Mince pie pastry

[FindoGask]

Hello!

I usually make mince pies with a standard sweet shortcrust pastry recipe I got out of, I think, a Jamie Oliver book a few years ago. It produces good results and everyone seems to like them. However, I'd love to try to replicate that sort of texture you get in a Mr Kipling or a Greggs (!) mince pie - whatever they do that gives this softer more crumbly, result.

A friend of mine said she'd heard that adding baking powder or bicarb (I can't remember which now) to the flour has this effect - or maybe just using self-raising instead of plain in the pastry... has anyone tried this method? Or could you recommend another way I can replicate that texture? Many thanks.

Use a bit less flour and water to make the pastry more “short” (crumbly).

I use a handful of the weighted flour for the rolling out rather than using extra flour. My pastry is lovely and short.

Thanks Herat!

Try adding an egg yolk.

And use icing sugar.

Half fat half lard is what I use.

It's a bit different but I use some ground almonds in the pastry

Don't use self raising pastry or a raising agent. It doesn't work (speaks the voice of sad experience).

You need to make your pastry 'shorter' by using a slightly higher-than-usual proportion of fat to flour, and it needs to be the right sort of fat. Butter is better than marge for this, half-and-half butter and lard IIRC is apparently even better (I don't use lard, so no experience). For liquid use egg yolk rather than water. Use icing sugar rather than granulated or caster. Replacing some of the flour with a gluten-free alternative is also effective. You could use pretty much any GF flour (except self raising), or ground almonds.

Have fun experimenting!

Don't use flour for rolling out. Instead use cornflour or icing sugar, or roll out between sheets of clingfilm.