3 kinds of short crust pastry

You have in this world a number of pastry recipes and you find that people find one that works and stick to it. I have in my time found that it is the safe things that work are normally the best. And if you want a good result every time try to remember a few things.

Handel as little as you can to start with you melt the fat, try and cut the fat up as small as you can its easier to work with. If the fat starts to melt that can make the pastry tough. Also, make sure that the fat is cool but not to hard, that makes the job so much harder. . Be as light as you can when making any pastry. To heavy handed and you get a heavy pastry. Measure every thing and do not geese or think that that is close enough or you will end up with a disaster. Sift all your flour as well, that will get rid of any lumps that you might end up with.

So the basic short crust pastry
170g or 60z of plain flour
Pinch of salt (only if your butter is unsalted)
30g or 1oz of lard
55g or 2oz of unsalted butter
Very cold water.

Sift your flour in to a bowl; rub the fats in to the flour. Start with a knife or a fork if you have to them move to your hands. This stops the fat from sticking to your fingers and helps in the mixing. Mix until you get something that looks like breadcrumbs. Add a little water; about two-table spoon should do it. If you are me you add them one at a time just to make sure , if you need a little more water just add it but two should do it . Do not get it to damp, it is had to say when it is finished, but you do not want it to wet or to dry. The crumblier and harder the pastry is to handle the shorter and lighter result. Wrap this in cling film then pop it in the fridge to chill for about 30minuets before you roll it out. After rolling, allow it to relax before baking.

Rich short crust pastry
170g or 6oz of plain flour.
A pinch of salt (only if your butter is unsalted)
10g or 3 and a half oz of butter.
One egg yolk
Very cold water.
Do every thing as before but when you add the water add the egg yolk first and then what water you need after that. This time all depending on the size of egg will depend on the amount of water. Then treat the same as the pastry above.

If you want to sweeten the pastry then add a little caster sugar to the mix and that will give it the necessary sweet lift that it requires. For rolling out just dust and roll out in the way, you would a normal pastry. Also you can use milk instead of water if you like. This changes the nature of the pastry making it a little richer because of the fat in the milk.

Now if you want you can make what the French call pate sucree. This is a form of short crust that has had all the water removed from the recipe and replace with egg yokes or fat, normally butter. Best to make this for a desert or some thing special.

Pate Sucree
170g or 60z of plain flour
A pinch of salt (only if your butter is unsalted)
85g or 3oz butter softened.
3 egg yokes
85g or3oz caster sugar
2 drops of vanilla essence.

Sift the flour in to a pile on a counter top and then make a well in the middle. Place in the well in the middle the butter and on that the sugar and the egg and vanilla essence. Mix all the sugar butter and egg together and then work in the flour last of all from the edge. You will get a very soft past that you will need to knead until you get a smooth pastry. Then rap it and pop it in the fridge for a good 30 minuets. This pastry you will have to remove from the fridge a little bit before you roll it out.