Short Crust Pastry

METHOD

Tip:
This recipe is a lot easier if you have a food processor and it often makes for flakier pastry. However we didn’t have one and did it the old-fashioned way – by hand!

With a food processor:

• To make your pastry, cube your butter and then add it to your food processor along with the flour and salt. Pulse it a few times until you end up with breadcrumbs.
• Pour the crème fraiche into food processor and pulse again until a ball of dough forms.

By hand:

• Add flour and cubed butter to a bowl. Using your hands, rub the flour into the butter until you end up with breadcrumbs. Don’t overwork it with your hot little hands as this will melt the butter. You want flecks of butter in your dough for flakier pastry!
• Using a knife or metal spatula cut the Creme Friache through the breadcrumb mixture. Then use your hands to bring the dough together, being careful not to overwork it!

To Finish:

• Refrigerate your dough for 30 minutes or up to a few days if you don’t need it right now. Resting the dough allows the gluten in the flour to relax and the butter to firm up, resulting in an extra-flaky, melt-in-your-mouth crust.
• When ready to bake, roll the dough out until it is roughly 5 millimetres thick.
• Use for pies, galette’s, tarts or anything else that calls for a short-crust pastry.

Blind Baking:
Want to avoid a soggy bottomed pastry? Blind bake it first!
To blind-bake your tart shell, lay your pastry into your baking dish and lay some foil or baking paper on top. “Fill” the pie with with rice, lentils, baking weights or anything else you have on hand that will stop the pastry from rising while you bake it. Cook the pastry for 10 minutes with the rice filling, then take it out from the over and remove the baking paper. Pop it back into the oven for another 10 minutes and she’s ready for your filling of choice!