Description
Shortbread dough has long been a favorite product in many families. Despite the variety of baked goods on store shelves, which are produced by both large confectionery factories and private mini-bakeries, homemade cookies are still always tastier and better. The basis for the treats, that is, ready-made dough, can be easily purchased in stores. This simplifies cooking, but, according to many caring mothers, it does not give confidence that baking can be offered to children without fear.
The history of the origin of shortcrust pastry goes back centuries. The first mention of it can be traced back to the 12th century, and English confectioners came up with its recipe. At that time, products made from classic shortcrust pastry resembled crackers. We acquired the familiar form of delicacy from such dough only when sour cream, chicken eggs and baking powder began to be added to the batch. Beautiful pastries made from shortcrust pastry were also popular in Russia. Interesting fact: the famous culinary pastry chef of the 19th century, Elena Molokhovets, in her book “A Gift for Young Housewives,” devoted an entire section to the creation of all kinds of sweets, and the actual preparation of this tasty and simple dough, and in a wide variety of options. Even then, products made from shortcrust pastry were popular and loved.
Shortcrust pastry got its name due to its structure. The classic version of the product looks approximately the same as in the photo. Products made from such a semi-finished product crumble into fine crumbs, like real sand. A real shortbread product according to GOST consists of only three components, but recently this semi-finished product has been improved by culinary specialists to produce baked goods with new flavors and qualities. Real and false shortbread dough is a very high-calorie product, which, if consumed in excess, leads to weight gain. But nevertheless, the well-known French nutritionist Pierre Dukan found a way out of the situation and, in his famous healthy nutrition system, told how to make the ideal dietary shortcrust pastry with a minimum of calories. By the way, this particular technique has become a favorite among many chefs.
Soft and tender dough can be found in supermarkets in the form of frozen sheets of varying thicknesses packed in plastic. It is stored exclusively in refrigerators and looks more than attractive. But still, not everyone is willing to purchase it. The fact is that the price of the product, although not too high, still exceeds the cost of all the necessary ingredients. Homemade dough is cheaper and tastier because you can easily experiment with its composition.
Preparing the dough is not difficult, but it will require a little patience and knowledge of the specifics and technology of preparation. There are several secrets to obtaining crumbly and truly shortbread dough, the essence of which we will definitely reveal in this article.
Simple ways to keep baked goods fresh
No matter what kind of baked goods you make, they need to be properly cared for after they come out of the oven. If you have prepared a pie, pies or bread, then after cooking you need to place them on a wooden tray (a cutting board will do) and cover with a linen towel. Make sure that the towel is not synthetic. So the baked goods should stand until they cool down.
If you bake pies, then after cooking they do not need to be placed on top of each other. All pies should be placed on a large dish and not cover each other. This will help prevent the pies from sticking together, as well as their subsequent deformation.
How to preserve baked goods made from yeast dough for a long time
If you are preparing to store baked goods for a long time, then immediately after they have cooled, put them in containers and put them in a dark place, where they can be stored for about a week. But if you are trying to preserve filled pies, it is better to immediately put them in the refrigerator. But they are stored for no more than five days. Then the filling will gradually deteriorate.
Few people know, but baked goods can be frozen. It can be stored in the freezer for about a month. Then you simply defrost the food and eat it. After you remove the baked goods from the refrigerator and defrost, you can briefly put them in the oven and let them brown a little.
If you're trying to bring stale bread back to life, a microwave can help. Take the bread and put it in the microwave to warm up for a minute. You won't believe it, but after this the bread will look as if it was just baked. But there is a little trick here. This bread should be eaten immediately after microwave oven. Otherwise, it will simply turn into a cracker, and you will no longer be able to restore it to its proper form.
Few people know, but baked goods can be frozen. It can be stored in the freezer for about a month. Then you simply defrost the food and eat it. After you remove the baked goods from the refrigerator and defrost, you can briefly put them in the oven and let them brown a little.
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Composition and ingredients
The composition and ingredients of shortcrust pastry vary depending on the types, varieties and classification of the product, as well as the technology of its preparation. The dough is distinguished according to the following characteristics:
- yeast and yeast-free;
- fresh (unsweetened), salty and sweet;
- with and without animal fats (vegetarian);
- regular and gluten-free;
- classic (simple) and complex (sand-sour cream, sand-biscuit, sand-puff, sand-lemon and others).
