Plain Short Pastry
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl.
Rub in the dripping until well combined.
Gradually mix in cold water to form a stiff paste.
Roll and use
Flour a board and rolling pin, then roll out the pastry to your desired thickness.
Use the pastry for plain meat pies or other dishes.
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
- Flour
- Forms the structure of the pastry once mixed with water.
- Dripping
- Rubbed into the flour to coat it, giving the pastry tenderness and a short, crumbly texture.
- Baking powder
- Produces gas that gives the pastry a little lift and lightness.
The step that matters
Rubbing in the dripping. Fat must be worked evenly into the flour so it coats the flour particles. Coated flour absorbs less water, which keeps gluten development limited and the pastry short and tender rather than tough.
“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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