• >
  • Recipes
  • >
  • Old-Fashioned Sweet Shortcrust Pastry

Old-Fashioned Sweet Shortcrust Pastry

This pastry is perfect for making apple and other sweet pies. Even if you've never made pastry before, as long as you stick to the correct measurements for the ingredients and you follow the method exactly, you'll be laughing. The one place where you can experiment is with flavoring. If you don't fancy using lemon zest, try another dry ingredient like orange zest instead. Or a pinch of cinnamon, nutmeg or cocoa powder. Vanilla seeds are great too. Just remember to be subtle and don't go overboard with any of these flavors! Try to be confident and bring the pastry together as quickly as you can - don't knead it too much or the heat from your hands will melt the butter. A good tip is to hold your hands under cold running water beforehand to make them as cold as possible. That way you'll end up with a delicate, flaky pastry every time. PS. You can also make this pastry using a food processor

Recipe excerpted from JAMIE AT HOME by Jamie Oliver. Copyright (c) 2008. Published in the U.S. by Hyperion. All Rights Reserved. www.jamieoliver.com
TOTAL TIME: 50 min
Prep: 20 min
Inactive Prep: 30 min
Cook: --
YIELD: about 2 pounds
LEVEL: Easy

ingredients

  • 3 1/2 cups organic all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting
  • 1 cup icing sugar, sifted
  • 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons good-quality cold butter, cut into small cubes
  • 1 lemon, zested
recipe tools

    • COMMENT ON THIS PROJECT

        

    Sign in

    All fields are required.

    E-mail Address:

    Password:

    Remember me on this computer

    Signing in

    Please enter your email address and we will send your password

    E-mail Address

    Your password has been sent and should arrive in your mailbox very soon.

    Not a member?

    Sign up for My Cooking Channel to share photos, show off your style, and connect to an enthusiastic and helpful community.

    It's free and easy.

  • Print Recipe

Directions

Sift the flour from a height onto a clean work surface and sift the icing sugar over the top. Using your hands, work the cubes of butter into the flour and sugar by rubbing your thumbs against your fingers until you end up with a fine, crumbly mixture. This is the point where you can spike the mixture with interesting flavors, so mix in your lemon zest. Add the eggs and milk to the mixture and gently work it together until you have a ball of dough. Flour it lightly. Don't work the pastry too much at this stage or it will become elastic and chewy, not crumbly and short. Flour your work surface and place the dough on top. Pat it into a flat round, flour it lightly, wrap it in plastic wrap and put it into the refrigerator to rest for at least half an hour.

"Our agreement with the producers of "Jamie at Home" only permit us to make 2 recipes per episode available online. Food Network regrets the inconvenience to our viewers and foodnetwork.com users"

COMMENT ON THIS PROJECT

    

Sign in

All fields are required.

E-mail Address:

Password:

Remember me on this computer

Signing in

Please enter your email address and we will send your password

E-mail Address

Your password has been sent and should arrive in your mailbox very soon.

Not a member?

Sign up for My Cooking Channel to share photos, show off your style, and connect to an enthusiastic and helpful community.

It's free and easy.

Review This Recipe

You must be logged in to review this recipe.

or Sign Up to Review

Advertisement

On TV

*ALL TIMES EASTERN
ON AIR
NOW
TONIGHT
10:00
PM

what's hot

Road Trip with G. Garvin
Road Trip with G. Garvin Host: G. Garvin

Get Cooking Channel on your TV.

Learn How