Dividing the dough according to its composition, we can distinguish the following varieties:
- sablé – suitable for baking classic shortbread products;
- brize - preparation without the use of sugar and other sweeteners;
- Sucre is a fragile, sweet and very fatty product.
Classifying the product by ingredients, we can distinguish the following main subtypes of dough:
- sour cream;
- vanilla;
- curd;
- potato;
- chocolate;
- lean (without eggs and animal fat);
- cheese;
- nutty;
- apple;
- pumpkin;
- on beer.
The following are considered the basic recipes for preparing the workpiece:
- French. It is used when kneading dough for quiche (Laurent pie) - open baked goods with sweet berries or more hearty fillings of boiled eggs, fish or meat products.
- Swiss. Perhaps this method is the simplest. This method of preparing shortcrust pastry is appreciated by vegetarians. It is prepared quickly and does not require knowledge of wisdom, and its ingredients are ice water, vegetable oil, salt and water. This quick-cooking dough produces false puff pastries, inside of which you can hide absolutely any filling.
- Viennese. The dough using this technology is used to make the world famous and beloved Viennese cookies with jam, as well as multi-layer open pies. This delicacy is served in pastry shops and cafes with the famous Viennese coffee or aromatic black tea.
- Tatarskaya. This dough is used to bake the national pie, which has the unusual and very interesting name Gubadiya.
- Breton. The unusual thing about the dough is that it is prepared with full-fat and very cold milk, which is used instead of butter, and vinegar, chicken eggs and separate yolks are also added to it. The filling for the classic pie is steamed prunes.
All of the listed methods for preparing dough are today the basic technologies for preparing shortcrust pastry, and are used by pastry chefs both on an industrial scale and in home kitchens.
How to knead?
There are two main methods for kneading shortcrust pastry: the chopped dough method and the cream method. You will find a description of both kneading methods in the dough recipes themselves.
In both ways, the dough can be kneaded by hand, using a mixer or in a food processor. When kneading using the chopped dough method, it is important to obtain a buttery crumb from flour, butter and sugar, so all ingredients must be well chilled.
To knead the dough using the cream method, remove the butter from the refrigerator an hour before starting cooking so that it becomes plastic, but does not begin to melt.
In any case, to achieve a crumbly texture, you should not knead the dough for too long. When kneading by hand, use only your fingertips and do it as quickly as possible to avoid heating the oil.
Photo: Arseny Kosterin
The finished dough is divided into portions (approximately 250-270 g), wrapped in film or placed in a plastic bag and put in the refrigerator. While the dough rests in the refrigerator, the flour is moistened, the butter hardens, the dough “relaxes” and becomes soft, elastic and pliable. This dough is easy to roll out and does not shrink when baking.
Main Ingredients
The main ingredients for kneading a simple dough according to the original recipe are wheat flour, granulated sugar and butter. The flour must be of the highest grade, it is preferable to use beet sugar, and the butter must be very fatty and must be very frozen.
Recently, cooks have been using low-moisture margarine instead of butter for kneading, and wheat baking flour is often replaced with whole grain flour. Most often the dough is made with flour:
- rice;
- almond;
- peanut;
- finely and medium-ground oatmeal, as well as high-quality flakes;
- rye.
Some types of shortcrust pastry require potato starch instead of flour, and among the list of ingredients needed for preparation in step-by-step recipes you can see:
- dairy and fermented milk products:
- milk;
- cream;
- sour cream;
- kefir;
- natural pure yogurt;
- condensed milk;
- cottage cheese and hard cheeses;
- water;
- cocoa powder and chocolate;
- cinnamon;
- walnuts and peanuts;
- powdered sugar;
- baking powder, soda and yeast;
- beer;
- lard;
- chicken eggs and their yolks;
- natural honey;
- mayonnaise;
- poppy;
- zest of citrus fruits, most often lemons, oranges, tangerines.
A huge number of filling options for shortcrust pastry products allows even the most inexperienced housewives to easily and quickly diversify the menu, and the tasty treats on the table will definitely delight the household.
Can it be stored?
Shortbread dough tolerates freezing well, so it makes sense to knead it in larger quantities than needed. Wrap the dough tightly in film or put it in a plastic bag, label it with the name of the dough and the date of preparation and put it in the freezer. Before you start rolling out the frozen dough, let it thaw in the refrigerator.
