Pie & Pastry Glossary

• Pastry Terms A
• Pastry Terms B
• Pastry Terms C
• Pastry Terms D ~ F
• Pastry Terms G ~ L

• Pastry Terms M ~ O
• Pastry Terms Pa
• Pastry Terms Pe ~ Pu
• Pastry Terms Q ~ S
• Pastry Terms T ~ Z

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.

BANANA CREAM PIE
While savory pies date back to ancient times, sweet pies—fruit, cream, custard and pudding pies—date to Medieval times (the Middle Ages), which lasted from the 5th through the 16th century. In the High Middle Ages, from the 11th through 13th centuries, crusaders brought phyllo dough and baklava recipes back to Europe. But bananas did not arrive on a reliable basis until the 1880s, when improved transportation and aggressive promotion introduced what was to become a popular fruit. Banana cream pie, banana tarts, banana cake and banana pudding soon followed.

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.

BREAKFAST PIE
Typically a savory pie crust filled with breakfast items—eggs, cheese and breakfast meats. Breakfast wraps, tacos and the McMuffin are another example of porting plated breakfast foods into a bread wrapper. Historically, pies were savory items, as bread was a Western invention and sugar is native to the Pacific Rim. The original pies were meat pies; the first fruit pies, sweetened with very expensive sugar, were treats for the very wealthy in the 17th century, when Portuguese traders brought sugar to Europe. It wasn’t until the latter part of the 18th century that sugar became affordable to the middle class, and cakes and pies became an affordable treat.

BISCOTTI
While a cookie, not a pastry, we include this twice-baked Italian biscuit. Traditionally flavored with anise or nuts, biscotti are now made in a wide variety of flavors. See the history of biscotti.

BOREK or BOUREK
Fried filled pastries made of flaky phyllo dough (phyllo is called yufka in Turkish), borekas can be filled with feta or other cheese, minced meat, or vegetables. The pastry is popular throughout the Ottoman empire companies. It can be made in a whole round pie or in individual versions such as those in the photo, which themselves can be triangular, cigar-shaped, rose-shaped and other versions.

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