The Bottom Line: Sweet facts about pastries.
The Full Story:
- Pastries were first brought to Europe during the Muslim invasion of the 7th century and quickly captured the imagination of European chefs.
- The most important tool of any pastry chef are his or her hands.
- December 9th is National Pastry Day.
- Pies, turnovers, strudel and cream puffs, are just a few of the pastries loved the world over. The same basic ingredients, flour, fat and water, are used to make all of them.
- It wasn’t until about the mid-16th century that actual pastry recipes began appearing in various European countries.
- The original donuts of New England did not get their name because of the presence of any nuts. They were actually pastries without holes and were made in the shape and size of walnuts and hence they were named donuts.
- The Spanish bakery Mantecados La Muralla baked a “polvoron” – a type of shortbread – which measured 16.25-feet long and 7.87-feet wide and weighed 660 pounds, setting the world record for the Largest Pastry.