Shortcrust pastry (recipe with pictures)

The moment has come! Now is the turn of shortcrust pastry, which was the last one in my original list. Of course, it won't be the end of my pastry recipes, because those that I have already shown are basic ones and there are many other very interesting pastry recipes out there. Tradition of recipes with pictures will continue, as well as counting calories tradition.

And now a little about Shortcrust pastry. This kind of pastry is perfect for crunchy biscuits, sweet and savory pies, tarts. One of the main ingredients of shortcrust pastry is a butter or margarine,this is why is type of pastry is a not very light. Eggs, on the other hand, that often play an important role, fade into the background.

I made this pastry to make sweet biscuits called "Cigarettes"
Here they are

I made those when I was little with my father and that was very fun! So i think that children would find "making cigarettes" amusing.

To make about 750g of sweet shortcrust pastry (that is about 35 big tasty "cigarettes") you need

Sour cream 20.0% fat (50.0 grams) (there is no sour cream in original recipe, but I put little bit - it makes pastry little more soft and I like it more this way)
1 egg (60.0 grams) Flour (375.0 grams) Sugar (150.0 grams) Margarine, 60% th fat (125.0 grams) + 2 tea spoons of cinnamon + 1 tea spoon of baking powder
How to make

It is made very easily. Just mix all ingredients except flour with a spoon or mixer

Then put the flour by portions and mix the shortcrust pastry with hands. It looks like this when it's ready.

You can make many tasty and beautiful things with this pastry, something like this


If you want to make cigarette biscuits, divide the shortcrust pastry into pieces (number of pieces depends on the number of biscuits you want to get) . I got about 35 pieces.

Roll the cigarettes, put on the oven tray

And bake for about 15-20 minutes in oven. (180C)
If you don't want your shortcrust pastry to be sweet - don't put the sugar.

Counting calories - part II

Today I will continue counting calories of the pastry and dough recipes I gave. The topic will be puff pastry - how much calories each recipe contains (quick and long versions)

Puff pastry (quick version)

In recipe you take (about)

200g of butter or margarine
2 cups of flour
1/2 tea spoon of salt
1 tea spoon of sugar

And get 510 g of puff pastry, 100 of which contains

calories - 415,6
carbohydrates - 44 g
fats - 24 g
proteins - 6,7 g

Then goes puff pastry (long version)
In recipe you take (about)

1 egg
1 tea spoon of sugar
1 tea spoon of salt
1 big spoon of vinegar (7-9%)
1 big spoon of oil
about 200 ml of water
3.5 cups of flour (about 500g)
200 g of butter or unsweetened margarine

And get 918 g of puff pastry, 100 g of which contains

calories - 339.6
carbohydrates - 39.8 g
fats - 17.2 g
proteins - 7 g
So, if you have some time, there is a point to make a long version of puff pastry, it has more layers, rises better and has less calories and fat.

Choux pastry (recipe with pictures)

Yesterday I decided to make eclairs and for that I had to do choux pastry.

Pluses of choux pastry
1. It's volume increases during baking by 2-3 times, that means that you get PLENTY of eclairs or whatever you are making with this pastry.
2. It doesn't need any time to rest after preparing
3. It is ready within 15 minutes in oven

Minuses
1. Look up at plus number 1, since my recipe of this pastry is for about 50-60 eclairs I used oven 3 times, but result is totally worth it !

To make choux pastry you'll need

250 ml of water
100g of butter
pinch of salt
250 g of flour
4-6 eggs

How to make choux pastry

1. Sift a flour

2.

Pour water in a pan, add butter, salt and boil everything until the butter melts




When the butter has melted and mixture is boiling mix it with flour






Then put the pan with pastry back on the stove and mix everything until you get an even shiny pastry and some white sediment on the bottom of the pan



Then put the pastry in the clean bowl and mix 1 egg into it





When the pastry is mixed well you can add another egg. This way you add all the eggs, I used 4 big eggs, but if you see that it isn't enough, add 1 or 2 more. The pastry should look like this

(you should be able to put the pastry in the cake decorator)
That is all! I used cake decorator to make stripes for eclairs, you can use it too or just a spoon, by the way many people say that choux pastry treats are more crunchy if you use spoon to put them on the baking tray.
And this is how I made eclairs





For eclairs is usually used scalded cream, to make it you need

500 ml of milk
200 g of sugar
1 egg
1 table spoon of flour
1 table spoon of starch
100 g of soft unsweetened butter

How to make scalded cream

Put all ingredients except butter in the pot, mix with a mixer then put on the small heat and mix all the time. After few minutes you will see that consistence of the cream becomes thicker. Then you take it from the stove and let it cool down. When it is cold, mix a soft butter in it and put in the fridge for at least 20 minutes. I recommend to start making eclairs with cream, this way when it will be cooling down - you can make a pastry, so you will use your time wisely.

