Part 12: Master making your own pastry

All pastry recipes are perfectly adaptable for both sweet and savoury recipes. If you’re using the pastry for something sweet add 4 teaspoons of sugar to your flour. If you want to make your pastry gluten free, you can swap the flour for a gluten free alternative.

Making your own pastry can seem like a slow and intensive process; because of this people choose to opt for ready-made products instead. However, the skills required to make delicious homemade pastry are not that difficult to master. A basic knowledge of the techniques and understanding of the simple rules will provide you with the confidence to make excellent pastry of all varieties.

Once you have the right ingredients and a basic understanding of pastry making, the possibilities are endless. From shortcrust to filo, the results are completely different but equally delicious.

TYPES OF PASTRY

Shortcrust pastry

This is quite possibly the most versatile type of pastry as it can be used for both savoury and sweet dishes. Shortcrust pastry requires minimal handling in order to preserve its flakiness. Excessive handling will cause gluten strands to form and toughen up the dough.

• 125g (1¼ cups) plain flour

• 55g (¼ cup) vegan butter/margarine

• Pinch salt

• Some ice cold water (3-4 tbsp)

1 Sieve the flour into a mixing bowl.

2 Add the butter in small lumps and then add the salt.

3 Rub the butter into the flour until you get a breadcrumb consistency.

4 Add the water, a little at a time and stir with a knife until it comes together to form a dough.

5 Wrap the dough in cling film and store in the fridge for at least 20 minutes. This helps to re-chill the butter.

Filo pastry

This is an extremely thin type of pastry (usually the thickness of tissue paper) originally used in Greek, Eastern European and Middle Eastern recipes. Because filo is so thin and delicate, it tears easily and can dry out if not covered with a damp towel while it is being worked with. Filo is incredibly versatile and can be used to make baklava desserts as well as pies, spring rolls and samosas.