Wonderfully crumbly but still holds its shape

I love pastry, be it shortcrust or puff. I really feel sorry for people who are (genuinely) gluten intolerant, I know these days gluten free food is everywhere but let’s be honest, it’s not the same. Especially when it comes to shortcrust pastry, that said i do have a good recipe for a gluten free shortcrust pastry which i will post at a later date.

This recipe for shortcrust pastry is great for pies and tarts or quiches. And don’t worry! Pastry isn’t scary, (ok making puff pastry can be and not to mention pointless to make, but shortcrust pastry is fine), it really doesn’t take much time at all.

The main thing to remember is DON’T work the pastry too much when mixing, this will tighten the gluten and the shortcrust pastry will go hard and tough as opposed to soft and crumbly, as shortcrust should be.

Ingredients (makes about 800g of shortcrust pastry)

• 500g plain flour
• 250g butter or lard
• 1 egg yolk
• Salt
• Water

Equipment

• Mixing bowl
• Scales
• Hands
• Cling film
• Fridge
• A sieve (not essential)

Prep (35+ minutes)

1. Start by sifting the flour into the mixing bowl and add the butter, to make things easier you can cut the butter into cubes or just warm it in the microwave until it’s nice and soft (not liquid).
2. Rub the flour and butter together with the salt, if you’re not sure what rubbing is it’s pretty self explanatory, it’s basically rubbing 😂 just pinch it all together with your fingertips until it looks sort of like golden breadcrumbs.
3. Add the egg yolk and mix until the fully incorporated.
4. Now start to add a bit of water at a time (don’t overdo it). This part is kind of down to intuition but keep adding water and mixing until you get a consistency you’re happy with, the less water you use the more crumbly the pastry will be, but make sure you adad enough to hold it enough to be able to roll out.
5. When you’ve made the shortcrust dough and you’re happy with the consistency wrap it in cling film so it’s air tight.
6. Put it in the fridge and leave it in there (chill) for at least 30 minutes to let the butter cool down. Use within 3 days, can be frozen for about 6 months.
7. Go make some pie, or something that involves shortcrust pastry.

Cut the cost of pastry

While making this pastry works out at nearly equal to the price you’d pay for pre-made shortcrust from the shop, this contains actual butter whereas shop made uses margarine.

So onto costing, this pastry costs £1.10 to make 500g, but if you replace the butter with margarine it cuts the cost to as little as 40-50p/500g!

I personally prefer using real butter, but if you’re looking to save cash it can be handy and it still tastes delicious, just not quite as crumbly as it would be with butter.