Rich short crust pastry
Ingredients
150g plain flour
75g unsalted butter
50g icing sugar
1 egg yolk
Method
· Put 150g plain flour and 75g unsalted butter in a bowl and rub together with your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs.
· Mix in 50g icing sugar and a pinch of salt followed by 1 egg yolk. If the pastry feels too dry to form a dough, add 1 tbsp water.
· Shape the dough into a ball, flatten it out into a disc, wrap it in cling film, then chill for at least 30 mins before using in your recipes.
Rough Puff Pastry recipe
Ingredients
250g strong plain flour
1 tsp fine sea salt
250g butter, at room temperature, but not soft
150ml cold water (approx)
Method
· Sift 250g strong plain flour and 1 tsp fine sea salt into a large bowl. Roughly break 250g butter into small chunks, add them to the bowl and rub them in loosely. You need to see bits of butter.
· Make a well in the bowl and pour in about two-thirds of 150ml cold water, mixing until you have a firm rough dough adding extra water if needed.
· Cover with cling film and leave to rest for 20 mins in the fridge.
· Turn out onto a lightly floured board, knead gently and form into a smooth rectangle.
· Roll the dough in one direction only, until 3 times the width, about 20 x 50cm. Keep edges straight and even. Don't overwork the butter streaks; you should have a marbled effect.
· Fold the top third down to the centre, then the bottom third up and over that. Give the dough a quarter turn (to the left or right) and roll out again to three times the length.
· Fold as before, cover with cling film and chill for at least 20 mins before rolling to use.
Apple Tart recipe
Ingredients
225g Plain Flour
125g Butter or Margarine
150ml Cold Water (approx)
4 large Cooking Apples, peeled, cored and sliced
Sugar, to sweeten apples
Method
Preheat oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas 6.
Place butter/margarine in freezer for about 15 minutes to harden.
Sieve flour into a bowl.
Cut hard butter/margarine into the flour. You may need a little flour on your fingers for this.
Using a knife, mix grated butter/margarine into flour.
Add sufficient water and mix to a soft dough with the knife.
Turn onto a floured board and knead lightly.
Roll out half the pastry to the size of an oven proof plate.
Arrange apples on the pastry.
Sprinkle with sugar to sweeten.
Roll remaining pastry to cover the apples.
Dampen edge of base pastry with cold water to seal.
Press top pastry over apples to make the tart. Seal the edges by using the back of a knife to form a crust. Then cut at 1"/3cm intervals to form a scalloped edge.
Put a cut on top of pastry to allow steam to escape and bake for 25-35 minutes approx.
Cornish Pasties
Pastry
Ingredients
250g Flour
125g Butter
½ teaspoon of salt
Cold water to mix
Method
Sieve the flour and salt into the mixing bowl then add the cut up fat.
Rub the fat lightly into the flour using the finger tips, until no lumps remain visible
Add the cold water a little at the time, mixing it carefully with a broad bladed knife.
Use the finger tips for the last stage of mixing. The dough should be smooth and firm.
Filling
Ingredients
170g diced raw potato
340g lean raw steak
1 small chopped onion
Salt and pepper
30g cold water
450g Short crust pastry
Egg yolk or milk
Method
Mix the potatoes, cut-up meat, onion seasoning and water. Roll pastry thinly and cut rounds the size of a saucer.
Put one spoon of meat mixture on each round, damp the edges of pastry, press well together and flute with fingers.
Stand pastries upright on a baking sheet, brush over with egg yolk or milk and bake in moderately hot oven 180 degrees centigrade till the pastry turns brown then reduce to 160 degrees C and cook until the meat is tender for about 1 hour.