Artisan Short Pastry
Ingredients
Directions
In a bowl, combine the flour and salt.
Rub in the dripping until the mixture resembles fine bread crumbs.
Gradually mix in cold water to form a stiff paste.
Roll out to the desired size and it's 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
- Coomb's flour
- Provides the structure that holds the pastry together once water is added.
- Dripping
- Coats flour particles with fat, keeping the pastry short and tender rather than tough.
The step that matters
Rub in the dripping until fine crumbs form. If the fat is not rubbed in finely, pieces stay large and the pastry turns greasy or uneven. Fat coating the flour limits gluten development, so the pastry stays crumbly 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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