crumbly pastry???

redmel1621

Hi all

I had my first attempt at pastry on friday and made some mince pies. Thank you to everyone who gave me advice on the lard/butter..... Well I used half and half (it was delia recipe actually) they were absolutely lovely everyone who tried them complimented me and said the pastry was fantastic. I tried again today but tried it with all trex (again thanks to you lot on here), only problem was, the pastry kept breaking apart whilst i was rolling and putting into tray. Then once cooked they were very crumbly and sort of falling apart.....they tastd lovely though.

What did i do wrong? was it down to the trex or did I not put enough water in maybe.

I will try again, maybe tomorrow with half trex/half butter. I would prefer to use trex rather than lard but at the same time i want to be able to pick up the mince pies in one piece......

Any ideas.

Mel x

Dill

Hi RedMel

I'm not an expert at pastry (have only made shortcrust) but if it's crumbly I think it needs more water, as you said.
Generally, too much water and the pastry will be heavy, too little and it crumbles and doesn't hold together.

HTH

THIRZAH

I had the same problem once when I used all Trex for pastry so went back to using half Trex ,half butter.

floyd

When this happens, the pastry is referred to as being too 'short' probably because you used all Trex. The best pastry contains half and half as it has the right mix of shortness and buttery flavour. For more info, try this website its very useful http://www.fabflour.co.uk/content/1/52/pastry.html
I always use half trex half butter and it works every time

noonesperfect

Hiya Floyd,
thanks for the FAB web address, very useful - I've made it a favourite.

floyd

You're welcome, I find it to be so useful for 'disaster days' when nothing seems to work