According to Oxford Dictionary pastry define as a dough of flour, fat, and water, used as a base and covering in baked

dishes such as pies and also an item of food consisting of sweet pastry with a cream, jam, or fruit filling

Basic pastry

all-purpose flour

salt

cold water

vegetable shortening

a very light pastry made with eggs, used for clairs, etc. Choux Pastry was invented in France by Antonin Carme towards the end of the 18th Century. It is famous for being used in the confection of

Eclairs,Choux buns and Profiteroles. Many consider it to be one of the most difficult pastries to
make. The normal three ingredients are added to the dough in a different order and supplemented with eggs; the resulting paste is then beaten instead of rolled prior to pre-cooking then baking when it forms hollow shells of light pastry that can be filled with various ingredients.

a rich puff pastry filled with apple, almond paste, icing, etc.

a rich pastry in the form of very thin layers, used for making pies, small cakes, etc. sometimes separated into two sub types; flaky and puff pastry, can be used for pies but is probably best known for its use in French croissants, German Apple Strudel and Danish Pastries. Indian cookery uses a pastry similar to flaky pastry to produce Samosas which are deep fried instead of oven baked.

a rich pastry made esp. from puff pastry and filled with cream, fruit, etc.

a dough rolled in thin layers incorporating fat to make a rich flaky pastry for pies, rich pastries, etc. It is also a very light, thick but melting pastry that is made using butter and is prepared by rolling the pastry into thin sheets before being buttered, folded and re-rolled and repeating this process many times. This can often produce up to 240 layers. The expanding air between the layers is what makes it puff up and gives it its traditional lightness of texture.

a rich flaky pastry made with butter and used for pie-crusts, flans

A basic type of pastry that is made with half the quantity of fat to flour, and has a crisp but crumbly texture, short pastry .The Short crust Pastry Recipe which dates back to the medieval period is generally used for pies, pasties and tarts. This type of pastry traditionally uses either lard or butter as the fat ingredient producing a crisp but light, crumbly pastry. The savoury version of short crust pastry is most famously used in Cornish Pasties from England and Quiche Lorraine from France. The Chinese use their own version of short crust pastry to create Moon Cakes. The sweet version of short crust pastry, sometimes called sweet crust pastry, is used for the traditional English Apple pie.

uses pure beef fat instead of butter or margarine is used in traditional English Puddings such as the savoury Steak and Kidney Pudding or the sweet

Treacle Pudding. Puddings are made using crumbled, pure beef fat (suet)
and cooked in a traditional pudding basin which is placed in a saucepan of boiling water instead of in the oven. Firm but not hard; suet pastry can be used for fillings with sauces which may be unsuitable for other types of pastry

generally considered to be the original precursor of all pastry. It is a very thin, delicate, stretched pastry that is used by layering many sheets of the pastry together and it is often brushed with butter before cooking or soaked in a honey mixture for desserts. Invented in the Mediterranean countries it is used in such traditional dishes as the sweet Greek Baklova and savoury Bulgarian Banitsa. Phyllo pastry has been traced back to the Ancient Egyptians, Romans and Greeks who used it to make small pies and pasties containing birds, eggs, meat and fruit.

type of pastry often used for the base of a tart or pie. It does not puff up during baking because it usually contains no leavening agent. Short crust pastry can be used to make both sweet and savoury pies such as apple pie, quiche, lemon meringue or chicken pie. Short crust pastry is made with twice the amount of flour to fat and the texture of the pastry largely depends on which type of fat is used and how it is integrated into the flour.

A good pastry requires very little handling indeed, which sometimes

can be quite tricky.

it impossible to make short crust pastry in a food processor alone,

as you can't gauge how much water is needed without feeling the
pastry. But it is possible to process the flour and fat and the advantage is that you can use cold fat straight out of the fridge. Be careful not to over-process just 1-2 minutes on a low speed is enough. Then tip it into a bowl and add water as described above.

Recipe for basic short crust pastry (for a 9 inch pastry case)
Ingredients 8 oz (225g) of plain flour 4 oz (115g) of butter or 2 oz (55g) each of butter and lard 3 - 4 tbsp of ice cold water pinch of salt

Method 1.Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl, lifting the sieve high above the bowl. 2.Cut the chilled fat into small pieces and add to the flour.

3.Using a knife, cut the butter and work it into the flour.
4.Use your fingertips to rub the fat into the flour until a breadcrumb like mixture is obtained. 5.Sprinkle the water, 1 tbsp at a time, evenly over the flour and fat mixture. 6.Begin to bind all of the ingredients together using a round-bladed knife. 7.As the mixture starts to come together, finish off by using your hands, until all the mixture has been incorporated and a round ball of dough has been formed. 8.Wrap the dough in cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes. 9.Remove the dough from the fridge, allow to warm up and knead gently on a lightly floured clean surface. 10.Roll out to desired thickness.

