As its name implies, biscuit pastry has the shortness of a cookie, so it varies immensely from the texture most people think about when they think of a “pastry.” This dough is formed by beating butter, sugar, and egg together before adding flour. Beating the butter maximizes the air held in the dough, creating a distinguishable texture. Biscuit pastry typically contains sugar, so it’s only used for sweet applications like pies and tarts.
Like other types of pastry, biscuit pastry needs to be kept cold to maintain its shape and is easy to work with. Once you’ve shaped and chilled your dough, you can brush it with egg whites for a beautiful luster before baking. We recommend working with this type of pastry before experimenting with a laminated pastry; it’s both sturdy and forgiving for bakers and wet filling alike. Just make sure not to overwork the dough, as it can beat the air out of the pastry and cause the gluten strands to strengthen, yielding a tough pastry.