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Shortcrust pastry

It is well known that making pastry dough by hand can give varied results with temperature being the main culprit. Basically the warmth of your hand softens the butter too quickly and this can be worse when the air temperature is warmer in summer. By-pass the problem by using a food processor. I used the attachment on my stick blender.
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Course: Main Course
Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients
  

Ingredients for three individual pies:
  • 220 g cups plain flour
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 115 g unsalted butter diced and chilled hard
  • 2 ½ tbsp plus 1 tbsp iced water

Equipment

  • The pie tins inside measurements was 10cm x 14cm with a depth of 2.5cm

Method
 

  1. Assemble your ingredients
  2. Place the flour and salt in your processor and give it a quick pulse to mix
  3. Add the cubed butter and intermittently pulse the processor for about 30 seconds.
  4. The mixture should look like a course breadcrumb
  5. Add the 2 ½ tbsp of chilled water. Process again for up to 10 seconds
  6. There should be some change, but it won’t look like a ball of dough yet.
  7. With your fingers see if the mixture comes together. If not add a little more iced water and give it a quick pulse.
  8. Turn the mixture out and quickly work into a ball
  9. Wrap the pastry in plastic wrap and chill for one hour

Notes

The addition of caster sugar with the flour and salt will give you a sweet shortcrust pastry.
Don’t be tempted to substitute margarine instead of butter.