Chef's tip:
Shortbread dough can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 4 days, in the freezer for up to 6 months.
Photo: Arseny Kosterin
Use in cooking
Shortcrust pastry has quite a wide range of uses in cooking. Of course, all dishes prepared from it are baked goods, but nevertheless, their assortment is simply huge. The preparation is used for preparing all kinds of desserts and snacks, simple and complex, for example:
- cookies in the form:
- hearts;
- “nuts” and “mushrooms” in molds;
- sticks and strips;
- droplets (kurabie) and “shells”;
- “chrysanthemums” (through the grinder grill);
- rings and horseshoes;
- waffles;
- cheesecakes;
- Sochnikov;
- shortbreads;
- bagels;
- gingerbread;
- apple or pear pie;
- buns;
- cupcakes;
- cakes, letters, figures and flowers for decoration, as well as “roses”;
- baklava;
- chickens;
- lush puff pastries;
- sour cream;
- cottage cheese;
- strudels;
- fingers;
- rolls and “turbines”;
- baskets with cream, meat pate or julienne;
- pretzels;
- cheesecakes;
- shaneg;
- tartlets;
- open and closed pies;
- pies;
- samsa;
- tarts with all kinds of fillings;
- tubes;
- croissants;
- tank-whites;
- rolls;
- bases for canapés or pizza;
- koloboks or “peaches”;
- envelopes and triangles with all kinds of fillings;
- cake layers such as:
- cottage cheese “Napoleon”;
- "Woodpile";
- "Hut";
- "Rotten stump";
- "Curly Vanka";
- "Artemon";
- "Anthill";
- cakes.
False gingerbread cookies with a multi-colored coating and pictures on their surface are baked from shortbread dough, and then Christmas cities are “built” from them. The most beautiful products are locks.
For filling and decorating shortcrust pastry products, the following are most often used:
- fruits:
- apples;
- pears;
- quince;
- berries and stone fruits:
- strawberries;
- lingonberries;
- currants;
- irgu;
- blueberries;
- viburnum;
- raspberries;
- cherries;
- blackberries;
- cherries;
- plums;
- apricots;
- peaches;
- raisin;
- dried apricots;
- prunes;
- citrus;
- figs;
- bananas;
- canned and fresh pineapples;
- jam;
- jams;
- sorrel;
- rhubarb;
- marmalade;
- jelly;
- carrot;
- pumpkin;
- cabbage;
- mashed potatoes;
- cottage cheese;
- protein and custard creams, pure or flavored;
- meringue;
- poultry and animal meat and offal (liver, for example);
- chicken pate;
- fish and canned fish from saury, mackerel, trout,
- hard, soft cheeses (for example, marscapone, feta cheese or mozzarella) and processed cheeses;
- glaze.
All of the listed ingredients can either be added after the dough has already been baked until half-cooked or ready, or participate in the baking process.
The dough itself can be divided by chefs according to the method of preparation. Most often the product is classified as follows:
- dense or aspic;
- cooked “cold” or brewed;
- chopped, grated or whipped.
Depending on the technology and method of preparing the dough, baking powder, natural yeast and soda can be added to it. These components will not cause any particular harm, but such cookies are hardly suitable for children. Caring mothers study many recipes and reviews on them, but often cannot decide on any one of the cooking options. We invite you to try a proven step-by-step recipe for baking delicious and healthy cookies for kids and never look for better options again. Read about this wonderful and simplest option in the next section.
And for all those who cook for older children and also like to pamper their beloved men with delicious treats, we offer a video recipe for a delicious and very beautiful pie with chocolate and nut filling. Such an unusually beautiful flower will decorate the table and fit perfectly into the festive and everyday menu.
How to choose a quality product?
In this section of the article we want to tell you how to choose a quality product on the shelves.
The first thing you should pay attention to is the shelf life of the product. Naturally, the closer the date is to the moment of its expiration, the less quality the baked goods from such a semi-finished product will be.
If the date suits you, you should carefully examine the packaging. First of all, its integrity: the presence of punctures in the film may indicate inadequate quality. Then pay attention to the manufacturer: try to purchase blanks from manufacturers that indicate not only the composition and affiliation with the quality certification system, but also do not hide the location of production. Manufacturers who care about their reputation are always open to consumers.
