Sweet pastry, also known as sugar pastry or sweet, short pastry
There are many, many recipes for sweet pastry, this is a standard one that I always tend to use. Most recipes use castor sugar and of a lesser amount than butter. I prefer equal amounts of icing sugar. It gives a finer result and for my trainees over the years it made it an easy recipe to remember
Great tips to good pastry production are
do not over work, the more you work or knead the pastry the more the gluten in the flour develops. Resulting in either a tough pastry or one that will shrink when cooked
over working the pastry will also cause the butter to melt, making the pastry greasy
freezing the butter and then grating it in prevents both of the above (some chefs will also chill the bowl it made in)
ensure you only use your fingertips for rubbing in the butter, this encourages a light touch and also the palms of the hands are too warm and softens (or melts) the butter too much
lifting your fingertips just higher than the edge of the bowl when rubbing in the butter and letting it fall back down, this aides air incorporation
chiiling for an hour, allows the pastry to rest and the gluten to relax. Without this resting the pastry can shrink when cooked
flour - plain
250
gm
butter - frozen
125
gm
sugar - icing
125
gm
egg
1
pc
sift flour and icing sugar into a bowl, and add a touch a pinch of salt
grate the butter into the flour
lightly rub the butter into the flour (using fingertips only) until a light crumble texture is achieved
working quickly, add sufficient egg to make an homogenous paste
knead the paste two or three times with the heel of the hand until very smooth
roll into required shape, flatten slightly, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for at least 1 hour
