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Pastries, tarts, and fried doughs

43 articles

Pączki

Pączki (singular pączek; aliases Packzis, Paczky, Ponchki) are Polish filled fried yeast doughnuts with rose-petal or plum jam, eaten in huge quantities on Tłusty Czwartek (Fat Thursday) and as Paczki Day in Polish-American Chicago and Detroit.

Pain au chocolat

Pain au chocolat (chocolatine in southwest France and Quebec) is a French viennoiserie of croissant-like laminated dough wrapped around two dark chocolate batons; 84% of French people use the name pain au chocolat.

Pastel de nata

Pastel de nata (plural pastéis de nata), also called pastel de Belém in its trademarked Lisbon form, is Portugal's egg custard tart: puff pastry filled with egg custard, baked hot until the top blisters, born of convent sweetmaking and sold since 1837 at Pastéis de Belém.

Pecan pie

Pecan pie, technically a sugar pie, is an American Southern dessert of pecans in a corn syrup, egg, sugar, and butter filling; popularized by Karo syrup in the 1930s and Texas's state pie since 2013.

Rugelach

Rugelach (Yiddish for "little twists") is an Ashkenazi Jewish filled pastry descended from Central European kipfel. American versions use cream cheese dough (from the 1930s-1950s); Israeli versions stay yeasted.

Semla

Semla (plural semlor, also fettisdagsbulle or fastlagsbulle): Swedish cardamom wheat bun filled with almond paste and whipped cream, eaten around Shrove Tuesday; origin a medieval Lenten bread, cream form from the late 19th century.

Shoofly pie

Shoofly pie, a Pennsylvania Dutch molasses pie with crumb topping, believed developed from an 1876 centennial cake; wet-bottom and dry-bottom styles; name origin undocumented.

Stollen

Stollen is a dense German Christmas yeast loaf rich in butter, dried fruit, almonds, and spices; the Dresdner Christstollen is EU PGI-protected since 2010 and tied to Dresden's 1474 first record, the 1491 Butterbrief, and the 1730 giant 1.8-tonne stollen.

Strudel

Strudel: Central European pastry of paper-thin stretched dough (Strudelteig) rolled around sweet or savory fillings; German for "whirlpool"; oldest recipe a 1696 Viennese Milchrahmstrudel; apple strudel is an Austrian national dish.

Tarte Tatin

Tarte Tatin: French upside-down caramelized apple tart from the Tatin sisters' hotel in Lamotte-Beuvron, Sologne; legend of accidental invention, popularized by Curnonsky and Maxim's, guarded by the Confrérie des Lichonneux.

Trdelník

Trdelník, also chimney cake (kürtőskalács), is a Central European spit cake of yeast dough wound on a trdlo roller and roasted hollow; Skalický trdelník won Slovakia's first EU PGI in 2007 and is not originally Czech.

Treacle tart

Treacle tart is a British dessert of shortcrust pastry filled with golden syrup, breadcrumbs, and lemon; earliest recipe Mary Jewry 1879, golden syrup dating from 1885, Harry Potter's favourite dessert.

Zeppole

Zeppole (singular zeppola) are Italian fried pastries; the zeppola di San Giuseppe is a choux ring filled with pastry cream and amarena cherry for 19 March. First recipe Cavalcanti 1837; variants in Puglia, Sicily, Rome, and Italian America.