Types of pastry compared

Pastry types differ mainly in how the fat is combined with the flour. Rubbed-in fat gives crumbly shortcrust, layered fat gives flaky puff, and cooked paste gives hollow choux.

CookBook TeamUpdated Oct 23, 2026

Six pastries compared

Ratios are by weight, taken from the recipes cited in each section below. They compare selected ingredients, not complete formulas: choux, for example, also needs eggs. Treat them as starting points and follow a complete recipe.

Pastry	How the fat goes in	Typical ratio by weight	Texture	Typical uses
Shortcrust (pâte brisée)	Cold fat rubbed or cut into flour, then a little water	Fat 50 to 80% of the flour	Crisp, crumbly to flaky	Quiche, fruit pies, chicken pie
Sweet pastry (pâte sucrée, sablée)	Butter creamed with sugar and egg, or rubbed into the flour	About 2:1 flour to butter, with sugar at 20 to 50% of the flour	Short and crumbly	Sweet tarts and tartlets
Puff (pâte feuilletée)	Butter block sealed in dough, then rolled and folded	Butter about 80 to 90% of the flour	Crisp, separate, flaky leaves	Napoleons, filled pastries, savoury pies
Rough puff	Cold butter flakes mixed in, then rolled and folded	Butter about 75 to 95% of the flour	Flaky, closer to a folded shortcrust	Turnovers, palmiers
Choux	Butter melted in boiling liquid, flour cooked in, eggs beaten in	Liquid about 1.5 times the flour; butter 60 to 75% of the flour	Crisp shell, hollow centre	Éclairs, profiteroles, gougères
Filo	Melted butter or oil brushed between sheets	Dough about 2:1 flour to water	Paper-thin, crisp layers	Baklava, spanakopita

Cut croissant, choux bun and tart shell showing different pastry structures — Different methods create different structures: laminated dough separates into layers, choux forms a shell, and a tart case stays comparatively short and crumbly.

Shortcrust ratios

Coating the flour with fat before the water goes in limits gluten, which keeps shortcrust tender. Typical ratios by weight:

French pâte brisée: 2:1 flour to butter. For example 250 g flour, 125 g butter, an optional egg and a little water [1].
3:2:1 flour, fat and water. Fat is about 67% of the flour [2][3].
American pie crust: fat at 60 to 80% of the flour. A classic double crust uses 297 g flour to 188 g butter and shortening (63%) [4][5].

Method essentials: keep the fat very cold, leave some pieces the size of a small coin for flakiness [5], add just enough cold water to bind, and chill before rolling.

Sweet pastry: sucrée and sablée

Pâte sucrée is usually made by creaming the butter with sugar and egg, for example 200 g flour, 100 g butter, 80 g icing sugar and 1 egg [6]. Pâte sablée is richer and more crumbly, and is often made by rubbing the butter into the flour, for example 250 g flour, 125 g butter, 125 g sugar, 1 egg and 1 yolk [7]. Some sablée recipes use icing sugar, soft butter and ground almonds [1]. For both, low-gluten flour and an overnight rest in the fridge keep gluten low and limit shrinking [8].

Puff and rough puff

Classic puff encloses a butter block in a lean dough (détrempe), then rolls and folds it. In the oven, steam trapped by the fat layers pushes them apart [9]. Butter is usually 80 to 90% of the flour weight: for example 570 g flour to 453 g butter with six letter folds [10], or 500 g flour to 450 g butter [11].

Rough puff flattens cold butter into flakes in the flour, then folds the rough, uneven dough. Butter is usually 75 to 95% of the flour: for example 360 g flour to 340 g butter with one letter fold and two book folds [12], or 500 g flour to 375 g butter [11].

Lamination and the layer maths

A turn is one roll and one fold. A letter fold (single turn, tour simple) folds the dough in thirds and triples the butter layers. A book fold (double turn, tour double) folds both ends to the centre, then in half, and multiplies them by four.

Starting from one butter layer between two of dough:

Butter layers = 3^L × 4^B, where L is the number of letter folds and B the number of book folds
Dough layers = butter layers + 1, because at each fold two dough surfaces meet and fuse
Total layers = 2 × butter layers + 1

Worked layer counts

Folds after lock-in	Butter layers	Dough layers	Total
1 letter + 1 book	12	13	25
3 letter (croissant)	27	28	55
1 letter + 2 book (rough puff, notional)	48	49	97
4 letter	81	82	163
4 book	256	257	513
6 letter (classic puff)	729	730	1,459

When a recipe quotes a layer count, check whether it means butter layers or all layers: six letter folds give 729 butter layers and 1,459 layers in all. Rough puff counts are notional, because its butter starts as scattered flakes. Past about eight turns the layers become so thin that they fuse [13].

