Your pastry rules

Pastry making is another form of therapy for me but it's a technique that scares some cooks. I love shortcrust pastry – it has been overtaken by puff pastry in recent times. The invention of the ready-made pastry sheet is without doubt fantastic but it's good to make sure you can still cut it.

Here are some basic rules you'll find helpful :

Shortcrust pastry is half fat to flour and then liquid to bind

Flour contains gluten – the more you work your pastry the more

you develop the gluten and if you want a pastry suitable for a patio

that's how to achieve it!

Your pastry should be crumbly – your ingredients

should be cold – it will help keep the pastry light and crumbly -

including your kitchen – first thing in the morning is best

When rolling out try not to use too much flour – you're adding

more flour to your pastry and distorting the recipe

If you have to work on a warm day in a warm kitchen

then roll it between two sheets of baking parchment

Rest your pastry for 30 minutes in the fridge before rolling it will also prevent shrinkage when baking

Rest your pastry again, covered, when rolled out and in its tins

Having inwardly digested all of the above there is one golden rule that should always be observed – baking is a science – be accurate with your weighing out. There's nothing wrong with using a food processor to make your pastry but I think you get a better result from using what comes naturally – your own hands.

Coming up next is the result of my “therapy session”!