Basic Recipes > Shortcrust Pastry

How to make shortcrust pastry:
Shortcrust pastry is the most common type of pastry, used for both sweet and savoury pies, tarts, pasties and quiches. The usual recipe is half the quantity of fat to flour. The higher the fat content the "shorter" or more crumbly the pastry. All the ingredients need to be kept cool and handled as little as possible.



Ingredients

2 cups (8oz) plain flour
4 level tablespoons lard
4 level tablespoons butter or margarine
pinch of salt
cold water
(see measure conversions for more information)

Method

- Sift the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl.
- Add the lard and the butter and chop it up roughly with a knife.
- With cool fingertips, rub the fat into the flour until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
- Add 2 tablespoons of cold water and then, using a knife, mix lightly into a dough.
- Add a little more water if necessary but be careful not to add too much.
- The dough should not be sticky.
- Gently bring the dough into a ball by hand, gathering up any stray bits of dough.
- Leave to rest in the fridge for a couple of hours before using.
- To use, roll lightly with a rolling pin on a lightly floured surface.

Here are links to our other pastry recipes:


Biscuit Crumb
Biscuit Pie
Choux
Cream
Flaky
Fleur
Hot Water Crust
Potato
Puff
Rough Puff
Suet Crust




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