Scrumptious Pastries Around The World

A pastry is a major type of a baked confectionary which is made using ingredients such as flour, sugar, butter, milk, eggs, baking powder and shortening. Some common examples of pastries include tarts, pies, quiches and croissants. Often, a pastry is also referred to as pastry dough. Pastry dough however is rolled out thinly and is used as a base material for certain baked products. Across the world, pastries are created or made using different methods, ingredients and procedures and this has resulted in the distinction of some which are known worldwide. The following is a list of the 10 most delicious and delectable pastries from around the world:

Cannoli
Cannoli is an Italian pastry which you will find in each of the bakeries around Italy. These are tube shaped shells of fried pastry dough laden with a rich cream which contains ricotta cheese. Ofcourse, there are a lot of variations of this pastry but each tastes just as heavenly.

Opera Cake
An opera cake is nothing short of brilliant right from its ingredients to its beautiful look. An opera cake contains 3 layers of almond cake, 1 layer of espresso flavored buttercream, 1 layer of bittersweet chocolate ganache, topping with chocolate glaze and ‘Opera’ written on top in sugar. With these amazing ingredients, how can anyone resist this French pastry?

Croissant aux Amandes
Croissant Amande or almond croissant is a classic French pastry which is so delicious that often people cannot have just 1. It is buttery and easily melts in your mouth. This pastry is filled with almond cream and is extremely rich. The croissants are baked until the cream gets completely set and the edges become crisp. Just thinking about these makes us hungry!

Gulaab Jamun
Popular in India, Gulab Jamun is a little ball of fried dough soaked in sugar syrup. The dough is made up of khoya, which is thickened fresh milk. Often, the sugar syrup in which the dough is dipped is flavored with rosewater and cardamom. These little balls of heaven are mostly served on celebrations and during festivals.

Macaron
Macarons are a staple French pastry which is popular all over the world for their little round shape, wonderful variety of flavors and of course the awesome taste. These sweet heaven balls are made out of coconut and are very chewy. These are usually made up of eggs, sugar and ground almonds and go well with tea and coffee. To prepare Macarons, chefs use two pieces of sweet meringue glued together with a creamy center.

Mille-Feuille
Mille-Feuille is French for ‘a thousand leaves’. These little stacked pastries are also commonly known as Napoleons and are made up of many layers of puff pastry alternating with whipped cream. The top of the pastry is further glazed with icing, mostly in brown chocolate or combed white. There are many variations of this pastry served around the world but the traditional ones still are the best!

Éclair
Éclairs is a famous French pastry which is filled with cream and drizzled with chocolate. An éclair is a thin and long pastry which is hollow inside and filled with cream and topped with a frosting of chocolate. This rich desert was probably creates in the 1700s.

Beignet
Beignet is yet another very popular and delicious pastry which was created in New Orleans. This is a kind of a doughnut made out of yeast dough, powdered sugar and chocolate. Unlike a doughnut, this dessert doesn’t have a hole and is fried. Over a period of time, many variants of Beignet have come up with variations in flavor, filling, size and method of preparation.

Profiterole
Profiteroles are commonly known as cream puff. These miniature treats are made from Choux pastry and is a simple, light and round pastry which is pretty easy to make. The choux pastry is cut in half and whipped or pastry cream is sandwiched in between the two halves of this pastry. In some of the cases, the pastry is also filled in with ice cream and topped with warm chocolate sauce.

Croquembouche
A Croquembouche is a pyramid of profiteroles that is held together with a caramel glaze and decorated with spun sugar. There is a certain crunch factor in these delectable pastries which raises their appeal and is the reason why they are so popular all across the world. Some people also like to drizzle a little chocolate sauce on top of this pastry to further add to the taste.