Now is that time again, when three fairly similar doughs are available in the freezers of stores.
Christmas tarts are part of many Finnish Christmas treats. Adobe Stock / AOP
Even though butter, tart and puff pastry are similar, there is still a difference between them.
All ready-made doughs from the frozen pool are perfect for baking Christmas tarts. The finished sheets of dough are very puffy and more than 100 layers have been machined into them, which is why they rise beautifully when fried.
But which dough works best, butter, tart or puff pastry?
Butter and puff pastry are available all year round, but tart dough only during Christmas. It is specifically designed for baking Christmas tarts. Tart dough rises more than butter dough thanks to margarine.
It is easy to bake juljo tubes from ready-made dough. Adobe Stock / AOP
Puff pastry, on the other hand, is rolled out into a thinner sheet than butter and tart dough. Puff pastry rises a little less than well-puffed butter dough, so it is suitable not only for Christmas tarts, but also for pies and other closed pastries.
As the name suggests, butter dough is baked with butter. It softens quickly as the butter melts. Tarts made with butter dough become puffy, and the taste is rich thanks to the butter.
The biggest difference between the doughs is the fat used in them. Butter dough is, of course, baked in butter, and puff pastry and tart dough, on the other hand, in vegetable fat. Because of this, they behave slightly differently.
The fat in tart and puff pastry is, for example, rapeseed and palm oil. Criticized palm oil is used in doughs such as wiener doughs and puff pastry due to palm oil’s rollability-improving properties.
If you want to avoid palm oil, the alternatives are either self-made dough or ready-made butter dough.
The puff pastry is already rolled out thinner and the butter dough is thicker.
However, you can use both doughs for both savory and sweet pastries, and both can be used to make the same delicacies. But if there is less filling and a lot of dough, you should choose butter dough.
The story was originally published on 7 December 2020.