Our feature this week is written by Dawn, our Purchasing Manager, and is all about International Pie Week and how to make a perfect pastry for your pie...
Its all about the pastry! As much as I love pie fillings, if the pasty isn’t right, my pie isn’t right.
I have been making pastry since my Nan taught me when I was a wee lass of 8 or 9 years old. My Nan used to supply her baking to the local restaurants so I was always thought she knew a thing or two about pastry.
The main pastry ingredients are the same for most types of pastry – flour, fat, a bit of salt and water to bind the dough. In order to get the different types of pastry you just play around with the quantities of these ingredients.
Making most pastries requires cold working conditions. I make sure that the heating is turned down in the Kitchen, that I am not under any warm lights and I also run my hands under cold water for about 2-3 mins beforehand to cool them down.
Shortcrust Pastry
This pastry is probably the most common pastry and has a crumbly texture. The recipe usually calls for a half fat to flour ratio.
Be gentle with shortcrust, don’t handle it too much especially when you’re combining the pastry together, remember it isn’t a dough so don’t knead it.
This pastry is very versatile, you can play around with it, as follows:
- Using butter or half butter and half lard for the fat gives the pie a richer taste.
- Adding more fat gives a more luxurious taste but don’t at too much as this can make the pastry unworkable.
- Adding sugar gives a sweet shortcrust pastry.
- Using an egg to combine the flour instead of water enriches the flavour.
- Try adding orange essence or peel to enhance the flavour of a sweet shortcrust pastry (great for apple pies) or what about adding chopped thyme when making a chicken pie.
Here’s a basic recipe for Shortcrust pastry that I like to use:
bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/shortcrustpastry_1278
Flaky or Puff Pastry
This pastry fluffs or puffs up, i.e it expands when baked, due to the many layers of fat in the pastry. This recipe usually calls for an equal fat to flour ratio.
Puff pastry can be quite time consuming because most of the fat is interlaced with layers of dough and this requires a lot of rolling, folding and chilling.
If I’m pressed for time then I will use a rough puff pastry which gives a flaky texture but requires only half the time to make.
This pastry is very light and flaky, so you don’t need to add any extra ingredients to it.
Puff pastry works very well with poultry based pies, I especially like this recipe for a Turkey, Ham and Leek Pie -
bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/turkey_leek_and_ham_pie_79037 although I prefer to combine the pie ingredients with a basic white sauce -
bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/whitesauce_1298.
Here’s a recipe for Rough Puff Pastry:
bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2403/roughpuff-pastry
Hot Water Crust Pastry
I use this pie for making hand moulded pies, such as pork pies or game pies. But you can also use it for a steak and kidney pie too. The recipe usually calls for a third fat to flour ratio.
Unlike Shortcrust pastry, this pastry requires kneading after the ingredients have been combined. The dough is then moulded into a prepared tin. I particularly like using the Alan Silverwood Country Pie Mould -
muldale.com/alan-silverwood-anodised-country-pie-mould-2kg, to give that authentic pie shape or why not try the Alan Silverwood Simple Simon Pie Moulds for a set of smaller individual pies -
muldale.com/alan-silverwood-simple-simon-pie-mould-set
As with Shortcrust Pastry, you can add a range of herbs to enhance the flavour of the pastry I like to add chopped sage to pork based pies or a dash of Dijon mustard is perfect for ham based pies.
Here’s a recipe for Hot Water Crust Pastry:
greatbritishchefs.com/how-to-cook/make-a-hot-water-crust-pastry
You just can’t beat the look, smell and taste of a homemade pie!
