• Pies, tarts, croissants, muffins, waffles or baklava are just some of the classic and always appreciated pastries. Whether we enjoy them in a hurry or in moments of respite, the products born from the refined art of pastry chefs are, in all meridians of the world, a gastronomic treat, perfect harmony between tastes and textures.
The patisserie started with the pie
Anthropologists say that the first mentions of the existence of a pastry product appeared in the Neolithic or New Stone Age, when the Egyptians cooked the first pie crust. These pies were based on a dough similar to that of bread, made of flour and water with the addition of oil, and were smeared with honey.
Historians are of the opinion that the origin of the pie must be attributed to the Greeks, who prepared a paste from flour and water, to which fat was added, and then wrapped the paste around a piece of meat.
In 160 BC, the Roman politician Marcus Porcius Cato wrote in De Agri Cultura about the most popular pie, called "Placenta", which was similar to cheesecake and was offered as a sacrifice to the gods.
Historians in the field of culinary art have identified as the primary source of the development of pastry the recipes brought by the Crusaders, taken over and then adapted by the chefs of Europe in the Middle Ages. Most pastries had Mediterranean roots. The Ottoman Empire also contributed to their spread and development in the world. Even after the collapse of the great Ottoman Empire, Mediterranean gastronomy and culinary culture were present in the daily life of Europeans, and pastry products were served at the French and Spanish courts.
The master pastry chefs of the Italian and French Renaissance perfected pie sheets, and those of the XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries invented new recipes and new products.
But the first to elevate pastry to the level of art was Antonin Carême, who cooked for Napoleon, the King of England, George IV, and the Tsar of Russia, Alexander. Its success inspired a real culinary revolution, so that, at the end of the 1986th century, there were more than a hundred patisseries in Paris alone, and in 40.000, more than XNUMX were spread throughout France. Carême created the concept of haute cuisine, but before reaching "chef of kings", gained fame by working at his own patisserie, "Pâtisserie de la rue de la Paix", where his "showpieces” (constructions made of dough, sugar and marzipan), displayed in the window, became famous for their complexity. Pastry history has, in addition to Carême, other sacred monsters, such as Nicolas Stohrer, the inventor of the product Baba au Rhume, the cake with whipped cream, syruped with rum, or Vincent La Chapelle, the chef of Madame de Pompadour (the mistress of King Louis XV) and author of the book "The Modern Cook" (1735), which influenced cuisine all over the world.
Gaziantep baklava is unique in the world
The Arabs, but especially the Greeks, are "at war" with the Turks when it comes to who invented baklava, each claiming that they are the ones who first prepared the famous dessert. However, there are historians who claim that in China in the 1300s, during the Mongolian Yuan dynasty, there was a dessert very similar to Turkish baklava, made of milk, rice flour and pressed seeds. Other theories state that this dessert comes from Assyria, being invented in Mesopotamia, and is even mentioned in a cookbook from that period.
In Turkey, baklava is made from a layer of puff pastry, between which rests a generous filling of walnuts, almonds (in the Aegean region), pistachios (especially in southern Turkey), hazelnuts (in the Black Sea region) and even sesame, in the city of Edirne and the area of former Thrace.
In Greece, it is said that baklava must be prepared with 33 sheets of dough, a number that refers to the years of Jesus' life. In Azerbaijan, baklava is made with walnuts or almonds and is cut into a diamond shape.
In Armenia, paklava is made with cinnamon and cloves. In Iran you can taste a less syrupy version of baklava, served in smaller pieces and flavored with rose water. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, baklava is called ruzice, and in the Crimean Tatar cuisine area, you can eat pakhlava, a dessert related to baklava.
The city of Gaziantep is accepted as the baklava capital of Turkey. The inhabitants of this town say that here the baklava has a special taste, because the altitude and climatic conditions are ideal for the growth of pistachio trees. Since these conditions cannot be reproduced anywhere, Gaziantep baklava is unique in the world.
Cannoli
Cannolo is a highly appreciated traditional Sicilian dessert. This recipe has been prepared since Roman times. At that time, cane stalks were used for forming, later the metal forms on which the sheet of cannolo is wrapped were designed.
In Sicily, cannoli are filled with ricotta cheese. In Palermo, the cream is enriched with drops of bitter chocolate. The finest cannoli cream comes from Piana Degli Albanesi, near Palermo. It is considered that this is the home of the Sicilian cannolo, being also a tourist destination for many lovers of this dessert.
The cannolo dough can be flavored with cinnamon, cocoa, coffee, Marsala wine or even vinegar.
The strudel, from Vienna to Texas
Strudel is a very popular cake, especially in Germany, where it is considered a traditional product, as well as in Austria, but also in Hungary and Romania, Belgium or the Netherlands. The oldest strudel recipe (Millirahmstrudel cu gulie) was found in a handwritten cookbook from 1696, which is today in the Vienna Municipal Library (Wiener Stadtbibliothek). The current variant of the strudel recipe appeared on the territory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Since the 1800th century, strudel has been considered the favorite dessert at big parties in the territory of the dual monarchy. In Hungary, it is known as Rétes. Strudel is declared the official pastry product of Texas, and in Israel people prepare it on every street corner. In the menu of the famous Ritz hotel in Paris, at the beginning of the XNUMXs, the "Retes Hongrois" appeared, for which flour imported from Hungary was used, and the chefs were sent to learn the recipe in Pest. The strudel can be filled with apples, sour cherries, cherries and other fruits, but also with cheese, pumpkin, poppy seeds or nuts.
