Thursday 24 July 2008

Pastry for Fi

I was chatting with my friend Fi a few weeks back and as women do, we were talking about cooking. Specifically about good pastry recipes. Now that I have a food processor, the world of pastry dough is my oyster! There is nothing you can't do when you have a food processor, I discovered.

So Fi, here is a great recipe for shortcrust pastry. I made this last night for a chicken pie, and have used it for little tarts and it has worked well for both. It comes out light and a perfect balance of soft but just the right amount of crispy.

Pastry

1 2/3 cups plain flour
125g butter
2 eggs
  1. Place the flour & butter into the food process and blend until there are no lumps.
  2. Add the two eggs and blend until it comes together. If it doesn't, you may need to add 1-2 tablespoons of water....just until it comes together into a ball.
  3. Cover and set aside in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
If you don't have a food processor, rub the butter into the flour with your fingertips. Then add the eggs and mix well. You'll probably need to knead it until it becomes smooth. Then cover and refrigerate.

I rolled this out, put it into my pie dish with some overhanging the edge, because it always shrinks. Then I pricked the base and baked it in a hot oven for 10 minutes. I filled the shell & topped with another piece of pastry I'd rolled out (there's enough in this recipe for a top & bottom) and put it in the oven at about 200C for 30 minutes. Perfect.

If you want to make tarts, you do the same in smaller tins ~ like a muffin tin, for example and bake for about 10-15 minutes, until they are just starting to go golden. Then you can fill them with any kind of prepared filling you like. Hot or cold.

9 comments:

Left-Handed Housewife said...

I have to ask you--how do you roll out your crust? This is the hardest part for me. I finally learned the secret of making pie crust (food processor!), but I've yet to learn the secret of making my crusts look pretty. I just call them rustic and everybody's happy (I live in a house full of boys; they could care less how it looks), but as my dream is to one day enter a pie into the State Fair, I'd love to learn how to properly roll out a crust.

Thanks for any advice you can share!

Tracy said...

I just flour my bench lightly and the top side of the pastry and use a wooden rolling pin that I inherited from my Great Uncle many years ago.

One tip I learned from watching a Jamie Oliver cooking show was that you should always roll straight out in front of your body, not off in funny angles. So you're always going perpendicular I suppose. Turn the pastry when you need to roll in another spot.

Otherwise I don't think too much about it I guess. I just roll.

Lizzie @ her homeworld said...

Thanks for the recipe. I will try it at the weekend. I have never heard of eggs in a pastry recipe before. Very interesting.
Best Wishes
Lizzie

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much, Tracy!!! Will try this out today and let you know how I go.

Anonymous said...

This sounds nice and easy - now just need a recipe for something to put inside the pie (hint, hint) LOL.

Tracy said...

Good luck with the pastry gals.

Lizzie, most of the pastry recipes I have at least have an egg yolk in it. I was thrilled to be able to use whole eggs!

Anonymous, you never know your luck!

Anonymous said...

Ok, I think that pastry is just not my thing. I don't know what I did but I had to add another 2/3 cup of flour because it wouldn't come together. It did end up tasting lovely, but I think this is not my strong point, lol!! Thanks for the recipe, I will definitely try it again.

Tracy said...

Very strange! You did put in 1 cup plus 2/3 cup of flour? I always find I end up adding a little liquid, not more flour.

Rel said...

LOL!! Pastry and I are not friends either, Fi!

Hugs :)