Pastry is the basis of many recipes. We have already used it to make Cornish pasties elsewehere, but we’ve never really explained how it is made.

It is surprisingly tricky and can be quite temperamental, but once you have mastered the art of making pastry, you can make some big savings on the cost of buying it in on the high street. You can also make it as and when you need it, without having to plan ahead and get a pack out of the freezer whenever you want to use it.

The recipe below makes traditional shortcrust pastry, as used in pies and tarts (both sweet and savoury).

Ingredients
190g (6.5oz) plain flour
90g (3oz) butter at room temperature or mix of butter and lard
50ml water

Method
Start by cutting your butter (and lard, if you’re using it) into small cubes, and then drop these into the plain flour. Make sure this is just regular plain flour (preferably sifted) and not bread flour, as that is too heavy to make effective pastry.

Rub the butter into the flour until it forms the consistency of breadcrumbs. The secret to good pastry is to not handle it too much as this will make it greasy.

Once the breadcrumbs form, add your water a little at a time and use a knife to mix it into the crumbs. As it starts to clump together, switch to using your hands and gather the pastry together until it forms a ball. Once it has come together, place it on a floured surface and roll out to use.

The above recipe will make enough pastry for a large pie or several smaller tarts. If you need more, double or treble the quantities in the ingredients list above. To make the quantity of pastry we used for the Cornish pasties, use 550g of flour, 250g or fats and 140ml of water.

You should always try to make pastry in cool conditions. Try not to get your hands too sweaty when rubbing in your fats, use properly cold water, and roll it out on a cold work surface if you have one. Marble and granite are ideal.

Related posts:

1. Scones: recipe
2. Easy shortbread recipe
3. How to make treacle tart