54
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What to use instead of cling film to wrap pastry
It is less useful than what you think
Frame challenge incoming...
Cling film is very light and made especially for such purposes. The environmental damage is extremely low - which limits what ...
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27
votes
What would result from not adding fat to pastry dough?
You'd end up with something somewhere between unleavened bread, pasta & laminate flooring, depending on what else you did with it.
The first two are what you'd get if that's how you treated them, ...
- 23.8k
20
votes
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Is there any substitute for butter (or oil) on puff pastry?
No. An edible organic liquid that does not dissolve in water, almost by definition, is an oil.
That's not the important thing, though. Substances like mineral oil are edible yet non-nutritive; they ...
- 20.7k
18
votes
Accepted
Is yogurt plus milk considered buttermilk?
Technically, this is not precisely buttermilk, but it's pretty close in both composition and usage.
The term "buttermilk" can actually refer to a wide range of fermented milk varieties. ...
- 14.7k
13
votes
How much should I beat choux pastry for optimal rising?
You have gotten a fundamental principle of the choux pastry wrong.
The rising and airiness is not caused by beating air bubbles into the batter, unlike with sponge cake and similar, but by trapping ...
- 53.9k
11
votes
What to use instead of cling film to wrap pastry
You don't have to use clingfilm (cling wrap, saran wrap depending where you are in the world), there are alternatives as long as the pastry is not sticky:
Plastic bags: I reuse zippable plastic bags ...
- 67.1k
9
votes
Is Dextrose the same as Atomized Glucose Powder?
Dextrose is one of the two stereoisomers of glucose, also known as D-glucose. The other is L-glucose. The two isomers are exactly the same except for being mirror images of one another.
In cooking, ...
- 320
9
votes
Accepted
Cake Projector Alternatives
That is totally doable. Just print out an appropriately sized copy of the desired picture and put a piece of waxed paper over it. Using a piping bag, trace the picture with frosting, filling it in. ...
- 58k
9
votes
Accepted
Shortcrust tart stopped working
If your dough is very dry and crumbly, it needs more water.
Add a few mL to the dough when adding the beaten egg.
- 1,860
9
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What would result from not adding fat to pastry dough?
Your title mentions oil but your question mentions shortening. Be aware that oil and shortening are not the same thing, and substituting one for the other will change the results. Oil is fat that is ...
- 3,098
8
votes
Accepted
Why does pâte à choux puff up?
A choux is an interesting batter that is created in a way that maximizes gluten structure. It is essentially cooked twice. You combine and heat water and butter, then add flour and continue cooking ...
- 64.6k
8
votes
Accepted
Why not use cornstarch instead of flour for pastries?
You still need some gluten, otherwise the cake will crumble. Any recipe that is gluten free has to use a number of different additives to mimic the structure provided by the gluten. If you just ...
- 10.5k
7
votes
Low Hassle, Knead-Free Doughs
Yeah, how about biscuit dough? That's a common way to do a quick and easy chicken pot pie. It might be a little tricky to actually enclose the curry in the biscuit dough, but it should be doable.
...
- 58k
7
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Low Hassle, Knead-Free Doughs
Many filled doughs don't require long resting times (maybe 30min to an hour), but they generally do require a little bit if kneading to make sure they're sturdy enough to hold a filling. If you have ...
- 75.5k
7
votes
Accepted
How does altering the fat-to-flour ratio affect the pastry?
Flour (+ water, either directly or from other ingredients such as egg white) gives the pastry structure. As you knead the flour, the gluten network develops and results in elasticity. When cooked, ...
- 2,155
7
votes
Accepted
Can I "fill" a chicken pot pie 24 hours before cooking it?
Absolutely not. As the other poster said but I will say with no "I think", I will say I know it will ruin the pastry. You will end up with a gummy crust that will never give you the flaky texture ...
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6
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How to get my croissant flakier and bigger? Is it possible to get a hollow inside?
If you are only proofing your shaped croissants for 40mins, that could be your problem. Proofing croissants takes a lot longer than proofing bread.
you should be proofing the shaped croissants at ...
- 61
6
votes
Low Hassle, Knead-Free Doughs
Based on you mentioning curry and bread, have you thought about either chapatti or roti? Asides from them being Indian bread and so complementing your curry completely, they are quick and easy to make ...
- 4,293
6
votes
Non-flaky non-crumble pie crust
What you are looking for is typically considered a kitchen mistake:
Overkneading.
Not-so gentle handling of the dough and some kneading plus a bit more eggs or a dash of milk will add density.
There ...
- 53.9k
6
votes
Accepted
Non-flaky non-crumble pie crust
Normally, pies are done with pie crusts, and they do have the crust types you describe.
But you can certainly add pie filling to some other type of crust and enjoy the result, if that's what you ...
- 125k
6
votes
Shortcrust tart stopped working
The recipe is a prototypical German style Mürbeteig, and whatever went wrong, it is not with the ratio, so it must be something about the process.
If you have problems, I'd say the first thing to do ...
- 125k
6
votes
Name of this Italian pastry?
I don't think these have a specific name, but it's possible to take a guess what they are made of.
The container is a "cialda", a thin waffle. Here is a recipe with pictures, basically it's done with ...
- 913
6
votes
What would result from not adding fat to pastry dough?
This sort of pastry is known as short pastry, although it has variants (e.g. you can make flaky piecrust with these ingredients). It is mandatory that you make it with some form of solid fat, the only ...
- 125k
6
votes
What kind of dish/pastry consists of white bread with ice-cream or some sort of mousse inside?
This is almost certainly Brioche con Gelato, which is Brioche, a sweet and rich bread with gelato a rich ice-cream made with whole milk and sugar.
- 11.2k
5
votes
Choux pastry (Chocolate eclairs) doesn't rise
Crullers are fried pâte à choux dough. When baked, rather than fried, this same dough can be used to make éclairs and cream puffs. A generous poof, in either form of cooking, comes from having the ...
- 2,409
5
votes
Is yogurt plus milk considered buttermilk?
While Yogurt and milk are not traditional buttermilk, modern buttermilk is very similar to yogurt. Traditional buttermilk is actually the liquid you have left over after you've made butter, while ...
- 612
5
votes
Troubleshooting a soggy baklava with torn sheets
It depends if you want a nice baklava or a quick one. I am not familiar about the quick baklava, so I will share my tips on delicious baklava:
Phyllo pastry needs to be at room temperature before you ...
- 51
5
votes
How can you achieve the glazed top in a mille-feuille?
Mille feuille (Napoleon), eclairs and petit fours, to name but a few, are definitely iced with fondant pastry - also known as poured fondant. Not a royal icing.
There are 3 types of fondant:
Pastry ...
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