Counting calories!

Today we' ll be counting calories, fats, carbohydrates, proteins in some of the pastry recipes I gave, because I know that every woman would like to know this.

So, let's start with unleavened dough

In recipe you take (about)
egg - 60g
flour - 400g
salt - 3g
oil - 30g
water - 170g

And get 663 g of dough, 100 of which contains

calories - 256
carbohydrates - 42 g
fats - 6 g
proteins - 8 g

Then goes yeast dough
In recipe you take (about)
2 eggs - 120g
milk - 500g
flour - 1000 g
sugar - 30g (not sweet dough)
butter - 50g
yeast - 50g

And get 1750 g of yeast dough, 100 g of which contains

calories - 254
carbohydrates - 44 g
fats - 5 g
proteins - 9 g

And if you make sweet yeast dough (add 250 g of sugar)
You get 2000 g of sweet yeast dough, 100 g of which contains

calories - 272
carbohydrates - 51 g
fats - 4 g
proteins - 8 g

That's it for today, later I'll count the calories in other dough types too.

Puff pastry recipe with pictures (long version)

The recipe is not mine, I found it in internet, today tried to make it for a first time and IT IS AMAZINGLY GOOD! Of course making of this puff pastry takes a lot of time and effort, but firstly you get a fantastic result, secondly it is really cheap in comparison with the same thing in stores and finally you know what it contains and can be sure that it doesn't contain any unhealthy components, so

The recipe of puff pastry

You need
1 egg
1 tea spoon of sugar
1 tea spoon of salt
1 big spoon of vinegar (7-9%)
1 big spoon of oil
about 200 ml of water
3.5 cups of flour (about 500g)
200 g of butter or unsweetened margarine

How to make

1.Mix an egg, sugar, salt, vinegar and oil in a cup and add some water (about 200 ml) to make total volume 270 ml (mixture + water = 270 ml). If you do not have scales - just fill in the cup with water.

p.s. DO NOT USE HOT WATER!
Also watch the percentage of the vinegar (mine was 30% so I put some water in it and made 10% - took 1 big spoon of vinegar and 2 big spoons of water)


2. Add flour and make a pastry and let it rest for some time (15-20 minutes)


3. Divide the pastry into 4 parts


AND EACH PART
4. Roll into 30 cm* 55 cm piece

5. Cover it with 50 g of soft butter or margarine


6. Roll the pastry on a rolling-pin

7. Cut the pastry along the rolling-pin.

8. Take the pastry off the rolling-pin and fold in four

Finally, you will get 4 perfect pieces of puff pastry, each about 200-250g, altogether I got 920 g. Put those pieces of pastry in cellophane and put in a fridge for at least 4 hours, better to leave it there for a night. After that you can use it or freeze it.

I used only one part (240g) and made mini croissants with cheese


They were so good that disappeared in the mouth of my boyfriend in an hour (there were 12 pieces) and I received many compliments, so I strongly recommend this recipe!

Puff pastry recipe (quick version)

There are two main ways to make puff pastry - slow (right one) and quick one. Today I' ll give a recipe of a about quick one, because I have tried it recently and was satisfied by result.

Using it I made puff bows with sugar and cinnamon



To make this pastry (recipe)

You need

200g of butter or margarine
2 cups of flour
1/2 tea spoon of salt
1 tea spoon of sugar

How to make

Chop butter and flour together with a knife.


P.S. Do not make pastry even! Leave little butter pieces.

Add other ingredients, mix everything, put more flour if necessary. Cover the pastry and put in refrigerator for several hours (at least 1).

Then roll the pasty out and put together in layers. Do this operation 3-4 times and your quick puff pastry is ready!

Delicious things I' ve made using yeast dough

As I already said, when I conquered yeast dough, I started using it like crazy.

Here are some of my delicacies

Vatrushki (with cheese curd)

Rolls with sugar



Rolls with poppy-seeds

And so on...