What went wrong with my pastry?

[PrettyCandles]

Tried making pastry for a piecrust with Flora White for the first time. I thought you could just replace the fat in your recipe weight-for-weight with Flora White.

It didn't work. The pastry was so soft (short?) that I couldn't lift it once it was rolled out, I had to cut 'biscuits' and lay them over the filling instead.

My recipe called for 2oz butter, 2oz lard, 8oz flour, and as little cold water as is needed. I used 4oz FW instead of the butter and lard. I never use lard anyway. I do all-butter pastry and it's fine.

So, what went wrong, and what do I have to do instead?

Half the fat to flour is right for pastry, regardless of the fat used.

I'd say you just needed to add a little more flour when rolling out, and was the fat very very cold? Did the pastry get warm while you where rolling it out?

I find it helps to refridgerate the pastry after making it before attempting to roll it out.

Increase the cooking time slightly if it is soft.

I used the Flora White straight out of the fridge, and made the pastry in my Kenwood Chef, so minimal handling. But even then I could see that it wasn't behaving 'normally' and wasnt gathering into a ball. It rested in the fridge for 30mins before I rolled it out.

i have never used flora white, but i have used TREX which does state that you need to use less than you would if you were using other fats

so perhaps it is the same as that?

BTW, it tasted perfectly nice, and was a pleasant texture to eat.

never used flora white just cookeen etc but with pastries you do need to use the half/half method
it just always works