Pastry

Perfect homemade pastry is a dream – rich and buttery, but at the same time light, with a crumbly or flaky texture. Yet many competent and even inspired cooks never attempt to make pastry. It may well seem that only the greatest skill could produce such a variety of textures from the same few basic ingredients — pastries which vary enough to suit quite different purposes, but many pastries are easily achieved and there is always something new to discover.

I love experimenting with pastry to try and create a texture and taste I haven’t achieved before. Yet I used to be one of those who felt they couldn’t make pastry — that was until the day I was told to add more fat and less water when making a simple shortcrust and to take as little time as possible crumbling the fat into the flour. The result was wonderful, and from then on I found pastry-making a real pleasure; once you realize how easy it is to produce a light and crumbly shortcrust, your cooking repertoire can be enormously extended.