Choux

Choux is cooked twice. Boil the liquid and butter, add the flour at once, and stir over the heat until the paste leaves the pan and a film forms on the base. Cool it to below 52 °C (125 °F) [14], then beat in the eggs gradually until the paste is glossy and a line drawn through it closes slowly. A typical batch uses 250 g milk and water, 100 g butter, 165 g flour and 250 g egg [15]. Cooking pre-gelatinises the starch, so the paste holds more water to turn into steam [16]. Moist walls collapse, so bake until a test shell is dry inside.

Filo

Filo is a lean dough of flour, water and salt, sometimes with egg or vinegar, stretched until you can see through it [17]. A typical dough uses 500 g flour to 250 ml water, with 200 g melted butter brushed between the sheets [18]. Keep unused sheets covered: they dry and tear quickly.

Blind baking sets and browns a case before a wet or unbaked filling goes in: fully for fillings that never go back in the oven, partly for custards that bake briefly. Chill the lined pan for 30 minutes, cover the pastry with parchment or foil, fill with weights, beans or rice, and bake at 190 °C (375 °F) for 20 minutes. For a full bake, remove the weights, prick the base and bake 20 to 25 minutes more [19].

Pale unbaked tart pastry with a fork-pricked base — **Chilled and unbaked** The pastry is still soft and pale. Chill the lined tin, then use the lining and weights described in your recipe.

Partly baked empty tart shell with a pale base — **Set but still pale** The case holds its shape but the base has little colour. This may be the stopping point when the filling will bake further.

Empty tart shell with an evenly golden base — **Fully baked** Look at the base as well as the rim. A filling that will not return to the oven needs a properly baked case.

Illustrative blind-baking checkpoints. Pastry thickness, sugar and oven behaviour change the colour and timing; follow the recipe and inspect the base.

Problem	Usual causes	Prevention
Shrinking or slumping	Overworked or stretched dough, too much or too warm fat, too little rest	Roll gently, do not stretch, chill before baking, use weights
Puffing	Bubbles forming under an unpricked, unweighted base	Prick (dock) the base and fill with weights
Soggy base	Underbaked pastry under a wet filling	Prebake; seal with melted chocolate, or egg yolk and cream brushed on 5 minutes before the end [8]

Key temperatures

Lamination needs dough and butter equally pliable: over-chilled butter fractures, warm butter melts [20]. The oven temperature converter includes a fan-oven adjustment.

Stage	Temperature
Puff dough while laminating	2 to 7 °C (35 to 45 °F) [20]
Puff butter block	16 to 21 °C (60 to 70 °F) [20][9]
Shortcrust blind bake	190 to 218 °C (375 to 425 °F) [19][21]
Sweet tart shells	About 155 °C (311 °F) [8]
Puff and rough puff	170 to 204 °C (338 to 400 °F) [10][11]
Choux	218 °C (425 °F) for 15 minutes, then 177 °C (350 °F) [22]

Topping a tart? Compare French, Swiss and Italian meringue. Filling a sweet case with chocolate? Use the ganache ratio calculator. Changing tart tin size? Scale with the baking pan size converter. Converting a recipe from cups? Check the ingredient weight chart.

Keep your pastry recipes together

CookBook saves recipes from websites, social posts, photos and cookbooks and keeps them organised. In cooking mode you can change the servings and the measurement system; ingredient amounts scale, but baking times do not, so check the pastry as it bakes.

Measure the butter and flour for your pastry

Use the butter stick-to-gram table when a pastry recipe uses US sticks, and compare US and 250 ml flour cups before measuring. Keep the recipe’s flour type and butter preparation unchanged.

Sources

A little more help

Frequently asked questions

Is pâte brisée the same as shortcrust pastry?

Broadly, yes. Pâte brisée is the French form of shortcrust: cold fat worked into flour and bound with a little water, sometimes with an egg. It usually has half as much butter as flour, while American pie doughs often carry more fat, around two parts fat to three parts flour.

How many turns does puff pastry need?

Usually four to six single turns (letter folds), or the same amount of folding done partly as double turns. Rest the dough in the fridge after every two turns or so, so the butter stays firm.

Do I need ceramic pie weights to blind bake?

No. Dried beans, uncooked rice and granulated sugar all work, poured onto a liner of parchment, foil or a paper coffee filter until the case is about two-thirds full. If the sides still slip, bake the lined case upside down between two identical pie pans for the first 20 minutes.

Why did my choux buns collapse after baking?

Usually because the walls were still moist when they left the oven. As the shells cool, the steam inside condenses and wet walls fall in. Break open a test shell to check it is dry inside before taking out the batch, or slit each shell and return it to the oven for 5 minutes to let the steam escape.

Can I freeze homemade puff or rough puff pastry?

Yes. Wrap it well and freeze it for 1 to 3 months, then thaw it overnight in the fridge before rolling.

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“Types of pastry compared”, CookBook Manager. Updated Oct 23, 2026. https://cookbookmanager.com/guides/types-of-pastry

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