How To Make Shortcrust Pastry

Homemade shortcrust pastry is a staple recipe to have up your sleeves to make a quick quiche or pie. With just 5 ingredients, this pastry is crisp and tender when baked, and so much tastier than store bought pastry.

Making pastry from scratch is often viewed as a tricky thing to make – and it can be – but I have included many tips and tricks in this post to help you. Once you have mastered it, homemade pastry is actually an easy basic recipe that can be prepared from scratch in 10 minutes, with just 5 ingredients. It can be used for so many dishes, from quiches and rolls to tarts and pies.

Why we love this recipe

• This shortcrust pastry recipe can be used for both sweet and savoury recipes.
• It is a great recipe to turn leftovers into a meal, for example leftover chicken pie, or top stewed pears or other fruit with pastry for a simple fruit pie.
• Shortcrust pastry dough can be made by hand or in a food processor – although you don’t need to use a food processor to make pastry (but you can if you wish!). I personally I think it easier to make by hand than cleaning the food processor.
• This is enough pastry to make 1 pie: both the top and bottom pastry crust.

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Ingredient notes and substitutions

• Plain flour – all purpose flour.
• Butter – I have tested making pastry with butter and shortening and personally prefer using all butter for the best flavour and texture. Use cold butter, straight from the fridge. Cut it into cubes roughly 1cm / 0.40 Inches in size to make it easier to rub in to the flour. Don’t use margarine as it contains too much water.
• Egg yolk – adding an egg yolk to the pastry adds proteins which help the pastry to bind. It also adds flavour (and colour). I have tested recipes making pastry without egg and with a whole egg, and I have found using an egg yolk gives the most reliable results.
• Water – cold water, best from the fridge if possible.

How to make shortcrust pastry from scratch

1. Mix the flour and salt together in a large mixing bowl.
2. Add the small cubes of cold butter and rub in lightly with your fingertips until it resembles fine breadcrumbs (see the second image below for how it should look). Note: You can also do this in a food processor on pulse mode.

3. Whisk the egg yolk with the cold water in a small bowl.
4. Add the liquid to the flour and combine using a blunt knife/ butter knife. You may need to use your hands to bring it together at the end.

5. Form into a disc and wrap well in cling film / plastic wrap. Tip: you don’t want the air to get to it and dry it out. Place it in the fridge to chill for at least 30 minutes.
6. When you need to use the pastry, unwrap and place it on a lightly floured board or work surface. Roll with a lightly floured rolling pin and use per your recipe.

FAQ

My recipe tips

Tips for making pastry

• Use cold ingredients – and cold hands! – for the flakiest homemade pastry.
  • Why? If the butter is warm when you make the pastry, it can also make it tough. You want cold butter to be able to trap little pieces within the pastry, which will melt during baking and lead to light, flaky pastry. Using cold butter is what makes fluffy cheese scones light.
• Don’t make the pastry on a scorching hot summers day! It can end in disaster! If you know you want to bake with pastry, I suggest you make it in the cooler first thing in the morning and keep in the fridge until you need it.
• Handle the dough lightly.
  • Why? You want to minimise working the gluten cells which will lead to heavy and tough pastry.
• Resting time is important.
  • Why? It allows the fat to solidify again which means it’s more likely to hold its shape during baking, and it also allows the gluten strands to relax.

Tips for cooking pastry

• If leaving the pastry in the fridge overnight, bring it out of the fridge 30 minutes before you roll it to make it easier to roll.
• When rolling out pastry: sprinkle both the work surface and rolling pin lightly with flour (too much flour can lead to a tough pastry). Use an even pressure and gently roll the pastry. Occasionally flip the pastry over to ensure that it is not sticking to the work surface.
• If the pastry cracks on rolling or once in the tin, patch it up.
• Place some greaseproof paper over the pastry and fill with raw rice or baking beans – this will help prevent the bottom of the pastry from puffing up and the sides of pastry from falling in.
• When recipe asks to, ‘blind bake pastry’: Roll the pastry out and prepare with baking beans as above and bake in a preheated oven at 180˚C fan / 200˚C / 356˚F convection / 392˚F for around 15 minutes until the pastry is firm, then remove the greaseproof paper and beans and cook the pastry for another 5 -10 minutes until lightly golden.

Ideas for recipes to make with shortcrust pastry

I use this basic shortcrust pastry recipe to make both sweet and savoury dishes, from quiche like this courgette quiche, to topping a chicken pie. Make a minced beef pie with either savoury mince or Italian meat sauce. You can also use it to top stewed apples to make a simple apple pie.

Make ahead/storage

Fridge: Keep wrapped pastry dough in the fridge for up to 2 days.

Freeze: You can freeze unbaked pastry dough. Either form into a disc and wrap well before freezing, or line a baking tin / dish and wrap well. Freeze for up to a month. Defrost in the fridge before using.

Ideas for leftover pastry

• Jam tarts – roll out the scraps of pastry and cut into rounds, then press down in to a cupcake tin. Spoon in your favourite jam (don’t fill completely as the jam will bubble over) then bake in a preheated oven at 180˚C / 356˚F for around 15 minutes.
• Pastry shapes – you can make these savoury with sesame seeds or a sprinkling of parmesan, or sweet with a little brown sugar. Roll out the pastry scraps and then using cookie cutters cut into fun shapes. Bake at 180˚C / 356˚F for 5-10 minutes, and use to top soups, stews, or stewed pears or fruit compote.

Why not try…

You may also like these other easy basic recipes that you can use in various ways (and all are great for using leftovers!)