RULES FOR A GOOD PASTRY

 

Pies and pastries are made up of chicken pie, turkey pie, meat pie, fish pie, mushroom pie, etc. For us to be able to make a good one, their are basic rules we need to follow: 

1. keep ingredients and utensils as cool as possible.

2. Use a large bowl rather than a small basin for short crust pastry so that you will have enough air space.

3. Sieve the flour with salt before mixing. This lightens the dough.

4. When rubbing fat into the flour, lift hands as much as possible so that air is introduced into the dough.

5. Rub in fat only with forefingers and thumb. Too much pressure when rubbing in fat will make pastry too sticky.

6. It is always better to use plain flour for all pastry. A lot of people prefer self-rising flour for short pastry, especially when the proportion of fat is decreased. If you are successful with self-rising flour, do not change . For richer pastry, it is wise to use plain flour.

7. The consistency of the dough is very important. Be careful not to make it too wet, as this will produce a hard pastry. If the dough is too dry, it will be difficult to roll out. Generally speaking, the dough is in the right texture when it rolls into large ball with very little handling. Short crust pastry needs an average of 2-3 table spoon water to each 8oz of flour.

8. Pastry should be baked quickly, correct temperatures are given in their various recipes.

9. When you very hard fat ( perhaps straight from the fridge) which is almost impossible to rub into flour, we should grate the fat with a grater or soften it by working with knife. When making a flan pastry, the fat can slightly be warmed or creamed.

10. When rolling out your pastry, remember not to roll pin backwards and forwards, it should be rolled on one way only, which is straight ahead.

11. When rolling the pastry, lift the rolling pin from time to time. This helps to keep the dough light.

I believe that if we are able to keep to the above basic baking rules, our pastries would be coming out better.