MBE v tigs78 chicken and leek pie challenge

mrbadexample

tigs78 wrote:

How on earth do you know that? Are you trying to sabotage my pastry?:D;)

It's a guess. I'd bet a I'm right though. :whistle:

And no, I wouldn't dream of sabotage. I want your pie to be very nearly as tasty as mine.

Penelope_Penguin

Morning, as has been said before, everything needs to be kept as cool as poss. You're wanting to incorporate the fat into the flour, not melt it in. If it melts, your pastry will end up tough.

I'd recommend putting your butter into the fridge, and when you take it out, cutting into small pieces before adding to the flour. This means that the fat won't take as much rubbing in.

As you can see, I'm up extra early to get a front row seat!

Good luck to you both!



Penny. x

Queenie

tigs78 wrote:

Seeing as I've already had my 'last question' I thought I'd ask this one on behalf of MrBE...

If we are keeping the ingredients as cool as possible, does that include the butter? I would have thought that it would be really hard to 'rub in' straight from the fridge.

I ask this question based on bitter experience when I tried to make some fairy cakes using butter straight from the fridge. I stuck my electric mixer in the bowl and my entire kitchen was peppered with cold hard lumps of butter, when I retrieved them all it took about 15 minutes to mix it all together and that was using an electric mixer not my mere fingertips!

With fairy cakes/sponges, the butter needs to be softened because it is "creamed" with the sugar.
With pastry, everything needs to be used cold. Rubbing the butter into the flour will work perfectly, because you want the mix to be crumbly not creamed

Haven't got through the whole thread but a couple of pointers you may/not want to consider:-

Fat: use half butter/marg and half lard for a savoury pastry. So if your recipe says 4oz fat, use 2oz lard and 2oz of butter/marg.
Rolling Pin: If you use a glass bottle (with a lid tight on! Plastic bottles won't work!!) fill it with chilled water and even an ice cube or two to keep the pastry cold as you roll it out (Years ago, pastry would be rolled out on a marble slab).
Rest the Pastry: Put the pastry, wrapped in a clean t-towel for half an hour to "rest" before rolling it out.

Try to 'handle' the pastry as little as possible or it will "shrink" when it comes to baking your pie.
When rolling it out, give it a 1/4 turn after each rolling.
Do lightly flour the surface you are rolling out on & your rolling pin - but I emphasise *lightly* - too much and you change the composition of the pastry.

Pastry is made with a light hand at all stages, no clomping heavy handedness or "man style" roughness. Handle pastry as you would a newborn baby, not as you might a partner in a passionate, grasp and grab, rumpy pumpy style

Finally - the obvious - read over *all* instructions and tips well, gather all your equipment together before you begin and most importantly, r.e.l.a.x.!

:beer: All the very best!! :beer:

jobbingmusician

Wow! Queenie's instructions will get you the best pastry ever! (Great hint to fill a bottle with cold water - perhaps you should fill a bottle with water now and put it in the fridge :rolleyes: ) One reservation - I personally would NEVER pollute the butter with lard. Lard is cheaper and perhaps more OS, but all-butter pastry is the tastiest (and I think has less trans fats, but I could be wrong).

Having said all that, my pastry is really excellent and I'm NOT neurotic about coldness. My butter lives in the dairy section of my fridge, which isn't very cold, and just gets rubbed in fairly fast. (I never bother with starting out with a knife, or with making sure my hands are cold, but I can see this is more important for newbies as the process will take you longer).

ENJOY! We're all looking forward to tonight!

Queenie

jobbingmusician wrote:

Wow! Queenie's instructions will get you the best pastry ever! (Great hint to fill a bottle with cold water - perhaps you should fill a bottle with water now and put it in the fridge :rolleyes: ) One reservation - I personally would NEVER pollute the butter with lard. Lard is cheaper and perhaps more OS, but all-butter pastry is the tastiest (and I think has less trans fats, but I could be wrong). ...

Hehehe, you just knew I'd come back to you on this one :laugh:

On the trans fats issue, I won't use margarine in my cooking/baking as quite a number of them have trans fats. . No trans fats in lard though, it's pork fat.

All butter pastry (traditionally) is used for "sweet" pastries because of it's richness.

When making a savoury pastry dish, the use of half and half will give the pastry it's "shortness" (for want of a better word). Plus, as you say, it would work out cheaper, although that wouldn't have been the reason for using it. You get a lighter, crumblier pastry with a half and half mix.
Another factor against using all butter is the fact that most butter sold these days is salted. For many that can be an issue, especially if making a savoury pie where you are including a salted product such as bacon. I know the point about meat being pumped with water has been mentioned earlier, but the water it's pumped with often contains salt in it too.

As you (rightly) say though, it is down to personal preferences when it comes to home baking; that's the beauty of it, you get to put in it only the bits you prefer.

I would have felt 'negligent' if I hadn't pointed out the half and half traditional way of making a savoury pastry though (Although I didn't get so complicated to mention using bacon fat :rotfl: )

Must run ... those sloe's are calling ........

aurora_borealis_2

Has anyone gone sick yet? :rotfl:

pandas66

Wishing both of the Best of Luck....................(c'mon tigs)

Rikki

You two beat me here.

I was hoping for a front row seat.:j

Have you brought enough popcorn a_b?

rchddap1

Can't wait to see the results. Good luck to all. And lets hope that it all ends up in someone's stomach rather than the bin.

Rikki

mrbadexample wrote:

I was particularly disappointed with the cashier (who looked to be of pie-making age) in Boundary Mill Stores - I bought a kettle descaler thingy while I was in there:

Cashier: "Ooo...last of the big spenders!"
MBE: "I only came in for a pie-vent."
Cashier: "A what?"
MBE: "A pie-vent. Holds your pastry up in the middle and lets the steam out."
Cashier: ""
MBE: "You don't make pies, do you?"
Cashier: "No, I buy them, it's cheaper. And easier."

Cheaper? :eek: I almost gave her the website address...

Don't we sound like we make pies all the time.:rotfl: