Shortcrust pastry?

Question

What's a surefire good recipe to get good crumbly shortcrust pastry for a pie base? I need exact details and not just ingredients, because most of mine attempts come out melting in the oven and too crumbly.

Answer 1

Foolproof All-Butter Pastry


If preparing the pastry in a warm kitchen, refrigerating all of the ingredients for 30 minutes before preparing the recipe will help to keep the dough cool during preparation. Disks of dough wrapped tightly in plastic wrap can be frozen for up to a month; before rolling the dough, thaw it in the refrigerator and then let it soften at room temperature for about 15 minutes. Click here for a media demonstration showing how to roll out pastry dough.

Makes one 9-inch double-crust pie shell 2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (12 1/2 ounces), plus additional flour for work surface
1 teaspoon table salt
1 tablespoon sugar
16 tablespoons unsalted butter (2 sticks), cold, cut into 1/2-inch cubes and frozen for 10 minutes
3 tablespoons sour cream
1/3 cup ice water




1. Process flour, salt, and sugar together in food processor until combined, about 3 seconds. Add butter and pulse until butter is size of large peas, about ten 1-second pulses.

2. Using fork, mix sour cream and 1/3 cup ice water in small bowl until combined. Add half of sour cream mixture to flour mixture; pulse for three 1-second pulses. Repeat with remaining sour cream mixture. Pinch dough with fingers; if dough is floury, dry, and does not hold together, add 1 to 2 tablespoons ice water and process until dough forms large clumps and no dry flour remains, three to five 1-second pulses.

3. Turn dough out onto work surface. Divide dough into 2 balls and flatten each into 4-inch disk; wrap each disk in plastic and refrigerate until firm but not hard, 1 to 2 hours, before rolling. (Dough can be refrigerated for up to 24 hours. Let thoroughly chilled dough stand at room temperature for 15 minutes before rolling.)

Answer 2

It's not ingredients as much as pei crust is technique.

Use a Food Processor to cut in butter or shortening. DO NOT cut it in too fine. You want to be able to see lumps of fat. Overmixing will make a tough, crumbly crust.

Do not knead! This is what you do to bread, to make the flour's gluten develop. You do not want gluten in a pie crust, or it will be tough. Just dump the dough out of yoru bowl onto a flat surface (preferably marble, so it's cold) and just quickly form together into a flat, thick mass. Wrap in plastic and fridge.

Use cold ingredients. Cold butter/short, cold (iced) wter, and chill dough after making, before rolling out.

Chill dough again after rollign it out and fitting in your pie pan.

All that said, here is my fave recipe. I've used it for years! :D


** Pate Brisee **

2½ cups all purpose flour
½ tsp + dash salt
1½ sticks cold unsalted butter, in bits
4 Tbsp. cold shortening
Ice water

In large bowl, combine flour and salt. Cut in butter and shortening until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Add 2 Tbsp. Ice water and stir; add more water sparingly as necessary to form dough into a ball. Dust with flour and chill, wrapped in wax paper or plastic wrap, for 1 hour. Makes enough for one double crust pie or 2 single crusts.

--Gourmet, April 1991

Answer 3

jiffy has all the ingredients in a box except the water. try it

Answer 4

This recipe comes from Alton Brown's show Good Eats, Episode I, Pie on the Food Network. Alton is THE MAN when it comes to no fail if you do it right recipies.


3 ounces (6 tablespoons) butter, chilled
1 ounce (2 tablespoons) lard, chilled
6 ounces (approximately 1 cup) all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling dough
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1/4 cup ice water, in spritz bottle
Approximately 32 ounces of dried beans, for blind baking

Place butter and lard in freezer for 15 minutes. When ready to use, remove and cut both into small pieces.
In the bowl of a food processor, combine flour and salt by pulsing 3 to 4 times. Add butter and pulse 5 to 6 times until texture looks mealy. Add lard and pulse another 3 to 4 times. Remove lid of food processor and spritz surface of mixture thoroughly with water. Replace lid and pulse 5 times. Add more water and pulse again until mixture holds together when squeezed. Place mixture in large zip-top bag, squeeze together until it forms a ball, and then press into a rounded disk and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Place 2 metal pie pans in the refrigerator to chill.

Remove dough from refrigerator. Cut along 2 sides of the plastic bag, open bag to expose dough, and sprinkle both sides with flour. Cover again with plastic and roll out with a rolling pin to a 10 to 11-inch circle. Open plastic again and sprinkle top of dough with flour. Remove pie pans from refrigerator and set first pan on top of dough. Turn everything upside down and peel plastic from bottom of dough. Place second pan upside down on top of dough and flip again. Remove first pan from atop dough. Trim edges if necessary, leaving an edge for meringue to adhere to. Poke holes in dough and place in refrigerator for 15 minutes.

Place a large piece of parchment paper on top of dough and fill with dry beans. Press beans into edges of dough and bake in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove parchment and beans and continue baking until golden in color, approximately 10 to 15 minutes longer. Remove from oven and place on cooling rack. Let cool completely before filling.


He's got oodles of terrific recipies on Foodnetwork.com

Answer 5

all butter pastry