Pastries

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, which results in long gluten strands and toughens the pastry. Thus the manufacture of good pastry is something of a fine art.

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

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.

Check out the following recipes that are tagged "Pastries":
Danish Pastry, Danish Pastry Dough, Barb's Special Sweet Breads Part I, Fresh Strawberry Napoleon, Fig Pastries, Spinach Empanadas, Baked Spinach And Sumac Pastries, Russian Pastries, Ham& Cheese Crisps, Cheese Danish(Spandauer), Cockscombs(Danish pastry), Cream Puff Paste(Pata A Choux), Cream Puff Swans, Elephant Ears, Nut-Stuffed Semolina Pastries, Cyprus Style, Prune Danish, Strawberry Pastries With Vanilla Custard, Pineapple Tart With Pina Colada Sauce, Lebanese Cookies, Filo Pastries with Smoked Turkey and Mushroom, Filled Crescent Pastries (Cangrejitos), Filo Pastries with Smoked Turkey and Mushrooms