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The modern word 'pastry' derives from the Medieval English word 'paest', literally 'paste' and describes the way that pastry was typically used up to Medieval times. Literally, it was just a paste of flour and water (sometimes with salt) that was used to coat meat and fish to protect the meat from the fire. Within the paste coating the meat steamed to perfection in its own juices, rendering it very tender. Typically the hard pastry casing was broken open and thrown away and the meat inside was eaten. During the Medieval period someone may have discovered that the pastry on the bottom of the meat was fluffy and tasty and this may have led to the experimentation of mixing fats with the flour and water mix. From this, modern pastries were born. Indeed, pastries as we know them today only work because of the fats worked into the dough. These fats separate the layers of flour as the pastry cooks and dries making the pastry both tastier and crumblier. If you then take this basic pastry and add an egg or an egg yolk then the pastry both becomes more resilient and also becomes richer in flavour. Then you can add spices, herbs and other flavourings to alter how the basic pastry tastes. You can also alter the characteristics of the pastry by using different fats. Butter tends to give the best flavour and lard gives the best crumbly texture (that's why many cooks use a half butter, half lard mix). Margarine gives a smoother less flaky texture and a paler overall colour, which can be good for fruit pies. You can also make pastry with liquid oils, but these are hard to handle and need to be used immediately. However, the true secret of making a good pastry is to use everything chilled (utensils as well as ingredients) so that the fats do not melt before they are baked (this way you get little bits of whole fats in the pastry and this improves both the flavour and the 'crumbliness'. Then handle the dough as little as possible, to ensure the ingredients do not get too warm. For making sheet pastries such as filo pastry, flaky pastry or croissant pastry then you will make a basic pastry mix, roll it out then place butter (or other fat) on top and roll it out before putting more butter on fat. This process is repeated several times, so that you get the layers of pastry separated by layers of fat. When the pastry cooks the fats help separates the layers so you get a puffed and brittle effect. The recipe below is comes from an old family recipe and gives perfect, light and slightly crumbly flaky pastry every time.
Traditional Flaky Pastry Recipe Ingredients: 240g self-raising flour 60g chilled butter, cubed 60g chilled lard, cubed 30ml cold water (about) pinch of salt Method: Sift the salt and flour into a large bowl then add the butter and lard. Using cool fingertips (dip in cold water or hold under a cold tap) rub the fats into the flour (rub your thumb against your fingertips) so that the mixture comes to resemble fine breadcrumbs. Add the water a teaspoon at a time (you will probably need about 4) and using a knife (or your hands) combine until the mixture comes together into a dough. Whatever you do, don't add to much water, or the dough will become sticky and heavy. You want to reach the point where the dough just binds together with the water for a light pastry. Press the dough together then (if you have been careful) you can turn onto a lightly-floured work surface and roll out immediately. The more difficult the pastry is to roll (ie it is a little crumbly) the better the texture will be when you bake it. This recipe can be used for both sweet and savoury dishes. However, if you would like to use it as a base for flans and certain other sweet cakes add 25g brown caster sugar to the basic mix above.
Dyfed Lloyd Evans is the creator of the Celtnet Recipes site, where you can find a whole range of Recipes for Pastries as part of his Breads, Cakes and Pastries Recipes section.
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