Paste, Short Crust, Plain
Ingredients
Directions
Sift the flour, salt, and baking powder into a large bowl.
Rub in the lard until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
Add the water gradually and mix until a smooth paste forms.
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
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the structure that the pastry dough is built around.
- Lard
- Coats flour particles to keep the pastry short and tender by limiting gluten development.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas for a light rise and a more tender crumb.
- Water
- Hydrates the flour so the dough can be gathered into a paste.
The step that matters
Add the water gradually. Adding water slowly and mixing only until a smooth paste forms keeps the dough from becoming too wet or overworked. Too much water or too much mixing develops gluten, which makes the pastry tough instead of short.
“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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