On food and cooking the science and lore of the kitchen ( PDFDrive ) 1066

difference between a crumbly texture and a tough one Eggs are often used to provide richness and added cohesiveness to crumbly pastries, and of course also contribute water Various dairy products, including milk, cream, sour cream, crème frche, and cream cheese may replace some or all of the water, and at the same time provide flavor and fat as well as sugars and proteins for the browning reactions Salt is added mainly for flavor, though it does have a tightening effect on gluten Cooking Pastries Baking Pans Two portions of the same pastry dough, baked in the same oven but in different kinds of pan, will cook differently Shiny pans reflect much of the oven’s radiant heat (p 782) away from the crust and so are slow cooking Black pans absorb most of the radiant heat and conduct it to the crust, and clear glass allows it to pass right through and heat the crust directly Thin metal pans can’t hold much heat in themselves and so tend to slow heating and produce uneven browning Heavier gauge metal pans and ceramic plates and molds can accumulate oven heat, get hotter than thin pans, and transmit the heat more evenly to the pastry Baking Apart from bready croissants and Danish, most pastry doughs contain very little water, not nearly enough to gelate all the starch granules Cooking therefore partly gelates the starch and dries the gluten network well, and produces a firm, crunchy or crisp texture and a golden brown exterior Pastry crusts in particular are cooked at relatively high oven temperatures so that the dough heats through and sets quickly Slow heating just melts the pastry dough’s fat, and the protein-starch network slumps before the starch gets hot enough to absorb water from ...clear glass allows it to pass right through and heat the crust directly Thin metal pans can’t hold much heat in themselves and so tend to slow heating and produce uneven browning Heavier gauge metal pans and ceramic plates and molds can accumulate oven heat, get... hotter than thin pans, and transmit the heat more evenly to the pastry Baking Apart from bready croissants and Danish, most pastry doughs contain very little water, not nearly enough to gelate all the starch... gelate all the starch granules Cooking therefore partly gelates the starch and dries the gluten network well, and produces a firm, crunchy or crisp texture and a golden brown exterior Pastry crusts