Shortcrust pastry with butter

kah22

I normally make my shortcrust pastry with a 60/40 ratio of hard margarine and lard to 200 grams plain flour and approx 4 Tbs cold water

Over this past few days I've been trying to work with butter and lard in the same proportions, and in the same way as with my usual dough, but I'm finding that the butter dough tears very easily and I'm wondering what might be wrong!

Any suggestions?

Kevin

nuatha

When I make butter pastry I use less water - the butter doesn't seem to need as much water. (I don't use a second fat with butter)

HTH

kah22

Yes, I will try another batch and reduce the water. At the moment I'm running with The Delia Recipe and she seems to put great importance in the lard

Kevin

nuatha

kah22 wrote: »

Yes, I will try another batch and reduce the water. At the moment I'm running with The Delia Recipe and she seems to put great importance in the lard

Kevin

The theory is that lard helps improve the texture - lard also contains no water, domestic butter is likely to be around 18% water, higher fat butters will have less and clarified butter very little at all (my grandmother often used clarified butter in her pastry).
I rarely use lard as I often cook for vegetarians, I do find that kitchen temperatures and the amount of resting/fridge time can make a huge difference to the quality of my pastry in summer I tend to bake very early morning.

To 200g flour I'd use 100g fat and 3 tablespoons of water (adjusted depending on feel).
The other adjustment that might be worth trying is to reverse your fat ratios, 60% lard to 40% butter should still keep a buttery taste but should provide an easier to work pastry.

suki1964

It's the water and possibly the temperature


I've always used 50/50 butter and lard really cold and cut into cubes, and mixed with the flour in the processor. I then tip it into a bowl and add perhaps a tablespoon of water, more depending on how much flour. I then add as I go along by just running my hand under the tap. Soon as its combined it's in the fridge or freezer for a while to get chilled again


I use another recipe that is a high butter content to flour, using egg as the binder. It's a beautiful pastry but it's a nightmare to roll. Has to be at just the right temp or it just tears everywhere

kah22

I've tried the butter egg pastry and your right - it's a nightmare!

Over the holidays I want to experiment with my pastry making and rolling techniques. I can see a lot ending up in the bin ��

DigForVictory

+1 for temperature.

Can you face making pastry at 4 in the morning when it's still cool outside?

kah22

DigForVictory wrote: »

Can you face making pastry at 4 in the morning when it's still cool outside?

Short answer NO

suki1964

Granite worktop is great for keeping pastry cool

If you don't have one, a granite chopping board


I'm lucky that my kitchen is always on the cool side but I still make sure the pastry is kept as cool as possible. That's why I never make the pastry to completion in the processor. I find it over works it, makes it sticky, needs lots more flour to roll, becomes tough

VfM4meplse

DigForVictory wrote: »

+1 for temperature.

Can you face making pastry at 4 in the morning when it's still cool outside?

Do you live in Australia?

I'm interested to know whether clarified butter improves the flavour of the pastry.

sooty&sweep

Hi

I've seen Jamie Oliver roll really crumbly short pastry into a sausage & then slice pieces of the correct thickness off & put them together like a jigsaw in the pie dish to line the pie dish.

Jen