Carefully examine the product in the packaging. The dough should be smooth, without inclusions (unless specified in the recipe), shiny and evenly cut. There should be no visible condensation, mold, or darkened edges of the dough in the packaging.
If possible, try to buy a product with ingredients that are familiar to you, or even better, learn how to make shortcrust pastry yourself!
For pancakes and pancakes
The main component of this mass is milk or fermented milk products, as well as eggs. Therefore, it has the shortest shelf life.
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How to save? It is advisable to leave the dough in the refrigerator for no longer than a few hours, a maximum of a day.
The lid on the pan should be tightly closed to limit the flow of air. But even in this case, you need to open the pan and stir the mass so that its consistency is not disturbed.
You cannot store pancake dough in the freezer: during defrosting, liquid will release and you will no longer get a homogeneous composition.
How to make shortbread dough at home?
Making shortcrust pastry at home is actually very easy. In this section we will try to reveal all the secrets and describe the most favorite methods of preparing it. For convenience, classic and modified cooking methods are collected in separate subsections. And the first, of course, will be a story about a real method, proven over the years and by housewives. The following sections provide methods and recipes for making mock dough, which is used to bake most of the delicacies that lie temptingly on store shelves. Don’t forget to write down the recipe you like in your personal cookbook!
Classic dough
All three manufacturing recipes described below refer to classic kneading methods, and the dough does not contain eggs, milk, sour cream, or other fatty ingredients or leavening agents. Our grandmothers baked cookies using this recipe, and it is the most common one.
Let us immediately note that using the first method you will get an elastic and elastic dough that can be rolled out into a thin layer without effort. In the second case, the dough will turn out liquid, and products from it are formed exclusively using a pastry syringe.
So, to knead the classic version of cookie dough you will need:
- one glass of wheat flour;
- one hundred and fifty grams of high-quality margarine or peasant butter;
- one tablespoon of ice water;
- one pinch of fine salt;
- a third of a glass of sugar or a quarter of a glass of powdered sugar.
Making the dough involves three main steps.
- Quickly mix the cold butter, salt and sugar. This is best done by grating the butter and adding small portions of granulated sugar. An important condition: the product should not “float”. If you notice this, then immediately put the workpiece in the freezer, and then just proceed to the next step.
- First add water to the creamy-sugar mass, then flour, and then quickly knead the dough. Shortbread dough does not need kneading, so do not put much effort into it. Prolonged kneading can compact the dough, and then the baked goods will be too dry.
- Wrap the dough in cling film, then put the dough in the freezer for an hour, and after this time, divide it into pieces. Take them out of the refrigerator one at a time and roll them out into a layer no more than 10 mm thick.
Use a cookie cutter or knife to cut out the cookies, and then proceed to the last step - baking. To do this, place the finished figures on a baking sheet with parchment paper and bake for fifteen to twenty minutes in an oven heated to one hundred and sixty degrees. The readiness of the product is determined by the bakedness of the dough, but do not expect the dough to brown! If you use a multicooker for baking, do not close the lid on it too tightly. Ignoring this advice will lead to the fact that the gathering steam will not allow the workpiece to cook properly. Be sure to cool the baked goods to room temperature before serving or decorating!
But everyone’s favorite “shells” or kurabye cookies cannot be made using the above method, and all because they are squeezed out of a pastry bag onto a baking sheet. This opportunity is provided by a dough that is more liquid in consistency, for the preparation of which cooks will need to have in stock:
- butter – 1 pack (200 grams);
- potato starch - four tablespoons;
- table salt - a pinch;
- granulated sugar - two-thirds of a glass;
- premium baking flour - half a glass;
- vanilla sugar – 4 grams.
Kneading the dough and subsequent shaping should be done according to the following algorithm:
- Mix butter with vanilla and regular sugar, and then beat with a mixer, whisk or blender until fluffy.
- Mix flour and starch, and then add them to the sweet butter mixture.
- Switch the mixer or blender to low speed, and then knead the dough as thick as pancakes.
- Place the finished dough into a pastry bag, and then place the cookies of the desired shape on a baking sheet with parchment.
- At the end, the sheets with the blanks must be taken out into the cold for one hour, and after the time has elapsed, they must be placed in an oven preheated to one hundred and eighty degrees Celsius.
