Making pastry in a food processor

sb44

I haven't had a food processor for years and have just ordered one with the intention of making pastry in it, as the stuff I have tried by hand ALWAYS turns out carp!

Anyway, I found this YouTube vid which was quite helpful, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNPx-j_DSGg but I thought a processor made pastry to the stage where you took it out and started rolling it.

Am I mistaken or is it that the lady in the video just does hers a different way?

What do others do regarding pastry making using their fp?

Ta.

By the way, I didn't want to spend a lot and wanted one with a small footprint so ordered this model as I could double up my Clubcard points to use against it http://www.tesco.com/direct/philips-hr7620-food-processor/209-9428.prd?pageLevel=&skuId=209-9428

Do any other members have this model?

krlyr

I made some the other day funnily enough, as per this recipe
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/shortcrustpastry_1278

Literally, put the flour in the food processor, added the cubed butter, pulsed until combined and added the water bit by bit.
It needed a tiny bit of kneading by hand but not very much at all. More like just squeezing it into a ball to wrap and chill.

ellawood

I make mine till it goes into a ball of pastry never had a problem with it

sb44

ellawood wrote: »

I make mine till it goes into a ball of pastry never had a problem with it

Well I am sure that is what I used to do in mine.

I hope Father Christmas doesn't forget to bring it now.

Sorry, too old to call him Santa.

flea72

Same as the clip. When making it in a FTP, you should only mix until it is just starting to come together. If you mix til it forms a ball, the pastry is overworked and shrinks when baked and tastes chewy

nmlc

Hi

Have read with interest this thread regarding making pastry in a food processor - I struggle to make pastry by hand and years ago went through a stage of making it in a food processor as I'd process it until it came into a ball then would wrap in clingfilm and chill for half an hour and then try to use it - every time it was hard and not nice. Then as a previous post I read recipes for making pastry in a food processor and it said that pastry would look great and be good to handle but would taste horrible - as it had been overworked in the processor - it's exactly what I'd been doing - I'm lucky enough to be the owner of a kenwood chef and I now make my pastry in that and never have a problem - it's just a much gentler process - if that makes sense.

Hope this helps,

nmlc x

DUTR

I use a food mixer to make the pastry, sift the flour into the bowl, add the butter (which I use an egg slicer to cut down into smaller pieces) then blend in the bowl, nice breadcrumbs type texture everytime, switch to the dough hooks and add the egg and/or water, bag it and into the fridge.

Linda32

sb44 wrote: »

Well I am sure that is what I used to do in mine.

I hope Father Christmas doesn't forget to bring it now.

Sorry, too old to call him Santa.

Noooo, never ever too old to call him Santa! Never stop beleiving in Santa. (I'm 41)

As for your question, which I should be replying to. I can't make pastry using a processor, it just dosn't work.

However, the things I find making by hand is half butter half cookeen at room temperature, so get these out of the fridge before you start and put a jug of water in the fridge to chill.

kah22

DUTR wrote: »

I use a food mixer to make the pastry, sift the flour into the bowl, add the butter (which I use an egg slicer to cut down into smaller pieces) then blend in the bowl, nice breadcrumbs type texture everytime, switch to the dough hooks and add the egg and/or water, bag it and into the fridge.

Have you tried shortcrust and/or puff pastry using the bowl.#

If yes - how?

Kevin

sb44

DUTR wrote: »

I use a food mixer to make the pastry, sift the flour into the bowl, add the butter (which I use an egg slicer to cut down into smaller pieces) then blend in the bowl, nice breadcrumbs type texture everytime, switch to the dough hooks and add the egg and/or water, bag it and into the fridge.

The food processor I have doesn't have dough hooks but thanks for the info.

foxgloves

I make my pastry in a food processor & am actually just about to make a batch now to make some little Christmassy pies for the freezer. I always do it the same way & haven't had any problems. I always do shortcrust. I put the flour in with a pinch of salt, then the fat cut into chunks & process it together for the minimum amount of time to get it to the breadcrumb stage. Then I have cold water ready & put that down the 'chimney' a tbsp at a time, working quickly so that the pastry is not overchurned. I find that when it just gets itself to the ball stage, that's the time to stop immediately. I then pop it in a floured bag & rest it in the fridge for half an hour before rolling it out. I haven't had any problems doing it this way, not nasty tough pastry & no complaints. Like making it by hand, the trick with pastry is always going to be working it as little as possible. Now I've said that, I'm off to do it!