Baking and most other forms of cooking are essentially highly abstracted chemistry.
Maintaining the ratio of various ingredients allows consistent results. Failing do to so can cause the various reactions, processes, etc. to occur in an undesirable manner.
Pastry is complicated enough that it requires certain tools. For example, you will never get your dough truly flat unless you have a rolling pin. If you try to flatten it with your bare fingers, you can get it somewhat flat, but not really flat, and your pastry will not turn out the way you want it to. Similarly, you need the right kind of pan to make muffins if you want them to come out looking like muffins. If you bake them on a cookie sheet instead, they will come out looking like shapeless blobs. Of course, I would eat them anyway.
Making good pastry is a science. Basic pie crust, for example, calls for only four ingredients: fat/shortening, flour, water and salt, but they must be combined and handled in a particular way to produce a good result. The right quantities, the right order and the right temperatures must be observed. Too much fat and the dough will be gummy; too much flour and it will be crumbly. Too much water at too warm a temperature will yield a "slippery" dough that will be hard to roll. Any of these actions, along with overmixing and handling, prevent a crust from being light and flaky. Pastry making is not difficult, but it requires following a reliable recipe to the letter. It may take a couple of tries to get it right, but this skill is not beyond the reach of the average cook.
why is ration and proportion inportant when making pastry
why is ration and proportion inportant when making pastry
"proportion" means how much of one ingredient as compared to other ingredients. For instance the proportion of fat to flour in shortcrust pastry is twice the amount of flour to the amount of fat used.
When making a quiche or a pastry, the egg plays a very important role. The purpose of the egg is to help hold all of the other ingredients in the dish together.
it helps the ingredients to stick together
Flour is mixed with butter and other ingredients when making pastry. Individual grains of flour are too small to consider whether they are "coated in butter" in that process.
A good pastry should be light, flaky and tender, which requires careful measurement and handling of ingredients during the making process. The lightness of a pastry depends on the amount of air fused into the dough after adding baking powder. If the ingredients and tools, including hands, used are cold, or if the pastry is placed in a refrigerator before being worked, the pastry will rise and expand more. When making the dough, make sure the shortening is not completely mixed in with the dry ingredients, but is left in lumps approximately one inch wide each. When the dough is rolled, the shortening will keep the particles of the pastry separate, creating a flaky texture. The more fat and water used, the more tender the pastry will be. Avoid over-mixing or over-kneading the dough, which can result in a tougher, drier pastry. Even the most perfect pastry can be ruined if there is too much filling, glaze or topping. The final touches are just as important as the mixing and handling of the dough. A good pastry should be light and tender, but also strong enough to hold toppings like fruits, chocolates and nuts.
Recipes will vary depending on the type of pastry or bread your making but the are the basic ingredients, Short crust pastry is Flour, Fat a little salt and water. Bread dough is Flour, Fat, Yeast, a little sugar (to activate the yeast) salt and water.
Beating choux paste is an important procedure to ensure a perfect pastry. After adding the flour to the water and butter, beating the paste by hand or electric mixer will blend the ingredients thoroughly so that you will have a smooth paste with no lumps of flour. Then when adding the eggs, again it is important to beat the mixture in order to have a silky, smooth and glossy choux paste.
The egg yolk binds the ingredients in the pastry together, enabling them to form a dough
egg binds the ingredients together and gives moisture and richness
Rubbing in is a term used when making pastry, all the dry ingredients are put in a bowl then the fat is added and rubbed between the fingertips into the dry ingredients until all the fat is rubbed in and the mix resembles fine breadcrumbs.
Culinary products made out of flour. In the case of bread the other ingredients are yeast and water (with a little salt and oil). In the case of pastry the other ingredients are fat (and a little salt and water).