How To Clean Pastry Mat Made Of Cloth

"How do y'all clean your pastry cloths?"

This is such a basic question that I take it for granted that anybody will already know how to practise it and might find me writing about it kind of…well, boring.

A Pastry Cloth Makes Rolling Dough Like shooting fish in a barrel

But, when I remember nigh it, it is a question that comes upward at only almost every pie making workshop and demonstration I requite and many thanks to nutrient blogger and friend,Annalise Thomas of the weblogSweetness Anna'south,for spurring me on to web log about information technology today.

At almost all workshops and demonstrations I use pastry cloths, either purchased ones or ones that I have fabricated. (Yes, they are really easy to make and I'll share with you instructions on how to do that afterwards in this post.)

What is a pastry cloth?

A pastry textile is a piece of heavy durable textile on which ane can roll out doughs. My pastry cloths are made of unbleached cotton wool denim but in a compression one could whorl out on a cotton tablecloth if needed.

Most pastry cloths have neatly hemmed or serged edges but if you don't heed some fraying or strings of unhemmed/unfinished edges yous can just cutting or rip a make clean piece of heavy cotton material and you will be good to go.

Why use a pastry cloth?

I like using a pastry cloth for number of unlike reasons:

First off, I similar to have something betwixt my dough and the surface I am making it on. When I curl out a beautiful dough directly on say wood or marble only to not be able to get it off the surface and into my pie pan, it is Non a happy day! So, having something between dough and surface helps to movement that dough quite easily.

During This Session with Ruth Reichl, We Used Wax Paper. (Photo Credit: Chloe Kaplan)

Yep, I do apply other things; parchment newspaper, roulepats and silpats, plastic wrap, wax paper. All of them will do the job.
The second reason I like to employ a pastry fabric is that the extra flour that I have dusted my dough with, goes through the weave of the cloth so I don't take as much actress flour to castor off when the dough is rolled.
Thirdly, I like to store my pastry cloths in the freezer when not being used. This is one more manner in pie making to continue everything chilled and for me "Keep Everything Chilled, Especially Yourself"is Dominion #i in pie making and in life!
A pastry cloth is reusable. This gets large bonus points. My favorite fabric has become softer and smoother every bit I've used information technology over the years. Plus each time I pick information technology up to utilise, I love that and then many pies have been rolled out on information technology!
Pastry cloths are great for kneading bread, besides.

How to clean a pastry cloth?

Ah, now we become to the question at manus.

Take a demote scraper or a knife and scrape the actress flour off of the pastry textile.
Take the cloth outside and shake the pastry fabric to remove even more flour. If you lot alive in an urban surroundings like a NYC high-ascension, you will desire to omit this part. We don't desire to have either your neighbors below or pedestrians on the street showered with flour grit and dough bits! Right?
Fold the cleaned off pastry cloth and place in a plastic bag in your freezer. It will exist all chilled and ready for rolling out your next pie.
Almost every 5th pie making session, or if you've spilled something like berry or cherry filling on it (and believe me I have had my share of spills!), wash on the cold bike without soap. Add an extra rinse to make certain it is actually clean.
Then let it air dry. (Truth be told, sometimes information technology has found information technology'south manner past accident into my dryer and this was NOT the end of the world!)
Some pie makers do the entire scrape, milkshake, wash, and dry out routine after every session and if that's what pleases you lot, and then past all means, that'due south what y'all should do.

How to Make a DIY Pastry Cloth

Buy 2/3 grand of unbleached or white cotton denim.
Cut most a xx″square. Depending on how wide the material is you may take plenty cloth to make a 2d viscid cloth to give to a friend.
Curl nether a 1/2 inch edge all the style around and sew on your machine. If you lot are feeling fancy you tin utilise some of those special stitches in a contrasting thread colour for a personal touch on. Or, if you take a serger, serge the edges very quickly.
Thats information technology. You've fabricated a pastry fabric!

P.S. You can find some pastry cloths at the Art of the Pie Store hither.