Who owns Careme pastry?

Claire Wood in the Barossa Valley of South Australia owns artisanal pastry producer Careme Pastry.

What is the best puff pastry in Australia?

According to many leading food writers and cooks, including Maggie Beer, Clair Wood's Careme Pastry is the best commercially available pastry in Australia.

Carême Pastry

I love baked goods! But I’m no pastry cook – that requires skill and patience I don’t have. Thankfully Claire and William Wood and their team in the Barossa Valley have done all the hard work for me in creating Carême’s beautiful artisanal pastry. Claire’s all butter puff pastry is made with real butter, one of the few that is as most use margarine. Her savoury shortcrust uses sour cream and she uses free-range eggs, vanilla paste (not essence) and locally-milled flour. Her spelt wholemeal puff pastry adds another level of healthy goodness. With a few packets of Carême Pastry in your freezer, leftovers become delicious pies and quick desserts become a breeze!

Meet Carême

Follow @caremepastry on Instagram

Follow Carême Pastry on Facebook

Visit www.caremepastry.com.au to find out more

Experience & Explore

I use Carême Pastry in all sorts of dishes, sweet and savoury, across a wide range of cuisines.

Scroll down to see some of my videos and recipes using Carême pastry.

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Tarte Tatin

I didn’t attempt tarte Tatin for ages, fearing it would be too tricky. Turns out it’s super quick and easy if you use a good ready-made pastry like Carême sour cream shortcrust.

Potato & Fontina Tart

This deliciously simple tart highlights the synergy between potatoes, caraway and Italy’s semi-hard mountain cheeses – and the ease of cooking with Carême all butter puff pastry!

Pecan Pie

Pecan pie is a staple of festive tables in the southern USA. It’s the simplest dish to whip up if you have a roll of Carême sweet vanilla shortcrust pastry handy.

Meet Claire Wood

Q&A

How is puff pastry made?

Traditional puff pastry is made by folding sheets of butter in between sheets of dough, the butter keeps the layers of dough separate so that they can puff up creating a light, crunchy texture.

What makes puff pastry puff up?

As puff pastry bakes the moisture in the dough boils and creates steam which forces the layers of dough apart.

What’s rough puff pastry?

Rough puff is a flakey pastry made by a much quicker Method than that used to make traditional puff pastry; the butter is diced and mixed through the flour, rather than being incorporated as one large slab. Rough puff pastry does puff up, but nowhere near as much as genuine puff pastry.

Why is shortcrust pastry called ‘short’?

Shortness in the case of shortcrust pastry refers to how crumbly the pastry is. The richer the pastry (that is the higher the fat content), the more crumbly – and therefore ‘shorter’ – the pastry will be.

How Do You Store & Thaw Carême Pastry?

Keep Carême pastry frozen until ready to use then thaw it in the box in the fridge overnight or on the bench top for an hour or so.

My Carême pastry has black spots on it, is it OK to use?

If Carême pastry is left refrigerated but out of the freezer for more than 24 hours, it may develop some black flecks – this is harmless oxidation (not mould) and disappears when cooked.