- Baking cookies from liquid shortcrust pastry lasts no more than twenty-five minutes.
Please note that the finished baked goods are not removed from the parchment until they have cooled, and decoration begins no earlier than an hour after removal from the paper. Good quality cookies for this recipe can also be obtained using buckwheat, coconut, corn or rice flour.
The third among the basic recipes for making shortcrust pastry, as promised, is a simple-to-follow and generally uncomplicated recipe for gluten-free “children’s” dough. It is prepared without the usual flour for many. For one serving of healthy lean and at the same time tender dough, you need to prepare:
- vegetable (sunflower, corn or olive) oil – 100 ml;
- powdered sugar – 100 grams;
- gluten-free flour – 300 grams;
- lemon juice – 2 tablespoons.
The process of preparing healthy baked goods is, of course, lengthy at first glance, but not complicated.
The first thing you need to do is freeze the vegetable oil in the freezer. To achieve the desired consistency of the product, it is enough to keep it in the cold for eight hours. I would like to say that vegetable oil never freezes completely, so don't expect it to become a solid piece.
The most important step is to knead the powdered sugar with thickened vegetable oil. This must be done very quickly so that the oil does not return to its previous consistency. After mixing is complete, add half the measured amount of flour into the resulting mass in fractional parts and knead into a loose dough. The last step in kneading the dough is to add lemon juice, the rest of the flour and knead the finished product.
The beauty and distinctive feature of this method of preparing dough is that it does not require proofing. That is why the finished dough is immediately cut up, rolled out, figures cut out and placed in the oven to bake. The finished treat is cooled and stored in paper bags. Such cookies are suitable for diabetics, as well as those who have decided to adhere to dietary restrictions during religious fasts.
Regarding whether it is possible to knead manually, I would like to note that neither a dough mixing machine, nor a blender bowl, nor a food processor, nor a bread machine is suitable for preparing this dough.
Recently, you can increasingly hear the statement that shortcrust pastry can be prepared without butter. In fact, this opinion is wrong, because only butter, be it butter or vegetable, allows you to give a structure recognizable to everyone, and it cannot be replaced in the recipe with cream, milk, sour cream, or any other high-fat dairy products. An alternative can only be mayonnaise or lard. Products made with these ingredients may have a specific flavor, and the dough itself is most often used to make snack pies or muffins with savory filling. It is also mixed with minimal or no sugar.
Butter dough
Butter shortbread dough contains components used in kneading dough for ordinary baked pies and cake layers. Without fail, such dough contains:
- chicken eggs and separate yolks - three and two, respectively;
- half and half butter with lard - only two hundred grams;
- salt - a pinch;
- powdered sugar - half a glass;
- flour - three glasses;
- baking powder or soda - one teaspoon.
The kneading technique is slightly different from that described above. When making such a test proceed as follows:
- The butter heated to room temperature is ground with chicken eggs kept warm for an hour, powdered sugar, and then the yolks are added.
- Flour is mixed with soda or baking powder, and then added in small portions to the oil-egg mixture.
- The finished compacted dough is wrapped in film and placed in the refrigerator to proof, after which small pieces are separated and products of the desired shape are made.
The dough prepared using this method is very elastic and pleasant to the touch, but it should not be kept warm for a long time, so the baking sheet with the products is placed in the oven without delay and kept there at a temperature of about one hundred and eighty degrees Celsius for twenty minutes. I would like to draw the attention of readers that dough products made from this method of preparation are distinguished by some characteristic features, for example, they are always golden brown and also retain softness for a long time after baking.
Custard
Another unusual type of shortcrust pastry is its choux version. This product is used for making pies and closed pies. Even the most inexperienced housewives can master this method of kneading, and often this cooking option becomes a favorite among many for many years.
For a portion of dough that will make twelve small pies, you will need:
- bread flour – 350 grams;
- creamy margarine – 200 grams;
- granulated sugar – 3-4 spoons;
- water – 5 tablespoons;
- sunflower oil – 4 tablespoons;
- salt - to taste.
Brewing and subsequent kneading of the dough must be done in the same container, so it is advisable to choose a container with wide edges that can be heated on the stove.
- Boil water, and then add a pinch of salt and a dose of granulated sugar to it and dissolve them. After this, carefully pour vegetable oil into the water and add margarine grated on a coarse grater.
