A Whole New Generation of Doughs

For this book, I’ve developed new doughs alongside some of my old favourites that are as easy to prepare as they are to use. Whether you do this by hand or use a stand mixer or food processor, these doughs are ready quickly. And while most of them benefit from a short rest in the refrigerator before being rolled and formed into a crust, some can be rolled out immediately after mixing.

I like to categorise doughs in two ways; those that have a visible internal structure and those that are merely smooth pastes. The former are the flaky doughs that have tiny pieces of fat randomly sprinkled throughout; when the dough is rolled, the pieces of fat become irregular layers that fill with steam and puff slightly in the oven. The latter are the doughs based on liquid fats or in which solid fat is smoothly mixed with the rest of the ingredients, as for sweetened doughs.