Component/Breads and Pastries

Shortcrust Pastry

Time: 40 min Yields: round (25cm, and extra) Cost: $2.18 per round Difficulty: 6/10

Taken from Stephanie Alexander. This recipe can be used for sweet and savoury tarts. To best results, keep everything, you, the benchtop, the water etc, cold. It is very important to know the steps in advance because time is important.

Ingredients

  • Butter 135 grams
  • Plain flour 180 grams
  • Salt a pinch
  • Water 3 tbsp

Steps

  1. Sieve flour and salt onto the workbench and throw in chopped butter
  2. Push flour into butter with fingertips
  3. Roll into a heap with a well in the centre and add water
  4. Continue mixing with fingertips, then gather into a head and push it away from you
  5. Mix until all unmixed chunks of butter are gone, as they will leave pastry holes
  6. Wrap in clingwrap and chill in fridge.