Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Chemistry of Pastry: A Complete Guide to the Science Behind Baking Perfect Pasties, Pastries and Pies

The Chemistry of Pastry: A Complete Guide to the Science Behind Baking Perfect Pasties, Pastries and Pies

John, Andy

Paperback

Series: The Chemistry of Food & Drinks

Cookbooks GeneralTechnology & Engineering

ISBN13: 9798193993773
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Aug 21 2026
Pages: 132
Weight: 0.41
Height: 0.28 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Why did your tart shell shrink? Why did the vol-au-vent collapse? And why does one croissant shatter into golden leaves while another sits dense and greasy?

There is no such thing as bad luck in a pastry; there is only chemistry you did not see happening.

The Chemistry of Pastry takes you inside the dough itself, explaining the science behind every fold, rest, chill and bake in warm, jargon-free prose. You will discover the gluten scaffold hiding in your flour, the butter crystals that decide flake or crumb, the steam that inflates seven hundred layers of laminate, and the browning reactions that transform pale dough into golden flavour.

Covering both sweet and savoury pastry, from shortcrust and choux to hot water crust, suet, Danish and hand-stretched filo, this book teaches you not just what to do but why it works. And when things go wrong, a dedicated troubleshooting chapter shows you how to read your failures like a scientist: slumps, shrinkage, soggy bottoms and stale butter all confess their causes to anyone who knows the vocabulary.

Inside you will find:

  • The complete molecular story of flour, fat, water, sugar, salt and egg, and how each shapes your pastry.
  • The physics of lamination, starch gels, emulsions and heat transfer, explained for the home kitchen.
  • A full diagnostic guide to the great pastry failures and how to prevent them.
  • Ten tested master recipes, from puff to pâte sablée, to use as baselines for your own experiments.

Also from

John, Andy

View All

Also in

Technology & Engineering

View All