Page 44 - YC Cooking School

The Art of Baking

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Seven tips for excellent shortcrust pastry

1. Weigh and measure
As a general rule, simple shortcrust pastry is usually two parts flour to one part
butter, for example, 100g flour to 50g butter.
2. Experiment with flavour
You can easily flavour simple shortcrust pastry by adding in herbs, spices or
citrus zest such as rosemary, cinnamon or lemon zest. You can also add in cocoa

powder and icing sugar or castor sugar for a sweetened version. A favourite to
add into a sweet shortcrust pastry is one teaspoon of lavender flowers.
3. No food processor required
If you don’t have a food processor, start by mixing your butter and flour together
with a palette knife, ‘cutting’ the butter into the flour until you have pea-sized
crumbs, and then continue by hand, rubbing the mixture gently between your
fingertips until you have a fairly fine crumb. Avoid handling the ingredients with
your hands as this will add extra warmth and soften the butter.
4. Give your pastry time to rest
Shortcrust pastry needs time to rest so that the glutens can relax. This gives you

a crisper and ‘shorter’ end result.
5. The secret of blind-baking
Blind-baking pastry cases ensures that your pastry base is cooked through and
nice and crisp and golden. Ceramic baking beans work a treat.
6. Give yourself time
Don’t work with pastry when you are in a rush. Relax and enjoy it.

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