Pastries & Pies

For shortcrust pastry butter, margarine, vegetable fat or lard may be used. Butter gives a good flavour and a crisp pastry. Vegetable fat gives pastry a pleasant ‘short’ texture but lacks flavour. Lard, being a pure fat, gives a very short texture, and, being soft, it tends to melt while being rubbed in and, if not used carefully, can make the pastry tough. A mixture of fats gives the best results, the favourite choice being a mixture of butter and vegetable fat. Fats should be used cool but never straight from the refrigerator. To rub in very cold fat would require heavy handling and result in over-mixing. If the fat is hard, especially where a mixture of two fats is being used, allow them to stand at room temperature until soft. Beat them together on a plate with a knife until blended, then rub in lightly and evenly. Always use plain flour; if self-raising flour is substituted it should be remembered that the raising agent will make a rather cake-like pastry instead of a crisp, short pastry, and is acceptable only where a sweet moist filling is being used.