By Amy Glover

Copyright huffingtonpost

Don’t get me wrong – I love baking, and in my opinion, autumn is the best time of year to get cooking.

Between tart Bramley apples and juicy blackberries, my oven has been earning its kitchen space in the past couple of weeks. Still, I’ll always cheat certain recipes (I will not, for instance, make my own fondant).

Am I lazy, or do some baked goods taste just as good shop-bought?

I asked former Great British Bake-Off finalist Dr Josh Smalley, who’s set to give a talk named The Spooktacular Science of Baking at New Scientist Live on Sunday, 19 October, whether he turned to supermarkets for any premade options.

For Dr Smalley, it turns out, two pastry types are better off left to the pros.

1) Laminated dough

“Croissants are something I usually buy rather than make from scratch,” he told HuffPost UK.

“Laminated dough is wonderfully satisfying to make, but it’s incredibly time-consuming, and sometimes I just don’t have the hours to spare.”

Laminated dough, which is the kind used for flaky bakes like croissants and puff pastry, involves building dozens of delicate layers of dough over just-cold-enough slivers of butter. It can take days to form, fold, and prove.

2) Filo pastry

Secondly, Dr Smalley revealed he “will also tend to buy filo pastry as it’s so thin and delicate, and making it at home can be quite a faff!”

Filo, or phyllo, dough forms the thin, crispy pastry base for foods like baklava and spanakopita. It can involve rolling a small ball of dough out to the size of a table; tears in this translucently thin stage are common and can be disastrous.

He added, “There’s no shame in leaning on great quality, shop-bought ingredients when needed.

“Sometimes it’s about picking your battles so you can focus on the parts of the bake you really enjoy”.

Amen, Dr Smalley…