Butterfly puff pastry is a sweet memory of a generation of Shanghainese and has become a beautiful business card of Shanghai cuisine. Now there are so many butterfly puff pastries made in large and small restaurants and bakeries on the market, what kind of authentic butterfly puff pastry can really conquer the old Keler in Shanghai?
In this regard, the Shanghai Municipal Consumer Protection Commission specially invited relevant experts from the Shanghai Food Association and senior pastry masters who won the gold medal of the Shanghai Butterfly Crisp Skills Competition to reveal the mystery of Shanghai's authentic butterfly pastry.
<h2>Why has butterfly puff pastry become Shanghai's food business card? </h2>
Butterfly puff pastry originated in France and has been developing in Shanghai for 150-160 years. Shanghai was one of the first Chinese cities to come into contact with Western-style butterfly puff pastry and successfully localize it. Butterfly puff pastry has become a classic snack in Shanghai, which best represents Shanghai culture.
Gao Kemin, executive vice president of the Shanghai Food Association, said that most of the traditional butterfly crisps in Europe and the United States are sweet, and even "sweet". The Haipai butterfly puff pastry not only reduces the sweetness, but also produces a milky and salty butterfly puff pastry by adding cheese to meet the needs of personalized consumption. The "value" of Haipai butterfly crisp is also getting higher and higher, and different brands use chocolate, nuts and other accessories to innovate the process, so that the product has a lot of new ideas in retaining the overall shape of the butterfly.
In 2017, Shanghai began to hold a butterfly puff pastry competition. The competition has traditional standard gold medals and creative gold medals, which are not only the maintenance of Shanghai's time-honored brands, but also encourage the collision of more innovative inspirations, "as long as the taste is what consumers like".
<h2>It is important to make butterfly puff pastry</h2>
Several pastry masters said that in fact, the raw materials of butterfly puff pastry are not complicated, followed by flour, butter, water and sugar. No synthetic agents, not to mention preservatives, preservatives, etc. To be delicious, it is very challenging to test the recipe and baking method.
To make butterfly puff pastry, puff pastry is important. In order to make layers of puff pastry, the butter-wrapped dough needs to be rolled out, folded, rolled out, folded again, and sprinkled with sugar over and over again. This is a very kung fu job, the dough can not be broken, the butter can not leak, each layer must be smooth and even.
And a few decades ago, without air conditioning, butter melted easily, so summer was not suitable for butterfly puff pastry. Therefore, butterfly puff pastry used to be a seasonal food because it had high requirements for the room temperature environment.
The master told us that many of the butterfly puff pastries are now pressed by shortening machines, which ensures that each layer of puff pastry and sugar is very uniform.
<h2>"Crispy to the slag" is authentic, and it is best to eat it in 1 hour</h2>
So what kind of taste is authentic "crisp"?
The master summed up the essence of the butterfly puff pastry "crisp" in one sentence, that is, "crisp to the slag", which needs to be followed by hand and paper towel under the mouth, because the detritus of the butterfly puff pastry will be scattered everywhere.
Many pastries are the best when they are first baked, but the butterfly puff pastry is spread for about an hour after it is baked, which is the best time to enjoy the taste.
Leaving the hot and dry hearth, the sizzling butter and the slightly melted granulated sugar, in the process of cooling, still continued to work, the layers of puff pastry became dry, fluffy and crispy in the slightly cool air. After an hour of spreading, the sugar, oil, and flour in the butterfly puff pastry reach the peak of their fusion with each other.
At Pastry House, most of the butterfly puff pastry in the bakery is freshly baked and sold out on the same day. The master reminds consumers that the butterfly puff pastry bought home should be eaten within three days. The longer you leave it, the less flavor you taste.
<h2>Butterfly puff pastry and black tea are the best match</h2>
So what is the best butterfly puff pastry to eat?
President Gao suggested that we could enjoy it with black tea. Although butterfly puff pastry originates from the West and has a coffee culture, black tea pairing will be more debilitating.
According to the master, in the early days, butterfly crisp sugar was high in taste and sweet, but now the sweetness is gradually decreasing, because the proportion of sugar ingredients is reduced during the production process. In general, the darker the surface color of the butterfly puff pastry, the more sugar is sprinkled on the surface.
Shanghai Old Keler and Shanghai Xiaoyuan still like the butterfly crisp sprinkled with sugar on the surface, and the creak of granulated sugar can be heard between chewing, with a cup of black tea.
Chairman Gao introduced that the Haipai butterfly puff pastry pays more attention to the ingredients. Looking at the ingredient lists of most well-known brands, it is not difficult to find that there are almost no products that use vegetable cream or synthetic raw materials, and although natural materials will increase production costs, they also make Haipai butterfly puff pastry healthier.
<h2>The three gold medal butterfly puff pastries have different characteristics</h2>
International Hotel, Shanghai Harbin Food Factory and Lao Xiangzhai are the gold medal winners of the Shanghai Butterfly Crisp Skills Competition. What is the difference in the taste of butterfly puff pastry? Experts have also analyzed and compared, and consumers can choose according to their own tastes.
International Hotel: Crisp
The butterfly puff pastry of the International Hotel has a fluffy and crispy taste, and the surface of the white sugar has a caramelized aroma and a golden color. The master tells us that because it is through the initiation of nature, it (butterfly puff pastry) is not necessarily crisp, but it is bound to be more fluffy, with a rare 512 layer of puff pastry. Moreover, the butterfly puff pastry of the International Hotel has also been adjusted in terms of sweetness, which will not be very sweet, and emphasizes the milk flavor.
Harbin Food Factory: Crispy
Harbin Food Factory has been making butterfly puff pastry since 1936, compared with the slightly raised appearance of international hotels, Harbin Food Factory's butterfly puff pastry is flatter, full wings, and more crisp and sweet taste. Hundreds of layers of puff pastry are clearly layered, and the bite is very "crispy". The small butterfly puff pastry is all of the right size, just enough for everyone to take a bite, full of raw flavor.
Old Xiang Zhai: Crispy pine
The taste characteristic of the old fragrant butterfly crisp is crispy pine. In order to properly extend the tasting period, the masters of Lao Xiang Zhai reduced the addition of water and reduced the water content when making butterfly puff pastry, so that the shelf life could be slightly extended. This is also the main reason why the taste is more "loose".
Source: Thoughtful