CHAPTER 34 Pies and Pastries

TERMS FOR REVIEW

 Flaky pie dough - Dough made by cutting or rubbing but not entirely blending fat into
flour, leaving pieces of fat that contribute to a flaky texture
 Mealy pie dough - Dough for which the fat is blended into the flour until the mixture
looks like coarse cornmeal
 Rubbed dough method - Mixing method for pie doughs that requires fat to be rubbed
into the sifted dry ingredients
 Crumb crust - Pie crust made of cookie crumbs, butter, and sugar
 Short dough - A kind of pastry or cookie dough that is richer than regular pie pastry and
contains butter, sugar, and eggs
 Fruit pie - Pie that contains fruit filling; usually has a top crust
 Soft pie - Pie with custard-type filling, usually baked with a single crust
 Cream pie - Pie made with pudding or boiled custard-type filling
 Chiffon pie - Pie made with filling lightened by the addition of beaten egg white
 Baking blind - Baking a pie or tart shell without a filling
 Instant starch - Starch that has already been cooked and dried. Also called
pregelatinized starch
 Cooked juice method -Method for making fruit pie fillings, used when only the juice
requires cooking
 Cooked fruit method - Method for making pie fillings, used when the fruit requires
cooking, or when there is not enough liquid for the cooked juice method
 Puff pastry - A light, flaky pastry made from a rolled-in dough and leavened by steam
 Blitz puff pastry - A pastry similar to puff pastry but quickly made by a variation of the
Rubbed Dough Method and then rolled and folded to increase flakiness
 Eclair paste - Dough used to make éclairs and cream puffs
 Pâte à choux - A soft dough used for making éclairs and cream puffs. Also called éclair
paste
 Soft meringue - Meringue with a lower sugar content than hard meringue, typically used
for pie topping
 Hard meringue - Meringue made with up to twice as much sugar as egg whites
 Common meringue - Meringue made from egg whites at room temperature, beaten with
sugar
 Swiss meringue - Meringue made from egg whites and sugar warmed over a double
boiler while beating
 Italian meringue - Meringue made by beating a hot sugar syrup into egg whites. It is the
most stable Meringue because the egg whites are cooked by the heat of the syrup
 Meringue glacée - Baked meringue shells served with ice cream
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1. Discuss the factors that affect tenderness, toughness, and flakiness in pie dough. Why
should emulsified shortening not be used for pie dough?
2. What kind of crust or crusts would you use for a pumpkin pie? an apple pie? a banana
cream pie?
3. What would happen to a flaky pie dough if you mixed it too long before adding the
water? after adding the water?
4. How can you prevent shrinkage when baking pie shells?
5. What are the remedies for soggy or undercooked bottom pie crusts?
6. What starch would you use to thicken apple pie filling? chocolate pie filling? lemon pie
filling? peach pie filling?
7. Why is lemon juice added to lemon pie filling after the starch has thickened the water?
Wouldn’t this thin the filling?
8. Why is it important to bake cream puffs and éclairs thoroughly and to cool them slowly?
9. Briefly describe the difference between common, Swiss, and Italian meringues.