clear glass allows it to pass right through and
heat the crust directly. Thin metal pans can’t
hold much heat in themselves and so tend to
slow heating and produce uneven browning.
Heavier gauge metal pans and ceramic plates
and molds can accumulate oven heat, get
hotter than thin pans, and transmit the heat
more evenly to the pastry.
Baking Apart from bready croissants and
Danish, most pastry doughs contain very little
water, not nearly enough to gelate all the
starch granules. Cooking therefore partly
gelates the starch and dries the gluten network
well, and produces a firm, crunchy or crisp
texture and a golden brown exterior. Pastry
crusts in particular are cooked at relatively
high oven temperatures so that the dough
heats through and sets quickly. Slow heating
just melts the pastry dough’s fat, and the
protein-starch network slumps before the
starch gets hot enough to absorb water from