5 popular types of pastries you must try
The pastry is nothing but a mixture of flour, water, and shortening. These three ingredients combine to form an array of pastries that can either be sweet or savory. Some are used to make breakfast croissants, and some to make sweet delicacies. Here's a list of the most popular pastries from across the globe. Go on, stuff your face with these beauties.
Baklava
Baklava is a flaky Turkish dessert made of filo pastry, which is filled with chopped nuts and sweetened with honey or syrup. While some believe baklava originated in the Ottoman Empire, others believe baklava is a Persian product. The earliest written record can be found in a 13th-century cookbook that is based on Persian recipes from the 9th century!
Choux
Choux pastry refers to a delicate pastry dough made with flour, butter, eggs, and water. Instead of a raising agent like yeast or baking powder, choux pastry uses a high moisture content to create steam. When the water in the dough evaporates while baking, it puffs up the pastry. It is used in many European cuisines and is the basis of several desserts.
Croissants
Croissant is a flaky bread made of puff pastry. The process involves layering a yeast dough with butter, rolling, and folding it several times. Then it is rolled into a sheet using a technique called laminating. Kipferl, the ancestor of this French baked item, was documented in Austria in the 13th century. The French version was named for its crescent (croissant) shape.
Éclair
Eclairs are rectangular pastries made with choux dough which are filled with cream and topped with icing. The dough is piped into an oblong shape and baked until it is crisp on the outside and hollow inside. Once it cools, it is filled with flavored cream, custard, or whipped cream; and iced with fondant icing. It is believed to have originated in France.
Macarons
Macarons are meringue-based pastries made with egg white, icing sugar, almond meal, and food color. These delicate sweets are usually available in a variety of pastel shades, which make them look super cute. Since the 19th century, a Parisian-style macaron resembles a sandwich cookie, with a buttercream or jam filling in between two biscuits. A product of the Renaissance, macarons were introduced in France.
