I spy tart & pie!

Think pastries, think pies and tarts. Delicate and composed, with intricate patterning and textures, the two constantly vie for attention from pastry-lovers who like a crusty reveal all, writes Avin Thaliath

Tarts and pies are one of the world’s most celebrated sweet and savoury pastries. At times people may get confused with the two and sometimes interchange them while speaking about them. Here’s a lowdown on the history, science, and art of developing world-class tarts and pies.

The tart is shaped crusty and is a product filled with both a creamy and crunchy mouthfeel and is served in small sizes. It is usually baked with no top. On the other hand, pies are like tarts except for the baking which is done with the top covered. In the past, tarts and pies were primarily made of simple ingredients like flour, sugar, butter, eggs while the other ingredients played a secondary role in enhancing the flavour or the texture of the pastry. The word “Pâte” refers to the dough in French. Being the foundation of any tart or pie, Pâte has five classic variations of its own depending on the type of ingredients used, the ratios of the same and the method that has been followed to make each Pâte. A lot of importance is given to the process of creating each dough as the final product totally depends on the quality of the dough that has been processed. It is covered with various artistic patterns to increase the visual appeal of the final product. Both pies and tarts are made up of common ingredients like flour, sugar, and butter while sometimes the crust might be enriched by using ingredients such as milk, egg cream etc.

Pâte à foncer

“Lining pastry” is the literal translation of Pâte à foncer, which means this pastry dough is used in making the lining of pies and tarts. Further, this pastry dough is divided into five categories:
a. Pâte à foncer fine
b. Pâte à foncer ordinare
c. Pâte à foncer commune
d. Pâte à foncer pour entremets
e. Foncer levée ordinaire pour tarts

The recipe calls for truly little or no sugar at all in this pastry dough as it can be used for both sweet and savoury products. The dough has almost 50% percent of butter used in it. Either bread flour or pastry flour can be used in this formulation as the higher quantity of proteins adds strength to the dough. The dough can be enriched with sugar and egg which gives a nice colour and texture to the pastry. Most of the time the eggs are replaced by water in the simple dough. Before the dough is baked the dough is chilled for at least four hours to enable the gluten to relax.

Pâte brisée

Pâte brisée is like Pâte à foncer except that this pastry dough always contains eggs, a few traditional recipes call for using lard for finer taste as well as texture. As the world of tarts and pies is very vast, the development of recipes was modified by several chefs which led to the use of butter in the recipe. This pastry dough is usually not sweet as it lacks sugar but can be used in both savoury and sweet preparations.

Pâte sucrée

The meaning of pâte sucrée in English is “sweet paste.” As the name itself says, the pastry dough is sweet in taste and is used only for making sweet products. This pastry dough can be made by both creaming and sanding methods. Apart from tarts and pies, the pastry dough base is used for making cookies too. The classic recipe calls for 100% flour, 50% butter, 50% sugar and 20% egg.

Pâte sablée

In French Pâte sablée means “sandy.” Pâte sablée is also considered cookie dough as they share a lot of common characteristics in terms of texture and mouthfeel. The pastry dough is quite rich in taste as it has a high percentage of butter and sugar in it. The classic recipe of Pâte sablée calls for 100% flour, 60% butter and 40% sugar. The dough is quite soft in texture, it is chilled well before it is baked as it helps the gluten to relax and give a finer crumb.

Pâte Breton

Pâte Breton is a type of pastry dough that is usually baked as a cookie and has its origin in Brittany, France. The process of making this dough begins by whisking egg yolks to which sugar and butter are added part by part. To this mixture, flour is added and blended well. The dough is not as firm as any other pastry dough, it is slightly crumbly in nature and hence cannot be used for making tart or pie shells. The dough does not have enough strength to hold the vertical wall of the shells.

(The author is India’s leading pastry chef based in Bengaluru who exudes the vibe of a guru — calm, peaceful and funny. A pandora of knowledge, he is Master Shifu in disguise — a modern teacher who imbibes the art & science of baking. He’s an avid reader and a tabla player who loves to sway to his own tunes!)