A cherry pie with a beautiful lattice crust. Photo courtesy of Cherry Marketing Institute.

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June 2009
Updated November 2009

Product Reviews / Main Nibbles / Cookies, Cake & Pastry

Pastry Glossary

The Different Types Of Pastry & Pies

Page 1: Definitions With A & B

CAPSULE REPORT: While the French have the reputation as the great pastry makers, the Egyptians, who were great bread bakers, worked out the details of early pastry. Theirs was a savory pastry: a dough of flour and water paste to wrap around meat and soak up the juices as it cooked. Pastry was further developed in the Middle East and brought to Europe by the Muslims in the 7th century. By medieval times, pies had developed, and the pastry was used to provide a casing for the various fillings. By the 17th century both flaky and puff pastries were in use, with pastry chefs working intricate patterns on the crusts.

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ALMOND TART
A tart filled with almond paste.

ALMOND PASTE and MARZIPAN
Almond paste is made of blanched, finely ground almonds, powdered sugar and generally, glucose or syrup to bind them together. It is coarser and less sweet than marzipan. Both are used as a pastry filling, and were traditionally popular in wedding cakes as a layer on top of the cake and under the fondant. Marzipan has more sugar and is also shaped into plain or chocolate-covered rolls, painted figures and fruits, and enjoyed directly as a confection. While European countries regulate the ratios of sugar to almonds that define marzipan and almond paste, these do not exist in the U.S. Because the ratios can vary significantly, try different brands to see what you like.

À LA MODE
This French term, which means “in the manner (or mode) of,” refers to the style in which a dish is prepared. For example, “Tripe à la mode de Caen,” a classic French dish, refers to the way tripe is prepared in the Normandy city of Caen (onions and carrots are layered on the bottom of a casserole, topped by a halved steer’s foot, followed by the tripe, garlic, leeks and herbs, covered with apple cider and Calvados, baked under a crust and served cold). However in America, the term has been Americanized, first to mean pie topped with ice cream, and now to mean any dessert with a scoop of ice cream.

ANGEL PIE
A meringue crust filled with whipped cream. It also can have a layer of fruit filling such as lemon curd, fresh halved strawberries or whole raspberries, topped by more whipped cream.

APPLE BROWN BETTY
See Brown Betty.

BAKING SHEET LINER
See pastry mat.

BAKLAVA A Middle Eastern dessert made of layers of phyllo pastry filled with a mixture of ground nuts and sugar. The pastry is sliced, baked, and brushed with a honey syrup flavored with lemon or rosewater; the honey makes the pastry very sweet. The earliest form of the pastry was made in the 8th century B.C.E. in northern Mesopotamia, when the Assyrians layered very thin pieces of dough with nuts and honey, and baked them in wood-burning ovens. Greek seamen brought the concept home.

Baklava. Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Athenian artisan bakers created phyllo, the leaf-thin layers of dough; and as early as the 3rd century B.C., the modern prototype of baklava was served in wealthy Greek households for special occasions. Other nations adapted the recipe: Armenians added cinnamon and cloves, Arabs added rosewater and cardamom. The pastry spread to the households of wealthy Persians and Romans; in the 4th Century C.E., when the Roman Empire expanded to Byzantium (modern Turkey), so did baklava. A Mediterranean favorite, it is easy to see why every country would want to claim baklava as its own!
Historical information courtesy of SinbadSweets.com.

BANBURY TART
Actually a turnover, a raisin and cracker crumb filling, accented with lemon zest, is enclosed on all sides by crimped pastry.

BREAKFAST PASTRY or BREAKFAST BREAD A breakfast bread is a bread traditionally reserved for the morning meal. It can be sweet or savory; a savory bread, such as a croissant, is typically served with a sweet embellishment such as preserves. Other examples include almond croissants, pain au chocolat and other Viennoiserie, danish, diplomats and financiers. The difference between a pastry and a “breakfast pastry” is that the latter contains far less sugar and less rich embellishments.

Almond croissants from Tisserie.com.

BROWN or BROWN BETTY
Most often found in recipes for a Brown Betty or an Apple Brown Betty, a betty is a crisp topped with buttered bread crumbs or bread pieces instead of streusel or another topping; later recipes also use graham cracker crumbs (see the history of the graham cracker, which postdates the Brown Betty). In some recipes, sugared and spiced fruit, usually diced apples (although any fruit can be used), is placed in alternating layers with the crumbs and baked, covered, to the consistency of bread pudding. The dish and name date back to colonial times, but the original “Betty” is lost to history; the brown refers to the brown sugar in the recipe. See also cobbler, crisp and grunt.

BLACK BOTTOM PIE
A chiffon pie made with two flavors of custard. The bottom layer is chocolate custard, the top layer is rum-flavored vanilla custard. The pie is topped with a thin layer of sweetened whipped cream and sprinkled with thin shavings of chocolate. In general, “black bottom” refers to a bottom layer of chocolate. You can make a black bottom cake, cupcake, etc.

BOUCHÉE
Miniature tart shells or cream puffs (puff pastry shells) used for sweet or savory fillings.

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