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Making Amazing Pastry Isn’t Difficult

Many of us are intimidated by the thought of making pastry because we think it’s too demanding. We’re concerned it won’t work out and so we avoid it.

For sure, there are all kinds of ways to spoil a pastry recipe. It can be too wet, too dry, too sticky. Maybe it gets wrapped around your rolling pin, or won’t roll out at all. It breaks when you try to move it to the pie tin. There are numerous things that can go wrong.

It simply doesn’t need to be that difficult. With just a few pointers, you can produce a baking tips every time.

We all need to know certain things about how to make and handle pastry dough. You can find no end of recipes for all kinds of pastry online, in cookbooks, in magazines and I’m sure you get lots of suggestions from friends as well.

Don’t make things tougher than they need to be. Personally, I believe there are just a few simple rules for handling pastry and only one perfect pastry recipe.

Use a Manual Pastry Blender
I like to use a basic hand pastry blender to cut the lard (that’s right – lard!) into the flour. There are other ways, like using two knives. Other recipes will suggest “rubbing” the lard in using your hands. For achieving consistent results, I find that an inexpensive, basic pastry blender does the best job.

Why You Should Use Lard
Don’t be deluded into thinking that you can actually make a low-fat, low-calorie pastry. Even though some recipes out there suggest vegetable shortening, not lard, that doesn’t mean it’s diet-friendly. Sorry – pastry is not diet friendly. But it is really, really tasty! And the perfect pastry recipe I know of uses lard.

Using Both Hands
Once everything is nicely mixed together, it’s time to use our hands. You’ll find that perfect pastry dough just “feels” right. Sure it can be messy. But just think about the wonderful, flaky pastry crust you’re going to get.

Chill a Little Bit
I like to make my pastry a little on the sticky side to start with. That gives me the opportunity to add more flour when I’m rolling it out. When at room temperature, a stickier dough can be a bit more difficult to work with. Now that you’ve get a well mixed, slightly sticky dough, just cover it with plastic wrap and let it chill in your fridge for an hour or so before rolling it out. You’ll discover that the chilled pastry dough is much easier to work with.

Visit Victoria House Bakery for more baking tips and for the flakiest pastry recipe EVER.
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