Making pastry

zippychick

I've merged this with our making pastry thread. You should pop your recipe up to help others in future Meriaten

Zip

sb44

Has anyone used the Paul Holly wood recipe for pastry?

I didn't know that you used egg yolks in shortcrust pastry.

meritaten

thank you zippy. its the classic shortcrust recipe. half fat to flour! so.
to 8 ounces of flour I would use 2 ounces of butter and 2 of lard, self raising flour or plain flour with a teaspoon of baking powder. pinch of salt.
rub fat into flour and use just enough ice water to combine all ingredients into a soft dough.
flour your work surface and quickly knead into a ball. roll out quickly and use immediately.

meritaten

sb44 wrote: »

Has anyone used the Paul Holly wood recipe for pastry?

I didn't know that you used egg yolks in shortcrust pastry.

yes, you can - most often used in a 'sweet' pastry. I don't use them myself. for fruit pies or tarts I brush the pastry with milk or water and sprinkle granulated sugar on - just one teaspoon makes the pastry really crisp and sweet.

sb44

My husband bought me a food processor for Christmas last year, I haven't even switched it on yet to see if it works!

I am going to have a go at making some pastry in it tomorrow and dig out my pie making machine and use up some scraps in the fridge.

Not sure if this vid is any good for anyone who hasn't used a food processor for pastry before.

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/technique/how-make-shortcrust-pastry

meritaten

I cant help it - I am getting on in years and I make pastry by hand in the way I was taught. I don't even OWN a food processor! I cant help thinking it is just another 'thing' to wash up!
what's wrong with using your hands to rub the fat into the flour? it doesn't take that much longer than the machine? also, its relaxing! I enjoy that process and so do my grandkids! then mixing the water in - that takes skill, knowing when the flour/fat mix has absorbed the 'right' amount of water. and the kneading process - that is enjoyable too - and even with the machine you still have to do this!

sb44

meritaten wrote: »

I cant help it - I am getting on in years and I make pastry by hand in the way I was taught. I don't even OWN a food processor! I cant help thinking it is just another 'thing' to wash up!
what's wrong with using your hands to rub the fat into the flour? it doesn't take that much longer than the machine? also, its relaxing! I enjoy that process and so do my grandkids! then mixing the water in - that takes skill, knowing when the flour/fat mix has absorbed the 'right' amount of water. and the kneading process - that is enjoyable too - and even with the machine you still have to do this!

I am getting on in years too and still can't make pastry!

From what I remember (it was a few years ago now), I had a go using a f/p to make it and it came out fine, opposed to always being a failure.

However, when my processor broke I never bothered making it again.

davsidipp

can anyone tell me what im doing wrong:(made pastry twice today,both times its gone straight in the bin,as it crumpled up and would not go together.i made it with 8oz of plain flour,2oz of trex and 2oz of butter,with 4 tbsp of cold water.any advice please:)

Gigervamp

What exactly do you mean by "crumpled up and would not go together?

Was it too dry? BTW, if using Trex, you don't need to use the usual ratio of half fat to flour. From the Trex website:

Simply use Trex instead of butter and reduce the measurements by 20% – for example if a recipe calls for 100g of butter, you can use just 80g of Trex.

davsidipp

Gigervamp wrote: »

What exactly do you mean by "crumpled up and would not go together?

Was it too dry? BTW, if using Trex, you don't need to use the usual ratio of half fat to flour. From the Trex website:

it just broke up,would not keep together.have made pastry lots of time with butter no probs,but this was totally different:cool:thanks for that info,thats where i might be going wrong.:)