Concept in Definition ABC

An apple sponge cake, a lemon cake, a French toast or a chocolate coulant have something in common: they are all cakes. Pastry is the culinary activity dedicated to confectionery, that is, the production from food that do not pretend to cover basic needs but that provide a pleasant and pleasant taste.

The world of pastry in a few lines

Cakes, buns, cakes or sweets have very different variants. There are personalized ones (for example, birthday cakes), homemade or industrial, with a sweet or salty flavor, cold or hot, popular or in a delicatessen version, with sweetened or whipped dough and, in short, with a very wide range of possibilities. On the other hand, each territory has its own gastronomy pastry chef.

A Mexican can be passionate about the Day of the Dead pastry, an Argentine one of the Alfajores from Mar del Plata or flan tartlets and a Spanish from the Mallorcan ensaimada or sobaos pasiegos. Behind each cake there is usually a tradition and a story.

The art of pastry is thousands of years old

In the hieroglyphs of Ancient Egypt there are references to sweet recipes, which were prepared with pasta flavored with honey. The Greeks had the custom of making wheat bread to celebrate some festivities and in some cities there was already a establishment specialized in desserts, the artokopeion (the term artokopeion means bakery or pastry shop and the word plakon means cake).

In the civilization Roman patricians were very fond of cakes (in Latin there is the term polyteles to refer to desserts in general). The Islamic culture was the creator of desserts made with sugar and fruits and many of its cakes and sweets are part of the Spanish pastry tradition.

From a historical point of view, many cakes and sweets were created out of the need to preserve food for longer or to take advantage of to the maximum certain very abundant raw materials (for example, it is believed that the nougat appeared after the surplus of almonds and honey in some territories).

In the seventeenth century the first confectionery corporations were founded and this job it was consolidated as an art. With the passage of time, modern patisserie introduced a breakthrough that would revolutionize the world of confectionery: the mastery of cold to improve the quality of the products.

Photos: Fotolia - carballo / anamejia18