help help help!!! I am hopeless at pastry!

[lucysmam]

Give me your recipe and tried & tested method!

I cannot, for the life of me, work out how on earth my MIL achieves perfect pastry with

2oz marg
2oz lard
4oz flour

& mix it with a hand whisk!! I just end up with little lumps like breadcrumbs or biccy dough before it turns into biccy dough!

tia

I wouldn't use lard - blurgh!

YOu are supposed to have bread crumbs - then add a little water - 1 or 2 table spoons, and squash it into a dough, and roll out with lots of flour.

yes it will look like breadcrumbs. that's good!
then you just add some cold water, just a couple of tablespoons and mix to a dough

well, to a pastry

I use this weird utensil and it works every time. Can't find it on lakeland atm. I don't use lard though.

buy it!!

even GR recommends it

if I don't use lard, what do I use?

I didn't know the bit about water! Maybe that's why I can't do it right

I ended up with shop bought stuff for my mince pies & felt a bit cheated that I didn't manage it myself Having said that though, for 79p it's not too bad buying ready made I guess

Sometimes life is too short to make it. I buy it sometimes and other times I make it. No biggie.

well i use all butter.
but you can really use whatever fat you like,

my mum always swears by half hard fat and half soft (for example, lard and marg)

Maybe bought stuff is the way to go for the minute and try again next xmas . . . like you say NAB3, life's too short!

if I make it, just to try again, can I freeze it for a while?

yes, you can freeze it.

key is not to handle it too much, esp if you are using butter

right, that's tomorrow's job then & if it turns out ok I'll freeze it & use it on Monday to make a pie out of roast leftovers.

Thank-you all , much appreciated

It's the water you're missing - rub the fat into the flour until it looks like breadcrumbs and then add very cold water - not very much - until it forms a ball. You can use a food processor or mixer if you have one.

My Mum, who makes the lightest, crumbliest meltiest mince pie pastry I have ever tasted uses half lard (bleugh indeed!), half butter, (marge is possibly as bleaugh as lard) and self raising flour. SR flour is her secret ingredient.

Other vitals are keep it cool throughout - even run your wrists under the cold tap before rubbing in, and rub in and roll lightly - don't knead and squash.

Am aghast at hand whisk..but use a Magimix myself tomix flour and fat, and then do the rest by hand.

lucysmam, you are using far too much fat for the quantity of flour. If you use 6 oz flour, for example, you need half the quantity of fat ie 3oz. Rub the butter or lard into the flour with your fingertips, add a pinch of salt then add enough v cold water to bind it together.

Google Delia and shortcrust pastry for step by step instructions. You also need to keep pastry cool and I always chill it in the fridge or an hour before using. HTH

ahh but the handwhisk is basically to reduce the amount of time you touch it I presuime?/

i've always done mine by hand, but I know that plenty of people swear by food processors etc.

oxo, that depends on the type of pastry you're making.
if you want a really short dessert pastry you would use more fat

JusRoll

You should use half the weight of fat to flour (eg 8oz flour 4oz fat) I use a food processer. Comes out OK.

She seems to be making a sponge without the eggs!!

The rule of thumb is supposed to be half fat to flour. Fat can be any mix of lard/marg/butter but each gives different outcome. Rub into breadcrumbs. Add very cold water to bind, handly as little as possible. Add an egg yolk and maybe even a spoon of sugar for a very rich dessert pastry.

I meant rub until it looks like breadcrumbs.

I use just over half fat to flour (plus a wee bit of salt), eg 10oz fat to 18oz flour. This was my Mum's magic tip. The fat is a mix of butter and Cookeen/lard. Use food processor or Kitchen Aid to blend to fine breadcrumbs and then just enough cold water to bind it together.

Then leave it in the fridge for a wee while to rest before rolling out (if you have time)

I use plain flour.

My mince pies are legendary!

lucysmam - when I make a meat pie, I always use this recipe for pastry - tis Delia Smiths, works a treat every time.

12oz plain flour
6oz lard
salt and freshly milled black pepper
cold water to mix

It makes lovely short pie pastry - perfect.

I use a tin pie plate and this amount is enough to make a bottom and top for the pie.

i use plain flour, and half fat to flour if i am just making a savoury pie or quiche or something

for a sweet dessert pastry I use more fat. think I do 8oz flour and 5oz butter. plus an egg yolk and 2tsp icing sugar

for flaky it's something like 8 flour and 6 butter.

and of course for puff pastry, even a rough puff you would use equal amounts.

so, I don't think ther eis anything wrong with the amount the OP states. and after all her MIL seems to do fine with the fat/flour ratio!

When I want to make a sweet pastry for say cherry and almond tart, then I use a recipe by John Burton Race -

100g unsalted butter, chopped
100g icing sugar
1 egg
200g plain flour, sifted

Place the butter and icing sugar in a mixing bowl and beat together until soft and pale in colour. Add the egg and beat the mixture (it will look sloppy, but don't worry) until smooth, before folding in the flour. Make a ball with the dough, wrap in clingfilm and chill for about 2 hours.

Dust your surface with icing sugar/flour and roll out, it will need quite a lot as and when you roll, turn round. It might take a couple of goes with the rolling because it is so short, but if it does tear, don't worry just patch it up when you put it in your tart tin. Makes enough for 8x10x2.5cm tart moulds or 1 x 28cm flan tin.

The pastry is lovely when cooked.

much appreciated all, i will be back after my chilling bubbly bath with my book to make a note of all tips to try them all at some point.

hows things bella?
you always seem to pop up when I have a cooking question!