Asian Pastry Baking Classes in Singapore
Fancy some Chinese Pastries and want to learn how to bake them?
Well, the challenge in baking pastries lies in sparing the batter till the baking is done.
The West has its choice of bakery goods, of course, with cakes, biscuits, tarts, bagels, souffles and so on.
But this range remains quite paltry in comparison to the variety of pastry products available on the Asian market.
Different Types of Asian Pastry
Varieties of pastries of all shapes and sizes, going from Thai Shrimp spirals through coconut curry puffs and all the way to Chinese firecrackers, thrive in the region.
However, they can be carefully categorized, based on baking time, sweet or savoury.
Regional variations in pastries can be found as well based on the region’s history.
Certain regions of China, for example, show resemblance to British pastries due to the years of colonial rule.
Baking, from the Eastern perspective, is an exalted culinary art, meant not only to please the palate but even sight, touch and sometimes even hearing.
This doesn’t mean it’s harsh on a trainee baker, of course.
Check out these nice and easy pastries!
A traditional pastry indigenous to the east is the baozi, a filled bread pastry.
A luscious soft bread covering for tender meat fillings that include barbecue-flavoured char siu pork, warm sweet or spicy broth in a tender bread coating, or the traditional lotus seed paste and sesame seed paste.
Some are even known to be filled with soft banana yellow custard filling.
The ceremonial dowry cake is a pastry with great significance for the appetite and history, initially created as a gift for traditional marriage ceremonies.
Though the cake is no longer traditionally gifted, its identity as a soft spongy delectable cake stays strong.
A sponge cake is sure to get your mouth watering, but just as fun to bake.
Making of Asian Pastry
Though bread is often used in pastries, they are not a fixed necessity.
Consider the Fagao, a rice flour-based pastry.
Cupcake-shaped and sugar-sweetened, the cake is steamed, not baked and is only well made when the top splits open into four equal parts.
The cake is most commonly consumed during the Chinese New Year.
The satisfaction of having a visible sign to tell you when to stop steaming is a welcome relief for newbie bakers and can raise your confidence in the baking world.
The white pastry sugar is a sugar-sweet fermented rice cake, deliciously sweet, often with a tangy taste from fermentation.
The cake is moist soft and fluffy but has to be carefully kept sealed because it becomes brittle in the air.
The cake may also be found in the brown variety based on ingredients used.
The cake is a good introduction to the world of rice pastries for those looking to do so.
The wife cake is another Singaporean favourite, made of soft bread rolled with lotus or almond paste, often with a thin, fragile texture for the bun to leave it melting in the lover’s mouth.
The cake has various legends surrounding it, often about a dedicated wife’s sacrifice to her husband when his father fell grievously ill.
The cake is another simple baked one, with a variety of fillings you can choose from.
All of these pastries are unique because of their historical ties, but what makes them special is that they’re easy to make without too much of a special touch.
They can make you fall in love with baking and make the eating part just a special treat.
Sign up for Asian Pastry Baking Classes today and learn how to make these delicious pastries of the East!