Making pastry

Patchwork_Quilt

I always use warm butter and rub in by hand but I'm sure I'll be shot for not using ice cold lard and ice cold water

thistledome

Hello OS'ers:(

Sorry, but I need to whine in your wise ears...

Have never been able to make nice pastry in the past but have been making rather nice cakes recently and thought my food processor would help me.

I was all full of myself this morning, what could be more MSE than home made individual apple pies with free apples from our own trees? I used mostly eaters and just 2 small cookers so didn't have to add any sugar, just a bit of lemon juice and cinnamon. Tasted nice to me.

I even rested the pastry in the fridge, though I've never bothered before.

How hard can it be? This is going to be a rare pastry triumph, I thought....

Obviously, it all went horribly wrong.

First of all I had to use double the amount of water in the recipe to get it to stick together. Then mis-measured the size to cut out AND rolled the pastry too thick. Re-rolled it and it started to break up in places where I'd cut it the first time. Re-rolled again and by the time I finished with it, it had the texture of knicker elastic and was springing about like a new lamb.

Then I realised why most people don't bother with individual pies, they took literally ages to do. I've always had a problem getting the tops to stick to the bottoms, and incompetently doing that on 24 tiny pies tried my limited patience. Finally bunged the wretched things in the oven, then realise 5 minutes later I haven't brushed the tops with anything.

Even at this point I'm still pathetically hopeful they might taste nice, even if they look carp.

Recipe said cook 15-20 minutes but mine took nearly 30 and still pale and runty looking.

Just ate one and it tasted not only sour, but bitter too! Pastry is like cardboard and just as tasteless.:( Wasn't any sugar in the pastry recipe and I didn't think to put any in. Way too much spice and lemon in the apples. It didn't quite make me squint violently, but not far off it.

Far from being money saving I've completely wasted ingredients, electricity and time. Again.

OH is hyper-critical and he will hate these. Obv, they'll be served smothered in custard but he won't be fooled.

Any tips for next time, insults, sympathy or flames welcome. But especially tips.:o

Thanks for your patience.

PS
If you're even worse than me at pastry, feel free to post here and let me feel better at your expense

tanith

I've always found the less you mess around with pastry the better it turns out, there is nothing wrong with buying pastry if you have such difficulty with it.. mine sometimes comes out perfect and sometimes not.. but I wouldn't bother making individual ones to be honest... why not make something less likely to go wrong like a crumble, apple sponge or apple scone...

My pastry recipe is , 2oz butter , 2oz lard/trex, 8oz plain flour, pinch of salt, rub the fat into the flour and salt I do add a tbls of sugar for fruit pies. , add enough water to just bind it together , knead till its smooth then rest in fridge for half an hour. Makes enough for one largish pie.

EstherH

Hi thistledome, sorry it didn't work out for you. I always add sugar to cooked apples even if they are eating apples as somehow they do taste sour with out it.

Not really sure about the pastry. I think that the less you handle it the better and I have heard that if you use icy water it is better although I don't bother. I always end up with too much water and then end up adding more flour but I only make savoury pies and somehow it works out. I always do crumbles with apples as it's easier. Sorry not much help I know.

garthdp

Too much water in pastry makes it tough as well as too much handling

8oz fat to 1lb seived flour,(You can replace ten percent of the flour with cornflour which makes it crumblier) A pinch of salt and gently bring together with a beaten egg.Rest for an hour (the pastry,not you you have to wash up now!)
Do not knead it or it will toughen.If it does not roll out too well you can just gently push it into place into the small tart cases.!!!!! with a fork and bake blind for 10 mins and then fill and finish

emiff6

tanith wrote: »

My pastry recipe is , 2oz butter , 2oz lard/trex, 8oz plain flour, pinch of salt, rub the fat into the flour and salt I do add a tbls of sugar for fruit pies. , add enough water to just bind it together , knead till its smooth then rest in fridge for half an hour. Makes enough for one largish pie.

This is pretty much what I use too, except I use all butter, and SR flour, then the pastry doesn't go crumbly or break, and you don't need to rest it in the fridge. I find 1 tablespoon of cold water per 2oz flour is about right.

Put the flour, butter and salt in the processor and whizz to crumbs, then with the motor still running, add the water 1 tablespoon at a time till the pastry starts to come together, then turn out and roll.
And I prefer to brush the pie lid lightly with water and sprinkle sugar on the top, rather than put it in the pastry.

When you re-roll the trimmings,don't scrunch them all together, layer them neatly with a brush of water between each piece to stick them, tuck any long strands under, and then roll out again. The less you handle the pastry and the colder it stays the better. My Mum always said "only cold hands make good pastry".

Fruball

My pastry was a disaster until I was told NOT to knead it but just move it around enough to bring it together.

Then bung in the fridge, then roll out.

I am still not great at pasty but def better since i stopped kneading it... love kneading so probably overdid it muchly

My Mother used to make awesome pastry but she has lost her recipe and can't remember it :mad: which means I will never ever have the same mince pies that I soooooooooo loved as a child.

Moominmamma

No helpful comments I'm afraid, just wanted to sympathise ~ I too bake a pretty mean cake but my pastry is always disastrous.

I've resorted to buying it.

thistledome

Thanks so much for all your replies . Some very interesting tips I'd never heard of and the next time I attempt pastry I will refer to this thread first*. It may be some time before I do that, though.

tanith, I felt quite regretful reading your post! Apple Crumble would have been lovely - so would Apple Sponge! Ah well, next time. Still got plenty of apples left.


ETA: *actually I have cut and pasted them into a Notepad document! thanks again all.

tanith

Frugal wrote: »

My pastry was a disaster until I was told NOT to knead it but just move it around enough to bring it together.

Then bung in the fridge, then roll out.

I am still not great at pasty but def better since i stopped kneading it... love kneading so probably overdid it muchly

My Mother used to make awesome pastry but she has lost her recipe and can't remember it :mad: which means I will never ever have the same mince pies that I soooooooooo loved as a child.

I don't actually know why I used the word KNEAD what I meant was just pull it together so it gathers into a ball so thanks for pointing that out,..