Pastry for tarts/pies dessert pastry?

melie3

hi all,
i cant seem to find a thread of what pastry i want, but ive just used some sainsburys dessert pastry. i made some jam tarts-delish.. but too be honest maybe cheaper to buy:o .
how would i make this type of pastry? it says its butter enriched on pack, but not sure how this differs to the normal shortcrust pastry, except the price! im sure ive got all the ingredients.
kind regards mel

purpleivy

I posted a thread called pastry economics a while ago as I was astounded at how expensive the butter pastry is to buy.

I would just make pastry with butter instead of lard. Or for budget pastry, would use trex. A mix of the two would be good I suppose.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=675197&highlight=pastry+economics

Sharra

As well as using butter, you could try swapping an oz or 2 of flour for caster sugar, this would make it more like a shortbread.

Gingernutmeg

Some of the nicest pastry I've ever made has been with all butter - if you make it well it's like crumbly shortbread, and is delicious for fruit tarts etc. As I said, just use all butter rather than half and half. The pastry will be a pain to handle, but you just have to be gentle with it. If you do make this, use really good butter (preferably unsalted, add salt yourself to the flour). Cheap, heavily salted butter will make the pastry hard and greasy.

You can also add a little bit of icing sugar, but do this carefully as too much sugar can make the pastry tough. A squeeze of lemon (or orange, depending on what you're using it for) will also help to make the pastry more tender.

melie3

Gingernutmeg wrote: »

Some of the nicest pastry I've ever made has been with all butter - if you make it well it's like crumbly shortbread, and is delicious for fruit tarts etc. As I said, just use all butter rather than half and half. The pastry will be a pain to handle, but you just have to be gentle with it. If you do make this, use really good butter (preferably unsalted, add salt yourself to the flour). Cheap, heavily salted butter will make the pastry hard and greasy.

You can also add a little bit of icing sugar, but do this carefully as too much sugar can make the pastry tough. A squeeze of lemon (or orange, depending on what you're using it for) will also help to make the pastry more tender.

is clover ok to make with, or would you recommend butter butter...
could you post your recipe pretty please????lol
kindest regards mel

Gingernutmeg

If you're going to make butter pastry, then I'd go for butter butter Not great for you but if you don't eat it that often ...

I don't really have a recipe - I just follow the rule of half fat to flour. So, I'd use 100g of butter to 200g of flour (plain - the 00 stuff makes absolutely gorgeous pastry, but it's not essential). Add a pinch of salt to the flour, a tablespoonful of icing sugar if you want to use it, and a squeeze of lemon juice (but neither of these is essential if you haven't got them) Then rub the fat into the flour, and when you've got fine breadcrumbs bind them together with some icy water - I normally try to stick a mugful into the freezer an hour or so before I start, but if I forget then cold tap water's fine. Sprinkle on the water bit by bit and carefully bring the pastry together - I can't tell you how much you'll need as it'll vary, just add the water slowly, it doesn't matter if the pastry's a wee bit sticky but you don't want it WET. For a really rich pastry, you can add an egg yolk first, but again it's not essential. (If you do use the yolk, you can use the white to wash the top of the pie with. Sprinkle some cater sugar on top and you get a nice crispy sugary crust to the pie).

Once you've brought the pastry together, gently knead it briefly, then wrap it up and stick it in the fridge to rest for an hour or so - this helps to stop the pastry shrinking. When you roll it out, try to be as light and careful as possible.

That's it! My biggest tip is to be gentle with the pastry. When I was younger, my Nana used to insist that I couldn't make pastry because I had 'hot hands'. It took me ages to try pastry and when I did, I was so frightened of it! I learned that when you're gentle with pastry, that's what makes it so much better (better than my Nana's now lol ).