Common Faults in Pastry Making (2024)

Stop pie faults before they start! Evaluate past errors, learn and progress! Seek guidance here for perfect pastry!

Shortcrust
– Hard and/ or tough pastry

Due to too much liquid, too little fat, over-handling or insufficient rubbing in.

– Soft and crumbly pastry
Too little water; too much fat or self-raising flour used instead or plain

– Shrunk pastry
Excess stretching during rolling out

– Soggy pastry
Filling too moist or sugar in a sweet pie in contact with pastry. For a double crust pie, use ideally a metal pie plate and either brush pastry base with egg white or butter the pie plate before lining with pastry.

– Sunken Pie
Oven temperature too low; cold pastry put over hot filling; too much liquid in filling or too little filling.

– Speckled pastry
Undissolved sugar grains in enriched pastry crust


Hot water crust

– Cracked pastry
Insufficient liquid; too little kneading; liquid not boiling when added to flour.

– Dry, difficult -to -mould pastry
liquid not boiling when added to flour, too much liquid, dough not cooked enough to set required shape.

– Hard pastry
Insufficient fat or liquid

Common Faults in Pastry Making (1)

Suet Pastry
– Heavy pastry
Insufficient baking powder. Water not kept on the boil during cooking.

– Tough pastry
Dough handled too much and rolled out excessively

– Soggy pastry
Paper and cloth covering over filled pie too loose, and water not kept boiling during cooking.

Choux Pastry
– Mixture too soft
Insufficient cooling of the flour before adding the eggs; eggs added too quickly

– Pastry did not rise
Self-raising flour used; oven too cold; too short baking time.

– Sinking after removal from oven
Insufficient baking; further period of baking sometimes remedies this defect

Flaky, Rough Puff and Puff pastries
– Too few layers
Insufficient resting and chilling; heavy rolling causing fat to break through and intermingle with the pastry; fat too soft.

– Fat running out during baking
Oven too cool

– Shrinking pastry
Insufficient resting; overstretching during rolling out.

(From The Reader’s Digest Cookery Year, Basic Cooking Methods, Pastry Making by Margaret Coombes and Suzanne Wakelin of Good Housekeeping Institute, 1976.)

Pastries we have attempted: choux, cream crust, enriched shortcrust, pastelillos, paté brisée, tart paste, traditional shortcrust (with lard), rice paste.

Click here for a short history of pastry.

Common Faults in Pastry Making (2024)

FAQs

Common Faults in Pastry Making? ›

Whether you use a food processor, a stand mixer, or your hands to incorporate the ingredients together, overmixing is a common mistake that leads to a chewy crust. It's tempting when baking to combine the ingredients completely, but the texture should resemble a coarse meal before adding your liquid.

What is one of the most common mistakes made when preparing a pastry crust? ›

Whether you use a food processor, a stand mixer, or your hands to incorporate the ingredients together, overmixing is a common mistake that leads to a chewy crust. It's tempting when baking to combine the ingredients completely, but the texture should resemble a coarse meal before adding your liquid.

What are the general causes for success or failure in pastry making? ›

Solutions to common pastry making problems
ProblemsCauses
Poor liftFlour too weak
Oven too cold
Over dusting
Dough too soft
12 more rows

What are some of the faults when making rough puff pastry? ›

FAULTS CAUSES REMEDIES
  1. Lack of volume Weak flour. Increase temperature. (not puffing) Oven too cool. ...
  2. Shrinkage Dough too tight. Adjust water content. ...
  3. Fat seeping during Oven too cool. Fat layers too thick. ...
  4. Tough lifeless Oven too cool. Pastries too thick. ...
  5. Excessive flakiness Too many folds.

What are the common faults in choux pastry? ›

Potential reasons for each fault include insufficient cooling, eggs added too quickly, not beating the mixture enough, incorrect baking temperature or time, insufficient baking, and allowing the liquid to cool too much before adding flour.