- Bring the water to a boil while stirring constantly.
- Wait until the margarine is completely dissolved, and then start kneading. To do this, add flour into boiling water in fractional parts (without removing the container from the heat).
- Stir the dough with a spoon until the spoon turns, and then remove the bowl from the stove.
- Add the rest of the flour to the mixture and knead into a thick dough with your hands.
- Place the workpiece on the table, knead without flour, and then cover it with a dry towel. Let the dough cool until it cools, then roll it out and shape into the desired shape.
- Once you've finished making your chosen flour products, bake them immediately.
In order for, for example, pies made from such dough to turn out shiny, before putting them in the oven, be sure to brush them with the yolk of a chicken egg, beaten with a few drops of vegetable oil.
According to Dukan's recipe
The dough prepared according to Dukan's recipe is nothing supernatural. Baking from it can be made either regular white or colored. To obtain the desired color, natural dyes are added to the dough: carrot juice, beet juice or decoction, cocoa powder and other ingredients that can give a shade.
To prepare three servings of cookies, you will need to mix oat and wheat bran with dry milk, salt and baking powder, and then combine them with cottage cheese, a chicken egg and yolk. After this, with wet hands you need to form a thick dough, wrap it in film and leave it in the cold for a couple of hours. You need to roll out this dough in film, because it sticks strongly to the rolling pin, and flour cannot be used for dusting.
The proportions of the ingredients are:
- oat bran – 8 tablespoons;
- wheat bran – 2 tablespoons;
- chicken egg (40 grams) – 1 piece;
- chicken egg yolk – 1 piece;
- cottage cheese – 70 grams;
- baking powder - 2 teaspoons;
- salt - to taste.
This dough can be used to bake vegetable pizza, tarts with berry fillings, tartlets and even delicate baskets with protein cream.
Useful tips
Long shelf life dough
Certain types of dough can sit on the refrigerator or freezer shelf for a very long time. This applies to unleavened, flaky, yeast-free, custard, honey, ginger and gingerbread products. A prerequisite for such a semi-finished product is the absence of perishable products in the composition.
When frozen, such a mixture can retain its qualities for six months.
How to defrost dough correctly
To preserve the taste and quantity of nutrients, any products, including dough, should be quickly frozen and also slowly defrosted.
The best way:
- in the evening, remove a portion of the dough from the freezer and place it in the refrigerator;
- keep for several hours at room temperature;
- knead and start cooking.
Semi-finished products, such as pies, dumplings, dumplings, noodles, are immediately placed in the oven or thrown into boiling water.
You can use the microwave for quick defrosting.
The container with the frozen product is placed in a bowl filled with hot water or near the radiator.
Frozen dough can only be reheated once. If re-frozen, it will lose quality.
Thawed mass can be stored for a short period of time. Once defrosted, it should be used immediately.
When storing dough, it is very important to comply with all conditions. It is necessary to monitor the timing, temperature, and tightness of the container. Any housewife can knead or buy ready-made dough, store it on the shelf of the refrigerator or freezer, and delight the family with delicious baked goods for a long time.
The container with the frozen product is placed in a bowl filled with hot water or near the radiator.
How to cut?
We will tell you how to properly cut dough for baking in this short section of the article. As such, products made from real and false shortbread dough are not subject to modeling. One of the basic techniques for cutting dough has already been described in the section above, but it only applies to a liquid product. For a semi-finished product with a standard consistency, preparing the dough before baking consists of rolling out and shaping the products into the desired shape and size.
The following devices are currently used:
- molds of various themes: stars, crescents, animals, flowers, cars and others;
- a curly knife that allows you to quickly create regular geometric shapes with wavy or zigzag edges;
- meat grinder with a regular or shaped grill attachment.
When rolling, be sure to dust the table with flour, otherwise the dough will stick and tear. The thickness of the rolling depends not only on the desired result. Real classic dough should never be more than one centimeter thick, while sour cream or shortbread yeast dough should not be made too thin.
Kneading and rolling out shortcrust pastry does not take much time. That is why it is most often prepared at home. Particular attention should be paid to the fact that when using molds, they should be placed as close to each other as possible when cutting. Otherwise, you will have to collect the leftovers many times, crush and roll them out. As a result, each subsequent batch of finished baked goods will become denser, and the cookies themselves will become hard and will not melt in the mouth.
