Pies and pastry

Posted by Ceri Davies Wed, 28 Dec 2005 14:51:00 GMT

Had to go into work last Sunday morning in order to sort out some slight issues with the SAN. On the way home, I had a massive craving for fruit pie. One of the essential ingredients of pie is pastry of course and, as anyone who ever learnt to make pastry will confirm, that’s a worrying thing. My pastry making days are reaching the stage where I can reliably produce good pastry, so I’m writing down the steps here for my own benefit more than anything.

This recipe produces a slightly richer shortcrust than without the egg, but it’s easier. The basic credits go to Nigella Lawson, although I always use butter for my fats — she suggests a 50/50 split with lard. Given the choice, I use orange juice for the egg and lemon for the water, but there really is no difference.

Rich shortcrust

To line a deep 23cm dish, you will need:

• 250g of plain white flour
• 125g of unsalted butter
• One egg yolk
• 100ml of iced water (you will not need it all)
• 2 teaspoons of orange or lemon juice

Cut the butter into 1cm cubes and place in a bowl with the flour. Put this bowl into the freezer for 10 minutes.

Whip the egg yolk with one teaspoon of the juice. Add the other teaspoon of juice to the iced water.

Remove the flour from the freezer, and attack the mixture until it looks a little like oats. I use a combination of hand punching and a mixer for this.

Slowly add the iced water, a tablespoon at a time to the flour/butter mixture, and keep battering, with hands now. Just as you are about to give up on the sticky mess you’re holding, it will start to come together. Keep working the pastry until it is dry enough to be shaped into a coherent ball, than pop that ball back into the fridge for 20 minutes before using it. If you’re making a covered pie like me, split that ball now.

Blind baking

If you’re planning to make a pie with “wet” ingredients, then the pastry should be baked blind first. This basically means that you line the pie dish, cover the pastry with greaseproof paper and beans, and then bake it. I usually forget that I need to do this and end up using dried chick peas instead of beans, as we always seem to have some… Preheat the oven to 150ºC and bake for 10-15 minutes.

The filling

Last Sunday’s pie was a fruit pie - four Bramley apples that I picked up on the way home from work and some of the blackberries from the freezer.

Throw them in a pan with some butter and a few tablespoons of sugar (I used three - the right amount is completely subjective) until they’re a little soft and the blackberries have coloured everything. Pour the lot into your blind baked dish, cover with the remainder of the pastry if you’re going to and bake at 150ºC until it’s done - about 20 minutes or so.