Pastry
Shortcrust Pastry
PastryOrigin: United Kingdom
Classic shortcrust pastry for sweet and savoury pies and tarts. Cold butter is rubbed into flour, then bound with iced water so the dough stays tender and flaky when baked. This batch makes enough for a deep 23 cm double-crust pie or two single crusts.
Prep
20 min
Cook
—
Total time
20 min
Portions
1
Total weight
609 g
Per portion
609 g
Ingredients
Method
Make the dough
- Cut the butter into small cubes and chill until very cold. Put the flour and salt in a large bowl.
- Rub the butter into the flour with fingertips until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs with a few pea-sized pieces of butter left.
- Sprinkle over most of the ice-cold water and mix with a knife until the dough just starts to clump. Add the remaining water only if needed — stop as soon as it holds when pressed.
- Tip onto a cool surface, press gently into a disc (do not knead hard), wrap, and chill for at least 30 minutes before rolling.
Blind-bake (optional)
- Roll to about 3 mm thick, line a tin, chill 15 minutes, line with paper and baking weights.
- Bake at 190°C (170°C fan) for 15 minutes, remove weights, then bake 5–10 minutes more until pale gold.
Serving
Use chilled for lining pie and tart tins. Blind-bake when the filling is wet or no-bake.
Storage
Wrap tightly and refrigerate up to 2 days, or freeze discs for up to 1 month. Thaw in the fridge before rolling.