Homemade pastry is cheaper and better than storebought, but it can be a kitchen nemesis for some. Don’t panic! Follow our tips and tricks below for the perfect pastry for your pie, tart or quiche...
The best fat for pastry-making
Unless you don’t eat dairy, we recommend butter for flavour and texture. You can also try a 50/50 split between butter and lard, which works well for savoury recipes like quiches.
Make sure your butter is really cold when you rub it in to the flour. If it gets warm, it can make the pastry greasy and heavy.
Make your pastry richer
You can make a very simple pastry from butter, flour and water, but to give an extra edge, use an egg yolk beaten with a little water. Our Crab Quiche is a shining example.
How to make your pastry light
Keep all your ingredients as cool as possible – you can even weigh everything up and chill it all beforehand (even the flour!).
When rubbing in, make sure your hands aren’t too hot as they’ll melt the butter. A food processor is the ultimate tool for making pastry – it works fast and doesn’t heat the mixture.
How to stop pastry being tough
Tough pastry is difficult to roll, shrinks during baking and isn’t pleasant to eat. Add just enough liquid to make the dough come together and don’t knead it – a brief squish to press it all together will do. Too much water or movement develops gluten in the flour, which equals hard pastry. The warning sign? Your dough will feel elastic. The remedy? Read on…
Chill time
Time in the fridge helps gluten to relax (you might be seeing a theme here: the cold is your friend). A step you should never miss is chilling the dough after you make it (regardless on whether it’s elastic or not). It’s also a good idea to do it before once you’ve assembled your pastry creation, before baking. This also sets the butter, and helps the pastry to keep its shape in the oven.
Gluten-free pastry
Gluten may sound like a pastry pest, but it’s there even in the shortest shortcrust, holding everything together. Though it sounds like that would be helpful, gluten-free pastry can go the other way and be too crumbly. Try our foolproof recipe in this gluten-free Lemon Tart.
Cracking pastry
Trying to work with pastry straight from the chiller will result in cracks, so make sure you give it 10min at room temperature before you attempt to roll it.
Flour power
Putting flour on the work surface and your rolling pin is helpful to stop pastry sticking, but too much will make it dry, leathery and prone to break. Keep adding small amounts as needed, and use a dry pastry brush to gently remove any excess once you’ve rolled it out. If it’s a warm day or your pastry is particularly soft, roll it out between two sheets of greaseproof paper or cling film.
What to do if your pastry gets stuck to the work surface
Palette knife to the rescue! It allows you to slide neatly under the pastry and release any stuck patches.
If you’re nervous about your pastry sticking, or your pastry is particularly delicate, roll it between two sheets of baking parchment, then peel off the top paper and use the bottom paper to help transfer the pastry to the tin.
For the neatest finish
Pro tip: when you’re rolling, the top side will always be smoother than the side touching the worksurface. If you’re making a tart or pie which gets unmoulded, flip the pastry over into the tin so the neater side ends up on the outside of your creation.
How to make your pie crust picture perfect
For a shapely tart shell, spend some time pressing the pastry right into the corners and then all the way up the sides of the tin without stretching it, then trim off the excess. This will stop it shrinking or having dents in. Patch up any holes using small pieces of excess pastry. Always rest pastry before baking, for at least 20 minutes in the fridge. This helps prevent the pastry shrinking in the oven.
How to blind bake
The point of baking blind is to provide a scaffolding that keeps the pastry in place during cooking – paper laid lazily on top with a scattering of baking beans won’t do the job. Here’s our foolproof guide:
- Cut a piece of greaseproof paper bigger than your tin.
- Crumple it into a ball and unfurl it. This helps it mould to the shape of the tin better
- Press the paper really well into the corners of the tin but try not to damage the pastry
- Fill completely with baking beans (or if you don’t have any, use rice or lentils)
- Make sure the beans are pressed right into the sides, all the way up to the top of the tin. The sides are more important than the bottom as that’s what you’re holding in place
- If your pastry cracks during baking, brush the cracks with beaten egg and return to the oven for a couple of minutes to seal them.
How to stop your tart pastry getting stuck in the tin
You don’t need to grease tart tins and pie moulds – there’s enough fat in the pastry. Cooked pastry only sticks if you don’t get it out of the tin it at the right time. Too early and it will be soft and prone to breaking, but cool it completely and the butter will solidify and weld the pastry to the tin. Leave it to cool for 10-15min, then unmould.
What went wrong...?
If your pastry is hard and tough, this may because too much liquid was added or the pastry was over-handled, resulting in the development of gluten.
If your pastry is too crumbly and hard to handle, this may be because too much fat was added, it was over-mixed or not enough liquid was added to bind the fat and flour.
If your pastry has shrunk during baking, the pastry might have been stretched during rolling, the oven temperature wasn’t hot enough, there was too much liquid in the pastry, or the pastry wasn’t chilled for long enough before baking.
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