Grain
Pastry
Pastry is a flour-based dough enriched with fat for crisp, flaky, or tender baked structures—shortcrust, puff, filo, choux, and hot-water crust among them. It encases sweet and savoury fillings or stands alone as laminated viennoiserie-adjacent shells. Butter, lard, or oil and handling method define layers and snap. Wheat flour is standard; specialty pastries use alternative flours for texture or diet needs.
Also known as: Pâte, Phyllo / Filo, Yufka / Baklavalık
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History
Early oil-and-flour doughs in the Mediterranean prefigured layered pastry traditions.
French pastry kitchens refined puff and shortcrust techniques foundational to modern pâtisserie.
Filo and baklava traditions exemplified ultra-thin sheet pastry across Ottoman cuisines.
Commercial frozen pastry sheets brought puff and shortcrust into home kitchens worldwide.