Cathy Johnson

There are five basic types of pastry a food that combines flour and fat – these are shortcrust pastry, filo pastry, choux pastry, flaky pastry and puff pastry. Two main types of pastry are nonlaminated, when fat is cut or rubbed into the flour, and laminated, when fat is repeatedly folded into the dough using a technique called lamination. An example of a nonlaminated pastry would be a pie or tart crust and brioche. An example of a laminated pastry would be a croissant, danish, or puff pastry. Many pastries are prepared using shortening, a fat food product that is solid at room temperature, the composition of which lends to creating crumbly, shortcrust-style pastries and pastry crusts.