Plain Pastry for Pies
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the dough
Add salt to the flour.
Cut the lard into the flour using a knife.
Moisten with enough ice water to make a moderately stiff dough.
Pat the dough together with the knife blade; handle as little as possible.
Laminate and chill
Roll out the dough, spread with butter, fold, and roll again.
For the top crust, roll out, butter, and fold three times.
Refrigerate until ready to use.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Lard
- Coats flour particles to keep the dough tender and flaky by limiting gluten formation.
- Flour
- Forms the structure of the dough once moistened and worked.
- Ice water
- Hydrates the flour to bind the dough while keeping the fat cold and solid.
The step that matters
Handling the dough as little as possible. Overworking develops gluten, making the crust tough instead of tender. Cold fat kept in solid pieces melts during baking and creates flaky layers, so the dough should be patted together gently and kept cool.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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