Ready puff pastry, a comfortable and practical product to use but also healthy? Let's find out what are the ingredients present in the bases to prepare savory and sweet pies and what to pay attention to on the label to make a more informed shopping.
Don't store avocado like this: it's dangerousPuff pastry ready, a comfortable and practical product to use but also healthy? Let's find out what are the ingredients present in the bases to prepare savory and sweet pies and what to pay attention to on the label to make a more informed shopping.
When you have little time to cook but still want a rustic cake or some sweets, you can go into any supermarket and find ready-made puff pastry in the refrigerated counter. just to unroll, stuff and put in the oven.
Naturally the best choice it would be that of prepare your own puff pastry at home with good quality flour and fats, choosing whether to choose the classic version (with butter) or the lighter vegan version (based on extra virgin olive oil or sunflower oil).
Read also: BASES FOR SWEET AND SAVORY CAKES: PASTA PASTA, SHORTBREAD PASTA AND VEGAN BRISÉE PASTA
However, if you happen to buy ready-made puff pastry, how do you choose a quality product? As always it is good read the label and nutritional values of the products. You may discover in this way, for example, that a defined wholemeal puff pastry actually contains not even 5% wholemeal flour or that the product contains palm oil and a long list of ingredients useful only for the preservation and maintenance of the right consistency of the food. .
To help you shop more consciously aWe compared the best known and most used ready-made puff pastry, the ones that you probably also have at home or have ever bought.
Index
COMPARING LABELS
Puff pastry - Buitoni
ingredients: Wheat Flour Water, Non-hydrogenated vegetable oils and fats (palm, rapeseed), Salt, Wheat starch, Alcohol, Yeast
Puff pastry with wholemeal flour - Buitoni
ingredients: Wheat flour, Non-hydrogenated vegetable oils and fats (palm, rapeseed), Water, Whole wheat flour 4,8%, Wheat gluten, Dietary fiber, Salt, Alcohol, Wheat bran, Concentrated lemon juice, Vegetable concentrates and fruit (carrot, apple, lemon), dehydrated yeast
Puff pastry without gluten - Buitoni
ingredients: Water, corn starch, vegetable oils and fats (palm, rapeseed), rice flour, pea flour, vegetable fibers (potato, rice, peas, plantain, psyllium), thickeners xanthan gum-E464, alcohol, salt, flour buckwheat, flavorings, transglutaminase enzyme, acidifier: citric acid.
100% vegetable puff pastry - Vallè
ingredients: Soft wheat flour type 00 (gluten), Vegetable fats and oils 24% (palm, rapeseed, coloring: carotenes), Water, Alcohol, Salt, Concentrated lemon juice, Flour treatment agent: L-cysteine. Without added preservatives
The sfogliata - Giovanni Rana
ingredients: Wheat flour, water, 20% concentrated butter, ethyl alcohol, salt, concentrated lemon juice, yeast, 100% ingredients of natural origin.
Puff pastry - Divella
ingredients: Wheat flour, non-hydrogenated vegetable margarine (palm and sunflower fats and oils, water, salt, emulsifiers: mono and diglycerides of fatty acids, acidity regulator: citric acid), water, salt, ethyl alcohol, sugar, lemon juice concentrate, flour treatment agent: L-cysteine.
Light puff pastry - Exquisa
ingredients: wheat flour (contains gluten), water, vegetable oils and fats (palm), alcohol, sugar, salt, acidifier: citric acid.
Puff pastry - Consilia
ingredients: Soft wheat flour, vegetable oils and fats (palm, sunflower), water, ethyl alcohol, salt, concentrated lemon juice, flour treatment agent: L-cysteine.
Puff pastry - Belbake
ingredients: wheat flour, vegetable fat (palm fat, rapeseed oil, dye: carotenes), water, ethyl alcohol, table salt, concentrated lemon juice, flour treatment agent: L-cysteine.
Organic puff pastry - Amicucina (Flying trunk)
ingredients: Wheat flour (wheat), vegetable margarine (palm oil, sunflower oil, water, palm stearin, salt, acidity regulator: citric acid), water, salt, ethyl alcohol, cane sugar, gluten.
COMPARATIVE TABLE
Now let's compare specifically in the different puff pastry: the types of flours and fats used, the amount of saturated fat e other ingredients present. This comparison table will make it easier for you.
THE OPINION OF THE NUTRITIONIST
We asked Barbara Ziparo, nutritionist biologist, to provide us with some useful information to better choose our puff pastry. Here's what he told us:
“Real homemade puff pastry contains only flour, water, butter and salt. In the vegan version theextra virgin olive oil or sunflower oil. On the market, however, it is full of additives to allow it to be preserved. Usually, the percentage of total fat present in the packaged puff pastry varies from 20 to 25%, but the worrying data concerns the presence of saturated fats, which also reach 14-15% ".
What fats are used?
“The vegetable oils used are mainly cheap fats such as palm oil but also rapeseed or sunflower. Lately it has been appearing in supermarkets puff pastry without palm oil, thanks to the battle that has been made to combat the reckless use of this oil in food products. Always pay attention to which fat has taken its place though, as it may be just as high in saturated fat as coconut oil. Among the ingredients we find the mono and diglycerides of fatty acids (reported with the wording E471) that they may be of vegetable origin (such as palm or canola oil) an animal. They are used as emulsifiers, and it is recommended to buy products that indicate the origin of these fats. It is always better to choose a product that is as natural as possible, without this type of emulsifiers. Alcohol and lemon juice may also be present as preservatives, flour treatment agents, yeast and flavorings. ".
How can we choose a good quality product?
“My advice is to choose products with il fewer ingredients (perhaps the frozen ones which should contain fewer additives) and to limit their use since the ready-made puff pastry is a product rich in saturated fats, which in excess are harmful to health ".
So don't forget to take a look at the label when buying puff pastry!
