CTE Culinary State Practice Test

Lamination in baking means folding fat into dough to create many alternating fat and dough layers, which rise and create flakiness as steam escapes in the oven. Croissants use a yeast-leavened laminated dough that’s repeatedly rolled and folded to build lots of delicate layers, giving the signature light, flaky texture. Puff pastry is the classic laminated dough made by encasing a block of butter in dough and folding it over and over to form an immense number of ultra-thin layers that puff dramatically when baked. Together, these two are clear examples of laminated-dough products.

Other options don’t rely on this layered structure: sourdough bread and flatbread, or baguette and ciabatta, aren’t laminated. Danish pastry also uses lamination, but the pairing here highlights croissants with puff pastry as two well-known laminated-dough products.