I do buy puff pastry but I never buy short crust pastry as it is easy and is reasonable cheap to make. It also does not have any palm oil in it as a lot of ready made ones from the supermarket have. I tend to make mine with half butter and half lard as I like the taste better than using margarine and the lard makes the pastry shorter and more crispy. Pastry can be used for lots of recipes and is good for stretching left overs by making pies, pasties and flans. It also adds calories to a meal. I will often double this recipe and batch bake a number of items so that I have meals made in the freezer. Pastry can be cooked in an air fryer as well as an oven, and will reheat well in an air fryer when already cooked. Some people make pastry in a food processor but I prefer to make it by hand as I can’t be bothered to wash all the attachments and pastry takes little effort.
Ingredients
Method
- Put the flour and salt into a bowl and add the cubed fat
- Rub the fat into the flour using the tips of your fingers. Try to add air to the mixture by lifting the flour as you mix.
- When the mixture looks like bread crumbs add two tablespoons of water and bring the mixture together. Add more water a bit at a time if needed. The mixture should not be sticky.
- Do not over work your pastry or else it will be heavy and tough when cooked.
- Wrap your pastry and put into the fridge for 15 minutes.
- Roll out the pastry and cut according to use.
[…] 8oz short crust pastry […]
[…] For my filling, I squeezed the middle out of a pack of Aldi Cumberland sausages as it was cheaper than buying sausage meat, and was already seasoned. Grating some apple into it gave it some extra taste. When using sausage meat I add grated onion, apple, and dried herbs. The pastry for the wreath was made with 8oz of plain flour and 2oz of lard and 2oz butter which is 8oz short crust pastry […]
[…] Using the tips of your fingers or a mixer, make the pastry. […]