Pastes | Types of Pastes

Pastes are creamy thick mixture made with flour , water , egg and butter . They are used for making various type of pastries . They form bases of many pastries while many are used as filling.

The types of pastes are :-

1. Short crust paste :- Short crust paste is crisp and brittle. It is not elastic and resilient like dough and used for making savoury Product such as turn over and pies, tarts. It can be cut into shaped and used as savoury biscuit.

Method :-

We need Butter , flour , salt and water . We are going with 500 GM flour , 250 gm butter, 30 ml icy cold water and 5/10 gram of salt.

First we will sift the flour and add salt. Now we are going to add butter . We will rub butter in flour by using our fingertips.

Now we are going to add cold icy water and work with dough slowly bringing dough together with finger.

When dough start to form a ball, we will turn out in working table and knead lightly to form dough. We won't be overkneading

Now we will make the dough flat with hand , cover it and wrap and refrigerate at least half an hour to keep gluten at rest and relax so it won't shrink during cooking.

Note :- we are not much water while making dough. The process will be easy while making dough by adding more water but results hard , tough pastry.

2. Sweet paste :- Sweet paste is sweet in taste. It is brittle and short like short crust paste but is used in sweet Product. It uses creaming method and is used for making tarts , pies and base for certain cake and pastries.

Method :-

We will be going with Flour , icing sugar ,butter , eggs and lemon juice. We are going with 1 kg flour , icing sugar 300 gram , butter 300 gm , lemon juice and eggs 300 gram.

Sift flour with icing sugar

Place in a bowl and put in butter. Now work with finger tips.

In a bowl we are going to make well now, and will add egg.

Now gradually draw in flour and make paste.we will knead the paste till smooth

Roll into ball , flatten slightly and wrap , refrigerate.

Note - In bread making we need flour with high gluten content while for pastries we need flour with low gluten content . Gluten decides how much liquid flour will absorb.

3. Choux paste :- Choux means Cabbage in French . Choux is a versatile precooked paste that can be used in pastries and fried for use in fritter. Pastry Product made from choux paste includes eclair , Paris Brest. When choux paste is baked , a stem is formed inside which pushes the paste out giving hollow texture. It is then baked at low temperature to keep it firm and crisp.

Method :-

We are going with water , Butter , Flour and eggs and using water 250 ml , butter 125 gram, Flour 150 gram and egg 4 no.s

First of all we are going to melt butter in water and bring boil.

Now,Add flour and stir it with wooden spoon

Cook for some minutes untill the mixture pulls away from pan, forming ball shape and remove from heat.

Place dough in bowl and mix dough for few minutes and allow it to cool.

Now add beaten eggs gradually, mixing the dough untill it is smooth.

The paste should be of pipe able consistency but not runny.

Note - Baked choux pastry rise due to egg content and stem . The oven should be hot when placing eclair in oven . Without this , eclairs will not rise.

4. Suet paste :- suet pastry can be cooked by boiling, steaming or baking . It is used for plain pudding that are made from fruit. The suet must not be melted before use and should be minced fine as possible to add cold water and flour. It can be used to make assortment of sweet and savoury items. Suet is the fat layer found in the kidney of cattle. We used beef suet.

Method :-

We are going with flour , baking powder , salt , water and ,beef suet. We need flour 259 gram , baking gram 10 gram , water 125 Gram and Beef suet 100 gram.