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Shaping & Finishing Dough

Food Preparation & Nutrition: AQA GCSE, topic 1.1.7

Shaping and Finishing

You have many options for shaping dough. Here are some examples:

Rolling out dough

Rolling out dough

  • Flour surfaces so that the dough does not stick.
  • Roll out the dough using a rolling pin. Make sure the dough has an even thickness.
Folding dough

Folding dough

  • Folding traps air between the layers of dough.
  • We fold the dough when we make puff pastries.
Lining a flan ring

Lining a flan ring

  • To make pastry cases, line flan rings with dough. Push the dough down into the tin so that it mimics the shape.
  • To make sure the base stays flat, pierce using a fork.
Flatbreads

Flatbreads

  • When making flatbreads, we often don't add yeast.
  • E.g. corn tortillas do not contain yeast.
  • Sometimes, we add yeast so that the bread rises a little.
  • E.g. pita bread usually contains yeast.
Glazing

Glazing

  • Technique - brush egg wash onto dough.
  • Result - food bakes with a golden brown (shiny) finish.

Glazing and Finishing

You have many options for glazing and finishing dough. Here are some examples:

Choux pastry

Choux pastry

  • Shaping - we pipe choux pastry to shape it.
  • Examples - we make choux buns, eclairs and profiteroles from choux pastry.
Pasta dough

Pasta dough

  • Shaping - we can shape pasta dough in different ways to get different pasta products.
  • Examples - penne, fusilli, fettuccine, linguine etc.
Pinwheels

Pinwheels

  • Shaping - we create pinwheels by rolling dough like we'd roll a rug. We don't use a rolling pin.
  • Examples - ham and cheese pinwheels, puffy pastry pinwheels, pain aux raisin (French pastry).
Pizza bases

Pizza bases

  • Shaping - mould dough into a circular shape with a thicker edge.
Calzone

Calzone

  • Shaping - fold the pizza over so that the dough covers all the filling.
Bread rolls

Bread rolls

  • You can shape bread dough by hand into:
  • Baguettes.
  • Batons.
  • Crescents.
  • Rings.
  • Braids.
  • Coburg.
  • Knots.
  • Cobs (as well as many other things).

Test yourself on Shaping & Finishing Dough

  • What type of bread would yeast NOT be added to?

  • Which type of flatbread usually contains yeast?

  • Which of the following foods is made by rolling dough into pinwheels?

  • What is created when a pizza is folded over so that the dough covers all the filling?

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