Secrets of Puff Pastry
* Puff pastry should be rolled out in one direction. The dough layers should not be too thin.
* Baking trays for puff pastry should not be greased with fat or oil - only with cold water.
* Puff pastry is cut with a sharp knife or dough cutter. A dull knife flattens the edges of the dough, which affects the quality of the baked goods.
* Well-prepared puff pastry expands 6 to 8 times in volume when baked. The product made from it is ruddy, tender and crumbly.
*Be sure to preheat the oven well before baking.
* If you put too much flour when preparing puff pastry, it will turn out tough. Products made from such dough rise poorly and lose their taste.
* Only wheat flour of the highest quality is used for puff pastry.
* Acetic acid promotes swelling of the adhesive protein in the flour, which gives the dough elasticity.
* Baking temperature should not exceed 250 degrees.
* The edges of a puff pastry product should not be brushed with egg or yolk before baking.
* You can store puff pastry in the refrigerator, but baked goods taste better when made fresh.
*Cut the puff pastry so that there are fewer scraps left. If they remain, put them together, roll them out several times, folding the layer in half or three.
* Well-prepared puff pastry expands 6 to 8 times in volume when baked. The product made from it is ruddy, tender and crumbly.
How to store shortcrust pastry?
How to store shortcrust pastry is probably interesting for many novice confectioners to know. Let us immediately note that there are no difficulties in this. Any of the product subtypes must be stored refrigerated. That is why the finished dough, rolled into layers, is stored in refrigerators in grocery stores. In the cool, even yeast slows down its vital activity, and after being exposed to heat, it easily restores its qualities.
The optimal way to preserve shortcrust pastry for a long time is to freeze the product to a temperature of minus eighteen degrees Celsius, which corresponds to the marking of three snowflakes. With constant cold and humidity, the product can be stored for about six months.
You should know and remember that defrosted dough must be used immediately, because repeated freezing will deteriorate the quality of the finished product, and the dough itself will become hard and too elastic.
Dough prepared at home can be stored either in the form of layers (as in the store) or in portioned pieces. A mandatory requirement is to wrap the workpiece in several layers of cling film, which helps prevent the outer layer of the semi-finished product from drying out.
If the housewife does not intend to store the dough for a long time, then you should know that the dough will be suitable for baking for three days, provided that it is in a plastic bag on the top shelf of the refrigerator.
Storage Features
There are a very large number of varieties of dough, and each of them requires special conditions. In the refrigerator, the raw product is stored at a temperature of 3 to 7 degrees. It is preferable to keep the semi-finished product on a shelf with zero temperature.
The freezer requires preparation for storage. The mass needs to be kneaded well, rolled into a ball, greased with oil or sprinkled with flour. The raw mixture is stored in bags or closed containers. Deep freezing assumes a temperature of -5 to -15 degrees. It is not advisable to store any product in the freezer for longer than 6 months.
Every housewife should have the habit of putting stickers with the date of manufacture on the packaging. This will help determine exactly how long you can store the desired product.
Ready
Sometimes it is convenient to store the dough in the form of semi-finished products.
For this purpose, you need to mold the products, put the filling, and put them in the oven. Bring the product to a semi-prepared state and cool. Wrap each pie in film and freeze.
How to fix shortbread dough?
How to fix shortbread dough? This is a fairly common question, the answer to which is needed not only by young cooks, but also by fairly experienced housewives.
Let's start in order, and for convenience we will present the existing knowledge in the form of a small plate.
Problem | Cause | How to fix? |
The dough breaks when rolling | Excess flour. | Place the dough in a bowl, and then add melted or softened butter or sour cream to it in small portions. |
The dough is too warm. | Place the product in the refrigerator for a while and let it harden there. | |
The dough spreads (turned out liquid) | Lack of flour. | Add flour or starch in fractional parts and mix carefully. |
The room is too hot. | The optimal temperature for preparing the dough is about 20 degrees Celsius. Knead in a cool room, and be sure to put the finished dough in the refrigerator for an hour. | |
The dough crumbles when kneading | Too soft or warm margarine (butter, lard, cooking fat) is used. | Cool the fatty base of the dough to the desired temperature, and then add a few tablespoons of ice water to the dough when kneading. Be sure to sift the flour before kneading, then it will be better combined with butter or dairy products. |
The dough is too tight when cutting | Inconsistency in the proportions of ingredients. | Try:
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Another question regarding why the finished dough is bitter haunts many cooks. We will answer that too. This happens very rarely and occurs due to the inability to choose the appropriate ingredients. Always remember that to prepare an excellent dough you only need fresh ingredients: flour, butter, sour cream and other products. Also, always pay attention to the amount of vanillin in the recipe, which is used to give baked goods a pleasant aroma, and under no circumstances add more of it than required. Remember that if you overdose on this flavoring, you risk getting bitter cookies.