What are four possible faults in pastry making? ›

Tough Pastry
  • High protein flour.
  • Substitution of equal amount of butter or margarine for fat.
  • Insufficient fat.
  • Fat not distributed well enough.
  • Too much water.
  • Uneven distribution of water, requiring more manipulation.
  • Over stirring after water is added.
  • Dough not rolled immediately.

What can go wrong when making pastry? ›

Shortcrust pastry can sometimes brown unevenly, with some areas becoming too dark and others remaining pale. This can happen if the oven temperature is too high, if the pastry is not rolled evenly, or if it's placed on a rack that's too high or too low in the oven.

What are the faults in dough making process? ›

WANT TO SAVE THIS RECIPE?
  1. Failing to Weigh Your Ingredients Accurately. ...
  2. Mistakenly Adding Salt DIRECTLY on top of Yeast. ...
  3. Incorrectly Adding Too Much Liquid. ...
  4. Not Covering Up Your Dough At All Stages of Breadmaking. ...
  5. Inadequately Proofing Your Dough. ...
  6. Failure to Create Steam in the Oven. ...
  7. Don't Let the Heat Escape During Baking.
Jan 16, 2020

What are the common problem you might encounter when baking pastry? ›

Common Baking Mistakes (And How to Fix Them)
  • Baking at the wrong temperature. ...
  • Not measuring ingredients. ...
  • Checking on your items too frequently. ...
  • Your ingredients are at the wrong temperature. ...
  • Your dough isn't rising. ...
  • Nothing is baking evenly. ...
  • Your dough or batter is too tough. ...
  • Wrap Up.

What are four rules to follow when making pastry? ›

Introduce as much air as possible during making. Allow to relax after making to allow the fat to harden. Handle the pastry as little as possible. Roll lightly with short, quick firm strokes.

What happens if you over knead puff pastry? ›

If you knead the detempre too much, when it comes time to lamination you're going to have a very elastic dough that will be incredibly hard to roll out.

What is the best fat for pastry? ›

The best fat for pastry-making

Unless you don't eat dairy, we recommend butter for flavour and texture. You can also try a 50/50 split between butter and lard, which works well for savoury recipes like quiches. Make sure your butter is really cold when you rub it in to the flour.

What causes blistered pastry? ›

This may be due to insufficient mixing of the fat and flour, or the addition of too much water. mixing fat and flour. eventually escape as steam on baking causing blisters. Shrinkage is generally due to over stretching the pastry.

What causes soggy pastry? ›

If the fat melts before a strong gluten structure has formed, the pastry will end up soggy. Overly moist fillings can also contribute to a soggy bottom as the liquid will drop to the bottom of the pie and ooze into the pastry. To ensure crisp pastry, the base can be blind baked before adding the filling.

What happens if you overmix choux pastry? ›

Second, it is important to cook the flour for a few minutes before adding the eggs. This will help to develop the gluten in the flour, which will give the dough its structure. Finally, it is important to not overmix the dough after the eggs are added. Overmixing can make the dough tough.

What is the most common mistake in baking? ›

Using ingredients at the wrong temperature

One of the most common baking mistakes is using ingredients that are either too cold or too hot. Room-temperature ingredients are typically best for baking, so if your recipe calls for butter, eggs, or milk at room temperature, make sure to set them out ahead of time.

What is one thing you should not do when making pie crust? ›

Mistake to Avoid No.

Adding more flour is always an option, but add too much flour and your dough will end up like a cracker—not a pie crust. Remember: The more you mix your pie dough, the tougher it becomes. To keep the mixing to a minimum, try rolling out your dough between two pieces of parchment paper.

What's wrong with my pie crust? ›

There are several reasons why pie crust can become hard.
  • You don't have a great recipe. ...
  • Using the wrong type of flour. ...
  • Butter needs to be ice cold, and should be rubber into the flour with our fingers to form thin flakes, not the pea size lumps mentioned in so many recipes. ...
  • Don't add all the water at once.
Nov 27, 2022

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