platform’s catalog, pastry appears in nearly every tradition. The Arabic world produces warqa (Morocco’s paper-thin pastry for pastilla), filo-based baklava and knafeh, and sambousek turnovers. Armenian cuisine features gata (sweet layered pastry with streusel filling), su boereg (parboiled layered cheese pastry), and paklava (walnut-filled, never pistachio). Cambodian pastry includes num kong (ring-shaped fried rice-flour pastry in palm syrup) and num ansom chek (banana sticky rice logs). Chinese pastry ranges from egg tarts (dan tat) in puff or shortcrust to you tiao (fried dough sticks) and mooncakes. Filipino panadería produces ensaymada (coiled brioche with butter, sugar, and cheese) and hopia (flaky mung-bean-filled pastry of Hokkien origin). Guatemalan pastry includes empanadas de loroco and colochos de canela (cinnamon spirals). Japanese wagashi includes kuri manju (baked chestnut-shaped pastry). Korean bunsik includes bungeoppang (fish-shaped red-bean pastry). Persian shirini includes baklava-e Yazdi (lighter, less syrup-soaked than Greek baklava). Peruvian pastry includes alfajores (shortbread with manjar blanco). Russian pastry includes pirozhki (yeasted dough pockets) and chebureki (thin fried turnovers of Crimean Tatar origin). Salvadoran pastry includes semita pacha (shortbread-style layered pastry with pineapple jam). Vietnamese pastry includes bánh tiêu (hollow fried sesame dough) and chả giò trái cây (sweet fried rolls with fruit).

Notes for cooks

  • The key to tender pastry is minimal handling: overworking the dough develops gluten, producing toughness rather than flakiness [2].
  • Fat temperature matters: cold butter (for flaky/laminated pastries) creates steam pockets; room-temperature butter (for shortcrust) blends more evenly.
  • Blind baking (baking the crust empty, weighted with pie weights or dried beans) prevents soggy bottoms in wet-filled pies and tarts.