It was, actually, a conversation with my mother about making pastry that decided me into the life of a chef. Over a flour dusty bench, as my mother rolled out her pastry for quiche to take to a work lunch the next day, she told me about the surprise of her work colleagues at discovering she could make her own pastry, make her own quiche, & would be bringing to their party not chips or biscuits or some plastic wrap wonder product from the supermarket bakery section but flans made by her own hand. Frankly, I didn't believe her at first. it just goes to show the things we take for granted...this, afterall, was a woman who baked every loaf of bread we ate when I was a child, who could whip up a quiche lorraine in 45 minutes from scratch & did so, regularly, & who, without labouring the point, instilled in her children a love of good healthy eating not as a luxury but as a simple given. In a nutshell, I'll open a packet if I absolutely have to, but given the option I'll make my own every time.
on ingredients:
- use a soft flour as for cakes, rather than a stronger bread flour
- my mother used to add a pinch of baking powder, so when I'm making it for me I do too
- for the fat, it's gotta be butter butter butter - cos it butters better
- for the liquid, use water, drop an ice cube in it so it's cold as
- & if it's for something sweet, I usually sieve in a spoonful of icing sugar
on method, the rubbing-in stage:
-this is important, you dont want to melt the butter, or over work it,
-my grandmother would say not to use anything sharper than your elbows!
-for me, with always warm hands, I have to avoid using the flat of my hands or butter will melt
-having said all that, if you're using a food processor, pulse a few times til it's right
on method, the mixing stage:
-don't over work the mix, just form a loose dough that holds together & nothing more
-kneading the dough, like bread, forms gluten & makes for a pastry that is chewy & tough
-you want just enough liquid that the dough is almost crumbly, but not sticky
on method, the blind-baking stage:
-for the beans, any pulse is fine. kidney beans or chic peas, split peas or turtle beans.
-I use mung beans, mainly cos I opened the pantry one day, saw them there & thought, I'll never ever use them for anything else, they'll be perfect for blind-baking
-keep the beans after use, re use them again & again. Once used, they're good for nothing else so store in a jar & label 'blind baking beans'
220g flour, sifted
150g butter, cold & cut into cubes
pinch salt
pinch baking powder
an egg
3 or 4 teaspoons iced water
method:
*preheat yr oven to 200
*rub in you flour & butter. use your finger tips, pinch & lift, pinch & lift, til what you have resembles breadcrumbs.
*combine the liquids & make a well in the flour, add all at once & form a soft dough
*form the dough into a roll, wrap with glad wrap, rest in the fridge for 1/2 hr
*roll out what you need, cut into shape of tin you'll be using, line greased tins
*now you need to blind bake the pastry cases
*line the pastry with cut out baking paper & fill these paper cups with the blind-baking beans
*bake for 10 minutes (keep an eye on it)
*remove from oven, remove paper & beans, return pastry to oven for 5 mins (keep an eye on it)
>done! finito!
I like to keep a few muffin sized pastry cases on hand in an air-tight container. They are easy to fill with whatever you like - a little sweetcorn & red onion bound by a quick-fire cheese sauce with parsley from the garden, say, or last night's left over lamb roast, cut up & bound with some peas & gravy, mashed potato piped on top works well for an impromptu pie. Or else fresh fruit, strawberries, with custard or whipped cream & icing sugar on top (sara - that's for you) a sprig of mint finish it off, or even better some of last night's uneaten (yea right!) creme brulee, sprinkled with sugar & scorched with the blow torch...or not. endless possibilities...
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