Golden Rules for Making Pastry

1.There is an old saying that cold hands make good pastry. The first golden rule of making short crust pastry is keep the ingredients, the bowl and the hands as cool as possible. 1.In the US, mix equal quantities of all-purpose flour with cake flour to create a lighter pastry. 2.Sieve the flour to add extra air and lightness to the pastry. 3.Work quickly, this keeps the pastry cool and prevents the gluten in the flour developing too quickly which will make the pastry too elastic and difficult to roll, cause shrinkage, and create a tough end result. 1.Handle as little as possible. Too much handling will make the fat soft and the pastry greasy. 2.Always wrap the pastry dough in saran wrap/cling film and chill for at least 30 minutes if possible. 3.Chill again after rolling out to prevent shrinkage in the oven. 4.Roll pastry on a cool surface (a marble slab is perfect), dusted with flour. 5.Lightly dust the rolling pin also with flour to prevent sticking. 6.For a crisp base on tarts and pies always cook on a preheated baking sheet in the oven.

1. Keep everything you use as cold as possible.

You need to ensure that the butter used in making your pasty does not melt. This will ensure that your pastry end sup soft and crumbly. Everything that you need to use, your rolling pin, your chopping board, the ingredients, your mixing bowl, stick everything in the fridge for an hour or so to ensure its ice cold. It also helps to run your hands in cold water for a few seconds too. Dry them off before handling the pastry though or you will mess up your ratios. Dab your hands with a piece of kitchen roll to do thisDO NOT RUB YOUR HANDS. The friction will make your hands heat up rapidly and destroy any benefit you gained from the cold water If you can open a window to cool down the room, do so.

2. Use regular flour. Make sure that youre using plain old regular flower. Not self raising, not bread flour just plain old standard flour. When you are using your flour make sure you sieve it and leave out any lumps. This will help make sure your pasty is nice and even.

3. Break up your ingredient thoroughly.

Most pastry recipes require that you mix your lard, margarine and flour before adding water. When you do this, do it thoroughly. Start by hacking at all the large lumps with a cold (see point one) butter knife. Keep doing this until the lumps are too small for this to be effective. Then cool down your hands and get your fingers in there! Quickly pinch the lumps to break them up, ensuring that their contact with your skin is kept to a minimum so as to minimize heat transfer . Keep doing this until the power is quite fine. This should not take longer than about a minute.

4. How to tell if you have the right amount of water.

When you add your water, do it to the rate of about one tablespoon to 50 grams of butter. If youve added too much, then the pastry ball will be sticky and gooey. Add a little more flour to counteract this. If youve not added enough then it then ball will be dry and crumbly. If youve got the right amount of water, the pastry ball will be soft, firm, not sticky, and dry to the touch.

It should also collect all the ingredients from around the bowl without effort.

5. Handle the pastry as little as possible.

Once the water has been added to the pastry mix, make haste, not speed! Work quickly to mix the ingredient together. Do this by pressing them together with your finger tips, avoid contact with the rest of your hands, and keep your digits cold! Once you have moulded the pastry mix into a ball and it feels as described above, wrap it in cling film and leave it in the fridge for at least half an hour. This is called resting.

6. DO NOT leave out resting. Its all too easy to wonder how leaving the pastry in the fridge for half an hour can improve the final product, but trust me it works. After handling and mixing, it allows the pastry mix to drop back down in temperature before you finally cook it. This will help make your final

product nice and flaky.

7. Putting the pastry in the tray.

To do this, use the rolling pin to carry the pastry over on to the dish. This is achieved by rolling the rolling pin over to the edge of the pastry and then rolling it back across the pastry again. If you got the right amount of water in the recipe, then the dough should adhere lightly to the pin. You can then pick it up and lay it over the dish before rolling the pin slowly in the opposite direction to gently dislodge the pastry.

How to get the best results when working with short crust pastry

1. For best results when rolling out short crust pastry use a large, clean dry area of the work

surface and lightly dust it with plain flour.

2. Place pastry dough on surface and

lightly dust it and the rolling pin with flour.

3. Roll pastry firmly, always rolling away from you, give the dough two to three rolls.

4. Then turn the dough a quarter turn.

5. Dust again if necessary and continue rolling out, frequently turning the pastry so it is not always rolled in the same direction as this causes shrinkage.

6. When the pastry has increased in size, pick it up to turn by rolling it round the rolling pin.

7. Lift the pin with the pastry around it carefully and turn it to lay out and continue rolling. Again this is done to prevent the pastry from stretching as you lift it which in turn would result in shrinkage in baking. Short crust pastry should be rolled out to approximately 3mm to 5mm depth.

