In my opinion this is the easiest of the pastries to make. Especially if you have a food processor!
Although it can be purchased in the supermarket cheap enough, I tend not to buy shortcrust pastry because it is so easy.
To make shortcrust pastry, you need half fat to flour. This recipe makes the base and top for a standard flan/pie case.
Any leftover pastry can be made into jam tarts, frozen, or saved in the fridge for up to a week.
Ingredients
- 360g plain flour
- 180g fat (I used 90g baking marg block & 90g lard. You can use any white fat, like frytex or trex if you’re vegan and soya margarine)
- Pinch salt
- Ice cold water
Place the flour and salt into a bowl or your food mixer.
Chop up the fat to cubes and add into the flour.
Blitz it in the mixer until it resembles bread crumbs. If you don’t have a food processor, you will need to rub in the fat to flour using your fingertips.
Using a knife to cut and stir, slowly add a little water to the mix. Do this slowly until your mix forms a smooth dough. Be careful not to make it too wet as this will make it difficult to roll out and you will need a lot of extra flour.
Knead lightly on a floured surface to bring the pastry together.
Place into a freezer bag or wrap in cling film and pop in the fridge until you need it.
Here’s the video demo
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