2 Ways To Keep Pastry Crust Crisp: Sweet Tip Tuesday

2 Ways To Keep Pastry Crust Crisp: Sweet Tip Tuesday.

For this instalment of Sweet Tip Tuesday, I am sharing two simple and delicious ways to keep your pastry game tight. How, you ask? With a little chocolate and cocoa butter love!

You may remember at least one of these tips from my Pate Sucree post a couple years ago. I recently shared it again on my Instagram feed and received a few inquiries, which prompted this post. So here we go, short and sweet! 😉

2 Ways To Keep Pastry Crust Crisp:

Everything is better with chocolate and as I have said many times before, chocolate is EVERYTHANG! So, when I learned this little trick in Baking Arts, one of my very first culinary courses a few years ago, it stuck. One, because it's such a simple step and two, well...it's CHOCOLATE!!

Simply temper some dark chocolate and use a pastry brush to paint a thin layer onto the sides and bottom of the freshly baked crust, while still warm. Once the thin layer of chocolate sets, it creates a tasty barrier that helps to keep the crust from getting soggy when it is filled with pastry cream, mousse or another filling of your choice. Chocolatey. Crunchy. WIN-WIN.

The amount of chocolate needed will depend on what/how much you are making. For these twelve pâte sucrée shells, I tempered about 50g of dark chocolate. You only need a thin layer, so a little goes a long way and any leftover chocolate can be used to drizzle onto the finished dessert, or simply licked from the bowl. Nothing goes to waste.

The Cocoa Butter Trick:

Last year, I became heavily involved in the art of chocolate making and came across Mycryo on one of my chocolate supplies shopping sprees for class. It is 100% pure cocoa butter in powdered form and is amazingly versatile. It is made by Callebaut through a natural process of freezing the cocoa butter at very low temperature (cryogenisation). I was so fascinated, I added it to my purchase.

Most of what I'd read, or had seen about it was related to savoury dishes and man is it ever good in that application. It imparts a natural taste and delicate crisp texture and doesn't burn while frying. I love using it to sauté mushrooms and for grilling fish and I also use it in my chocolate making in a number of ways - crystallizing, colouring, etc - some of which I'll share with you in future posts.

All the while I was using it on my savoury dishes, it had not occurred to me to use it in the same way I use the chocolate above. I mentioned the product to the chef after class one day and she agreed that it would definitely work. AWESOME!

I simply sift a little onto still warm, freshly baked crusts and it forms a thin barrier as it sets. Once set, I add my filling and VOILA! It's perfect for lighter coloured crusts, where you want a uniformed appearance. Although, I sometimes use the dark chocolate technique on lighter crusts - I like the colour contrast in the cut pieces.

If you're anything like me and consider a soggy crust to be a culinary sin, you'll want to give one of these techniques a try with your next crust. You most likely have chocolate on hand, so it would be the most convenient of the two to try. Here's a link to the Mycryo Cocoa Butter , if you would like to perhaps give that a try. If not for this purpose, I highly recommend it for your savoury dishes (click to read more about Mycryo).

There you have it, 2 Ways to Keep Pastry Crust Crisp: Sweet Tip Tuesday! Whichever you choose, I'd love to hear how it works out for you. You can hashtag #isugarcoatit on Instagram and I'll share on my feed.

What are some of your tricks and tips for preventing soggy crusts?

All About That Crisp (bout that crisp):

Pate Sucree

Mini Maple Pumpkin Pies

Onion Gorgonzola Tart

 

 

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