Pastry
Flour-and-fat constructions where the distribution of solid fat, not fermentation, determines the texture.
What unites the family
Texture is determined by how fat is distributed through flour — dispersed for shortness, layered for flakiness — and by steam released from that fat and its water content during baking.
Two opposite uses of the same two ingredients
Shortcrust and puff pastry can be made from flour, fat, water and salt alone, and could hardly be less alike. The difference is entirely in how the fat is distributed.
In shortcrust the fat is dispersed as small particles coating flour, interrupting gluten strands so the baked result crumbles. In laminated pastry the fat is kept as continuous sheets between dough layers, so it melts and releases steam that pushes the layers apart.
Understanding that one distinction explains most pastry faults, including the one where a laminated dough leaks butter and bakes flat: the fat stopped being sheets and became dispersed.
Related
Products in this family
Texture is determined by the distribution of solid fat in layers, which is the pastry family’s defining characteristic — even though it is also yeast-leavened.
Fat dispersed through flour to interrupt gluten, which is the opposite use of the same two ingredients from lamination.
Pastry by convention and by use. Its method resembles no other member of the family.
The laminated end of the pastry family.
A pastry case is the structural component BakeHQ owns here. The filling is cooking.
Short paste, where texture comes from fat dispersed through flour.
Short or flaky paste, distinguished from a tart by having a lid.
Layered pastry, reached by stacking stretched sheets rather than by folding fat into dough.
A laminated dough, with fermentation running alongside the lamination.
Covered in
The pastry families, and what actually separates them
Covered by the guide, which is the resource a reader arrives at with this question.
How to store baked things, and why the rules differ
Crispness is the thing being protected, and it is the first thing lost.
What freezes well, and what freezing actually does
Laminated dough and baked pastry freeze for different reasons and thaw with different risks.
Reheating: what it can undo, and what it cannot
A crisping problem rather than a starch problem.