Key lime pie, named for the Florida Keys where the pie was first made. Photo courtesy of Morton’s The Steakhouse.

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June 2009
Last Updated January 2010

Product Reviews / Main Nibbles / Cookies, Cake & Pastry

Pastry Glossary

Galette & Other Types Of Pastry & Pies

Page 5: Definitions G ~ L

This page contains terms such as galette, kolache, linzer torte, lemon meringue pie and Key lime pie. This is Page 5 of a ten-page glossary. Click the black link below to visit other pages. See more than 60 other food glossaries, each featuring a different favorite food.

GALETTE A term with multiple meanings, depending on the category of food. In the pastry world, a galette is a rustic, open-face pie or tart (depending on the size). It is flat, with a flaky, turned-up crust that creates a bowl around the fruit inside (see the photo at right of a peach galette).

Galette from FrogHollow.com, a NIBBLE Top Pick Of The Week.

GRASSHOPPER PIE
Grasshopper pie is a crème de menthe chiffon pie with a chocolate cookie crust. It was invented in the U.S. in the 1950s and pays homage to the Grasshopper cocktail, made with crème de menthe and crème de cacao. A frozen version can be made with mint or mint chip ice cream.

GRUNT A grunt is a “spoon pie”: biscuit dough dumplings atop cooked fruit. It is steamed on the stovetop, instead of baked in the oven. See also cobbler, pandowdy and slump. HOT WATER CRUST PASTRY or HOT WATER PASTRY A quick and easy method for making plain pastry. It is less flaky than the traditional method, but crisp, tender and serviceable. It works best with lard: Lard is placed in a bowl and melted with boiling water; sifted pastry or cake flour, salt and baking powder are added and stirred until blended. The dough is patted into a ball, wrapped in wax paper and chilled.

A blueberry grunt. Photo courtesy WildBlueberries.com.

ICEBOX PIE
A pie that must be refrigerated or frozen before it can be served. Icebox pies have cookie-crumb crusts that may or may not be baked; fillings are either uncooked or cooked on top of the stove. The fillings are set in the refrigerator (icebox) or freezer (in the case of an ice cream pie). This chilling process allows the filling to thicken and/or set, giving it the proper consistency for serving. Most refrigerated pies need to be consumed within a day, before the crust begins to get soggy.

ITALIAN PASTRY
There is no single type of “Italian pasty.” Like French pastry or the pastry of any nationality, it is rich and varied. Examples include cannoli, lobster tail, pignolata, sfogliatelle and zeppole.

JALOUSIE A jalousie (the word means both jealousy and slatted blind in French; in this case it refers to the slats) is a fusion of a turnover and a strudel. You have seen it before, but have not known the official name. A jalousie consists of two rectangles of puff pastry with a fresh fruit filling in-between; the edges of the pastry are pinched together or or crimped with a fork. Before baking, slits (“slats”) are cut into the top crust that allow steam to and also create a glimpse at the attractive filling between the slats.

Jalousie. Photo courtesy Pepperidge Farm.

KEY LIME PIE A one-crust custard pie made specifically from the juice of Key limes, which are less acidic than the standard supermarket Tahitian lime. Key lime juice is yellow, not green. (See our Lime Glossary.) If you see a green-colored Key lime pie, avoid it—it is artificially colored and likely, artificially flavored. Read the history of the Key lime pie, which originated in the Florida keys, plus a recipe. (See photo at top of page.) KOLACHE or KOLACKY A light, round Czech and Polish yeast-dough pastry with a sweet cheese, fruit or jam filling. It is enjoyed as a breakfast pastry, snack and dessert. There are also savory versions filled with vegetables and meats. The dough is filled with these ingredients and allowed to proof and rise prior to baking. It is also spelled kolace and kolach.

A berry-filled kolache. Photo courtesy of KolacheMama.com.

KRINGLE PASTRY
Kringle pastry is a type of light, flaky Danish pastry similar to French pâte à choux (puff pastry). It is used to make a round coffeecake (originally baked in the shape of a pretzel) filled with almond paste or other variation and topped with glaze or powdered sugar, also known as a kringle, that is popular in the Midwest, where a concentration of Danes settled in the 1800s.

LAMINATED PASTRY
Laminated dough is used to make Viennoiserie—brioche, croissants, danish and other buttery, flaky breakfast pastry. It is a time-consuming and expensive dough to make, owing to the large quantity of butter used. First, a yeast dough is made, called the détrempe (from the French verb, “to soak,” as the dry ingredients soak in liquid): milk, dry yeast, brown sugar, bread flour, and sea salt kosher salt are kneaded together. Some recipes use starter dough from a prior batch. The dough is chilled, then rolled out into a rectangle. A smaller rectangle of rolled out and chilled butter, called the beurrage (from the French word for butter, beurre), is placed on top of it. Then the construction of the pâton, or dough roll, begins. The rectangle is folded into thirds, as if folding a letter (in fact, this first fold is known as a “single letter fold”). The pâton is then refrigerated for an hour, rolled and folded again. The rolling and folding continues, usually for four turns.

LATTICE CRUST A top crust made by criss-crossing strips of dough (see photo at top of page). The strips can be plan or made with serrated edges using a pastry cutter. A lattice crust is generally used to showcase beautiful fruit. LEMON MERINGUE PIE A pie crust filled with lemon custard and topped with meringue.

Photo of lemon meringue pie courtesy of American Egg Board.

LINZER TORTE
Probably second in fame in Austria to the Sacher torte, the Linzer torte, traced back to 1696 in the town of Linz, Austria, is a pie with a lattice crust top. It is made with an almond short-crust pastry and traditionally filled with black currant preserves (some sources say red currant). In the U.S., where currant preserves are not easy to find, raspberry jam is usually substituted. Today, there are many varieties on the theme: apricot and cranberry, fig and orange Linzers, and hazelnut crusts, which many bakers feel improve upon the original. While Linger torte is a pie, Sacher torte is a chocolate cake, filled with apricot jam and iced with chocolate ganache.

LOBSTER TAIL An Italian specialty, a flaky pastry in the shape of a lobster tail, filled with cannoli cream, vanilla or chocolate custard and dusted with confectioners’ sugar.

Lobster tail pastry. Available at LucibellosPastry.com.

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