Rich and crumbly, sweet and golden, shortcrust pastry is an honest, homely sort of pastry. It doesn’t get in the way of the filling, but supports it. It also happens to be the easiest pastry to make and the one that goes wrong the least often. In this quick tutorial we'll show you step-by-step how to make shortcrust pastry you can be proud of.
The rule of thumb for shortcrust is a ratio of around half fat to half flour. Unlike some other pastries you want your fat at room temperature for shortcrust. This is because it needs to be mixed with the flour quickly, and if it’s too cold that will take longer.
If your bowl and fingers start to glisten, however, you’ve probably overworked the butter. Try stopping and putting it back in the fridge to cool things down a bit; you may need to add some more flour.
Another danger is overworking the gluten in the flour by too much kneading. This will create a hard, tough pastry, rather than one that’s light and flaky. Too much water is a bad thing too...
What you’re after is a loose relationship between all these ingredients, where they’re combined enough to hold together, but can easily yield to the slightest pressure from a fork when cooked. The French call this pastry pâte brisée.
When adding water to pastry, always make sure that it’s as cold as possible. Let the tap run for a while, or put a small glass at the back of the fridge for 15 minutes before starting.
Around 600g of shortcrust is more than enough for an open pie or tart in a shallow 23cm tart tin. Remember, the deeper your dish the more pastry you’ll need.
It’s far, far better to have pastry left over than to find yourself short. Butter and flour are not that expensive after all. Any leftovers or offcuts can be frozen, or used to make something else.
The procedure opposite is for sweet shortcrust pastry for puds; if you want to make a savoury pie using shortcrust pastry simply omit sugar from the ingredients.
Step 01
Sieve the flour into a bowl and add the cut-up butter and lard.
Step 02
Rub together quickly. You don’t need a uniform texture or to rub away for hours, it should take no more than a few minutes. (What you’re doing here is coating the flour with the fat so as to slightly inhibit gluten development, which gives shortcrust its tender flaky texture). You actually want bigger lumps of butter present. These will help make the pastry tender and flaky.
Step 03
Add a tablespoon or two of the very cold water and gently combine. If it’s looking a little dry, add another.
Step 04
Bring together into a ball, squash it a little, and put in a sandwich bag in the fridge for at least an hour, two if you can spare it. It’ll be quite happy in the fridge for 48 hours, however. When you come to need it, just roll out swiftly and transfer to your pie dish.