what did I do wrong? I made pastry pie?

Perpetuallyconfused

Ok so I made my first attempt at pastry. For a start it all broke into bits everytime I tried to pick it up so I thought I will not be beaten! so I added my pie filling (chicken and leeks in sauce) into a dish and added the little pieces of broken pastry over the top until they covered it.

It took about an hour to cook and upon to cutting into the pie all the filling had been absorbed into the pastry which seemed to have expanded and filled the whole dish from top to bottom. Basically I had a dish of pastry with the odd tiny bit of chicken stuck in it?

On the bright side the pastry tasted fine. Help please? :rotfl:

PixieDust

The first ideas that spring to mind are "did you use SR flour"? and "did you allow the pastry to rest"?

Followed by "did you over-work the pastry" and "was the dough/room/your hands too hot?

Sounds like an impressive dish, though - bet you couldn't repeat it

babyshoes

I had similar first impressions.

Additional thoughts: What type of pastry were you trying to make? Did you use a good recipe? Was everything cold, including your hands? Did you not add enough water or did you perhaps add too much flour when rolling out? Did you get your proportions of fat to flour right? Did you use the right kind of fat? Spreadable marg type stuff won't work - whatever you use needs to be pretty hard when cold - I use butter, some swear by lard or half of each. Hard marg is ok for texture but doesn't taste right to me!

I like to use sparkling/soda water if I have some to make it lighter, plus a squeeze of lemon juice to help the gluten along. (Memory of the science is a bit sketchy but I know it has a better texture if I use lemon juice...)

Perpetuallyconfused

Ah,I see two problems right there. I used spread instead of butter and my hands are always so hot that theyre almost wet.I also dont have a fridge so I left the pastry to sit in a cold room. Oh oops.:o

Im annoyed it turned out how it did as I can make bread by hand without a problem so its not like Ive never tried cooking like this. OH actually ate his pastry pie too, he is one in a million :rotfl:

Thanks for the advice,I may put off pastry until I have a fridge in the new year.

doodoot

Yep, definitely need to use butter and/or lard and it has to be ICE cold like the water.

As a rule I use half butter/lard to flour for a shortcrust, and according to my chef OH I make competition pastry...but I'm sure he's only saying it so that he doesn't have to make it. :rotfl:

Rub the little cubes of fat into the flour, add water a bit at a time til it all comes together, wrap in clingfilm and pop in the fridge for a bit, roll out on a floured surface and use.

And as babyshoes said, for pity's sake DON'T use marg...bleurgh! :mad:

doodoot

Perpetuallyconfused wrote: »

Thanks for the advice,I may put off pastry until I have a fridge in the new year.

It's winter...put it outside!

Wrap it up in loads of carrier bags, pop it somewhere safe and bob's your uncle.

As for warm hands, run them under the cold tap - my mum does this.

Am determined for you to make some pastry lol.:rotfl:

PixieDust

Noooooooo not marge - sacrilege!!! :eek:

Bitsy_Beans

I have to say I rarely have ice cold hands and don't have any issues with my pastry, I don't even sit it to rest in the fridge
I think it was just the marg TBH, I always use half and half, butter and veg fat or lard.

squeaky

Breaking into pieces sounds to me more like not quite enough water to bind it all together.

Pastry is supposed to be soft and pliable as you roll it out - (even as you work it) - if it's difficult to work or roll out and breaks up, then usually it just needs a tiny bit more water.

seraphina

Butter makes a very short (ie crumbly, and quite hard to work with) pastry. When I was starting out on pastry I used trex, and even now usually use a Trex (or Stork block marg) and butter mix for pastry - half trex, half butter. It's easier to roll out.

I wouldn't touch spreads for pastry as their fat composition will be all wrong, but the cooking fats such as Trex, Stork, lard or butter will be best to use.

rosie383

The best things I ever did after avoiding pastry for years, were:
1. To buy Trexx (it was on offer once with a free recipe book).
2. Put a tiny wee drop of oil in it.
3. I make it in the FP. Takes seconds and always works great.