Useful tips
In the modern world there is an acute shortage of time. To save it, you can freeze a large amount of dough, preparations (pizza base) or semi-finished products (dumplings, for example). They are frozen, making sure that they do not touch, and then transferred to one bag.
To make a truly delicious dish from frozen dough, it is important to defrost it correctly. There are several ways. Taste and quality are best preserved by slow defrosting:
- Place the portion overnight on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator;
- let sit for some time at room temperature;
- stir.
After this, you can start cooking.
If you don’t have time for long-term defrosting, you can use faster methods:
Modern appliances are equipped with a defrost function. The mass must be in the package; you cannot keep the product in the microwave for a long time - there is a risk of baking the top layer.
The dough should be wrapped in several layers of polyethylene to prevent liquid from leaking.
- Place the packaged mass next to the switched on stove or heating radiator.
The correct way to store different types of dough allows you to save not only food, but also time. The product is stored in the freezer for the longest time; it will not withstand repeated freezing, so before storing it, the dough must be divided into portions.
- with butter 4-6 weeks;
- with margarine or vegetable oil for up to six months.
Benefits and harms
The benefits and harms of shortcrust pastry are determined by the composition of the product. Many recipes with a wide variety of ingredients allow you to saturate the human body with vitamins and microelements contained in the original ingredients.
Baking made from shortcrust pastry is very high in calories and therefore, if consumed uncontrolled, can lead to rapid weight gain. A large amount of sugar can cause diabetes, and a high fat content of the product can negatively affect the functioning of the gallbladder and intestines.
It is not recommended to eat shortbread for people suffering from metabolic disorders and gastritis, as well as those who have individual intolerance to the components of the product.
In general, baking from shortcrust pastry is an excellent solution for family tea, especially if it is prepared with your own hands. And also, cutting out cookies from such a delicate material is a wonderful opportunity to keep your favorite fidgets occupied for a long time!
Product Photos
Cooking recipes with photos
Delicious Australian meat pie
120 min.
Folding ratatouille with anchovies
40 min.
Similar food products
- Pasta
- Buckwheat flour
- Corn flour
- Black bread
The nutritional value
Cholesterol | 42.62 mg |
Alimentary fiber | 0.55 g |
PUFA - Polyunsaturated fatty acids | 0.22 g |
Mono- and disaccharides | 1.16 g |
Starch | 33.41 g |
Ash | 0.75 g |
Water | 17.16 g |
Vitamins
Vitamin B4 (choline) | 19.48 mg |
Vitamin B3 (PP) | 1.52 mg |
Vitamin H (biotin) | 1.51 mg |
Vitamin E (tocopherol) | 6.11 mg |
Vitamin D (calciferol) | 0.16 mcg |
Vitamin B9 (folic acid) | 18.34 mcg |
Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) | 0.29 mg |
Vitamin B2 (riboflavin) | 0.07 mg |
Vitamin B12 (cyanocobalamin) | 0.03 mcg |
Vitamin B1 (thiamine) | 0.17 mg |
Vitamin A | 0.11 mg |
Minerals
Zinc | 690 mg |
Chromium | 0.29 mcg |
Element Chlorine | 11.66 mg |
Fluorine | 54.23 mcg |
Phosphorus | 207.03 mg |
Sulfur | 58.26 mg |
Sodium | 59.31 mg |
Molybdenum | 7.68 mcg |
Copper | 212.25 mg |
Manganese | 425.39 mg |
Magnesium | 28.98 mg |
Cobalt | 1.91 mcg |
Calcium | 51.54 mg |
Potassium | 127.39 mg |
Iodine | 1.49 mcg |
Iron | 1.22 mg |