Pastry-Making

The aim in pastry–making is to make the pastry as light as possible and this depends on the amount of cold air incorporated in the mixture during the making. The cold air expands on heating, thus making the pastry light.

When making puff, flaky or rough puff pastry, the air is incorporated in the pastry in thin layers, while in short crust and suet pastry the air fills the cavities all through the pastry. Self–raising flour is suitable only for suet crust pastry and plain short crust pastry, and should not be used for rich pastries.