1.Roll out the pastry as described in the 'Best results for rolling out Short crust Pastry pages. Measure tin over rolled out pastry to ensure you will have enough to line the insides of the tin with a little excess to make it easier to work.

2. Lift up pastry around rolling pin as described in 'Rolling out short crust pastry pages' , and gently unroll over flan tin, starting with the edge nearest to you.

3. Gently ease the pastry into the tin, pressing it down the sides onto the base.

4. Once you have pushed it in all the way round, go around again to press well down on to base , so that there is almost a 'pleat' of pastry at base of sides, and

5. Fold back excess pastry so that it hangs over the sides of the tin.

press into the flutes.

6. To cut off the excess pastry roll the pin firmly over the top of the tin in both directions.

7. Gently pull away excess pastry

Put the margarine and vegetable fat in a mixing bowl and pour in the flour.

Mix it all together with hands until have a crumbly texture.

Add 3 tablespoons of water to the pastry and mix it in with a knife. Then use your hands to mould the pastry mix into a ball

Roll the pastry out with a rolling pin so that it is large enough to line the base and sides of the pie dish.

lightly roll 50% or so of the flattened pastry over the rolling pin. Then support the rest with your hand and transfer it to top of the dish.

Gently ease into the base of the dish and firm it round the sides.

Then trim off the excess pastry from the top. Turn oven on now so that it's pre-heated ready to cook later on. Heat settings are 220C /425F/ Gas Mark 7.

peel the cooking apples, cut them into quarters and then slice them

Place the apple slices into the pie bowl on top of the base pastry.

Take the remaining third of the pastry and roll it out with the rolling pin into a circle that is a little bit bigger than the top of the dish Transfer the rolled out pastry to the top of the pie using the rolling pin in the same way described for the base pastry.

Using both hands, 'crimp' the pastry round the edge of the pie to obtain an attractive finish - enlarge photos 2 and 3 to see more clearly how we did it.

Lightly brush the top with a little milk to give it a light brown colour when cooked.

Put the apple pie in the pre-heated oven (220C / 425F / Gas Mark 7) and leave it cooking at that temperature for 10 minutes. Then turn down the heat to 190C / 375F / Gas Mark 5 and cook for a further 40 minutes.

Serve hot or cold with ice cream, cream or custard.

INGREDIENTS Chicken Pie recipe 500g chicken breast cubed 100g Ham Pepper 2 tablespoons plain flour 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1 large leek, chopped 1 onion chopped 37g melted butter 1/4 cup chicken stock

INGREDIENTS FOR SHORTCRUST PASTRY Imperial 2 oz margarine (e.g. Stork) 2 oz Refined vegetable fat/lard (e.g. Cookeen) 8 oz Plain flour 3 tablespoons of water

COOKING EQUIPMENT 1 small pan to melt the butter.

Milk for glazing 1/4 cup single cream

Casserole dish (can be the same one as above) Rolling pin

Preheat the oven to 200C (400F/Gas 6) Melt the butter in a saucepan. Don't heat it for too long otherwise it will burn and be of no use. Grease a shallow ovenproof dish with the melted butter.

Cut the chicken into about half inch cubes and the ham into 1cm (1/2in) strips. Put the pepper, flour and nutmeg into a plastic bag put in the diced chicken and give it a good shake so each piece of chicken is well coated.

Place half the leek and onions in layers over the bottom of the casserole dish.

Top off with half the chicken and ham pieces. Repeat the layers using the remaining onions, leeks, chicken and ham.

Drizzle the remaining melted butter over the mixture and pour on the stock.

Put the margarine and vegetable fat in a mixing bowl and pour in the flour. The yellow 'bricks' in the picture are margarine, the white bricks are the vegetable fat.

Mix it all together with your hands until you have a crumbly texture.

Add 3 tablespoons of water to the pastry and mix it in with a knife. Then use your hands to mould the pastry mix into a ball.

Remove the cling film and flatten the pastry slightly with your hands.

Roll out the pastry to fit and dampen the edges

of the dish with a little water, this will allow the

pastry to stick to the side. Place the pastry on top of the mixture, and decorate the edges

Cut three deep slits in the top of the pie, this will

allow the steam to escape, it also provides an

entrance to pour in the cream at the end of the cooking time. Glaze the pie with a little milk, this will create a lovely

colour when cooked.

Bake for one hour or until the pastry is golden brown and the chicken is cooked. Remove from the oven and allow to stand for 5 minutes, pour the cream in through the slots on the top and leave to stand for another 10 minutes, before serving with delicious vegetables of your choice.

here you have the tastiest chicken and ham pie you've ever tasted, served with some fresh vegetables, roast potatoes and a little chicken gravy.

enjoy!

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