Puff pastry or French pastry
Puff pastry is a pastry product originating in France, invented by an apprentice pastry chef named Claudius Gele around 1645. At the end of his apprenticeship, Claudius wanted to prepare a more special bread for his father, who was ill and on a diet. So he made a dough of flour, butter, water, vinegar and salt. Some sources say that Gele apparently forgot to incorporate the butter into the flour before adding the water so, to cover up his mistake, he put pieces of butter into the already formed dough and then folded the butter dough into ten times. The head pastry chef, who followed him, warned him not to put that dough in the oven, because he was convinced that the pieces of butter would melt, coming out of the dough. However, Claudius baked the dough, and both the young apprentice and the seasoned pastry chef were surprised to find that the baked product was extremely fluffy, highly risen, and flavorful.
The refined pastry product, consisting of hundreds of sheets of dough, fine, golden and slightly fragile, is made from only two basic ingredients: flour and solid fats, which must be chosen with great care. When baking, the product can increase its volume eight times compared to the thickness of the dough, without needing any growth agent.
Fifty parameters define the croissant
One of the most famous pastries in the world has a highly contested history. According to a legend, the French croissant was actually created in Vienna in 1683, when the Turks tried to conquer the city. It is said that a pastry chef working late heard the Turks trying to dig a tunnel under the fortress walls. He alerted the city guard, and the soldiers managed to collapse the tunnel on the Turks, saving Vienna. In commemoration of the victory, the pastry chef made a crescent-shaped pastry dessert, so that when the Viennese would bite into it, they would have the feeling that they were biting into their enemies. In the XNUMXth century, the product "migrate" in France, under the name of croissant, but pastry chefs in Vienna have preserved the tradition of the crescent-shaped preparation, which they call "Kipfel". Croissant means "corn” (crescent), but also "horn" (food). The word is also related to the verb "tailor" - "to rise" (the dough).
According to the pastry chefs, there are at least fifty parameters that must be respected in order to obtain a real croissant: the quality of the flour, the butter, the puff pastry technique, the formation of the product, the dough's rising time, the temperature and duration of baking, etc.
From pies and cakes to tarts
The tart is said to have derived from the classic pie, prepared since Antiquity, with various savory fillings. The tarts of the Romans, "torta panis", were nothing more than "open" pies, having a base of a more consistent dough and various salty fillings: fish, meat, seafood, cheese. Only in the Middle Ages, the master chefs of the royal courts of Europe prepared the first sweet tarts.
The first references to sweet cream tarts date back to 1399, when this pastry dessert was served at the coronation banquet of King Henry IV.
The lemon tart seems to have been created in the XNUMXth century, on the ships of the English fleet, where the daily consumption of lemon juice was mandatory. The French also claim it, claiming that it was created in the city of Menton, known for its citrus fruits.
Tarts filled with mushrooms, minced beef or chicken are still very popular today in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. The traditional American pie is the apple pie, Apple Pie, which became famous in 1890.
For the English, the muffin is a cult
For the English, the muffin is a cult. At first it was the food of the poorest servants of the medieval aristocrats at the court of Queen Victoria. The recipe was simple: a composition of dry bread, biscuit crust and boiled and crushed potatoes was put on a kind of grill. Surprised by the appetite with which those who served him ate the muffins, the nobles wanted to taste. And they were conquered. Since then, the brioche has become the most fashionable "bread" on the island. The industrialists of the time then opened factories in all corners of the United Kingdom. The itinerant sellers of muffins could no longer cope with the demand. Today, the English muffin has become fluffier, more refined, enriched with flavors, chocolate or fruit.
If it's Belgium, it's waffles
Cuvantul "waffles" first appeared in English in 1725. It derives directly from the Dutch word wafel meaning honeycomb cake. They are also called: waffe, wafre, wafer, wâfel, waufre, gaufre, goffre, gauffre, wafe, waffel, wafe, vaffel. There are several preparation options, depending on the type of device and the recipe used. Waffles are appreciated all over the world, but especially in Belgium, where there are more than a dozen varieties, which can be found in all the windows of patisseries and confectionery, even in restaurants. We also find them in France and the Netherlands, but also in Germany, Poland, Hungary, Scandinavia, Hong Kong and the United States of America.
Morocco boasts Ma'amou and Sfenj
Ma'amoul is a type of biscuit filled with nuts, almonds or figs and sprinkled with powdered sugar. They are consumed during Arab holidays with a cup of tea or coffee. These biscuits are mostly made with semolina, not flour. In fact, semolina is more commonly used in Moroccan cuisine than wheat flour. Sfenj could be considered an interesting combination between donut and Spanish churro. There are clearly Spanish influences in this recipe, but the differences between Spanish churros and Moroccan sfenj are obvious. Sfenj contain only a few ingredients: water, flour, sugar and salt and are fried in oil. They are usually eaten for breakfast, with sugar or honey.
Trivia about pies:
- Pies became very popular during the Phanariot period, when Greek master pie makers baked fluffy doughs in polished copper vessels, adding various fillings.
- The Greeks were the ones who brought the pie to our country. And Romanian pies have gained a reputation, from the Dobrogean one to the delicious Poale-n brau.
- In Turkey, the most famous are Yufka and Borek puff pastry.
- Pies, with or without fillings, are among the few pastry products that the Chinese boast.
- Since 1975, there has also been International Pie Day, celebrated on January 23.
Article made by Redaccia Arta Albă.
