For the Love of Dough: An Introduction to French Pastry

BY KRISTINA CASE / Photo by Kristina Case

I come from a long line of home bakers. As a child, I watched my mom and grandma from a high seat at the counter, their hands confidently white with flour, rolling pie dough flat and delicate as paper. “It’s a difficult thing, pie dough,” said my mom, noting the exact cold-water ratio and the moment when the dough is ready to be rolled. This is how my love of dough began.

My first job in high school was a prep cook at a small town café where homemade pie was not only an expectation, but requirement. This is where I honed my own pie-making skills, often making six in one shift. Lately, in search of new recipes and my old love of dough, I found myself stalking Instagram posts of impossibly gorgeous pies. The new cooking school in Boise, Season and Taste, offered the challenge and comradery I was looking for in a class on French Pastry.

Opened by Chef Christina Murray in August of 2020, classes fill quickly. As Head Chef with Sur La Table in the Village in Meridian, Murray managed the recreational cooking program. On class day, myself and other students surrounded a big wooden work table, wearing aprons and masks. On the menu: Lemon Tart, Quiche Lorraine, and Star Bread.

Chef Murray begins by explaining the difference between our two assigned doughs: Pate Sucre (sweet, crumbly pastry for lemon tart) and Pate Brisee (tarte or pie pastry), The lemon tart calls for softened butter and powdered sugar (not granulated) to be worked both hard and softly with spatula. Pate Brisee requires deftly smashing small pieces of butter against the side of bowl (not a pastry blender), keeping everything cold.

Chef Murray circles the table, feeling our doughs, adding suggestions, like less flour. After both doughs chill, we roll the dough with elegantly tapered French rolling pins that assuredly never touched my mother’s pies. While we shove our filled crusts into the oven, we begin our star bread. Stacking layers of yeasted dough dusted with a delicious orange-cardamom mix, we cut strips and twist into braids before baking. Baked, the bread looked almost too pretty to eat, but tasting proved to be the best part of the experience.

I left class excited to attempt these buttery, flaky masterpieces at home. I’m also looking forward to my next class. Judging from the way my family devoured my lemon tart, they’re looking forward to it too!

Take a Class!

SEASON AND TASTE

Chef Christina offers a variety of classes including for kids & teens, date night themes like Parisian and homemade pasta, and other delicious-sounding titles.

About Chef Christina:

Photo courtesy of Christina Murray

Christina Murray received her classical training from International Culinary Center (formerly the French Culinary Institute) and the New School in Manhattan, earning a Bachelor of Science in food politics.