My New Year's Resolutions 2012
This is my my Gift Cupcake, again with home made topper :)
For short crust pastry, I always like to use the BBC Food recipe, which I find produces the best pastry (Here's the LINK or if you prefer I've printed it below) but if you can't be bothered, then you can always use frozen!
Ingredients
125g/4oz plain flour
pinch of salt
55g/2oz butter, cubed
30-45ml/2-3 tbsp cold water
Method
Put the flour and salt in a large bowl and add the cubes of butter.
Use your fingertips to rub the butter into the flour until you have a mixture that resembles coarse breadcrumbs with no large lumps of butter remaining. Try to work quickly so that it does not become greasy.
Using a knife, stir in just enough of the cold water to bind the dough together.
Wrap the dough in clingfilm and chill for 10-15 minutes before using.
Alternatively using a food processor, put the flour, butter and salt in the food processor and pulse until the fat is rubbed into the flour.
With the motor running, gradually add the water through the funnel until the dough comes together. Only add enough water to bind it and then stop.
Wrap the dough in clingfilm as before and chill for 10-15 minutes before using.
So that's the Pastry...
- After these stages are complete, take the dough from the fridge and roll on a lightly floured surface until about 5mm thick.
- Cut out rolled dough with a circular cutter (these will form the base of each pie) and place each circle into a section of a pre-greased bun tray.
So as Katy says, bid now to benefit a very worth while cause!