Short Pastry.

Well hello all (admire irrelevant yet peaceful picture to the left),
As of Monday the 3rd of March I have officially started my Diploma in Patisserie and from the very first lesson I quickly realised that I am atrocious at pronouncing french words. However, my tutor Gilles Petit is indeed french and intends on improving my pronunciation skills. I also quickly realised that I have the stamina of a two year old and found myself wanting to sit down after only half an hour of being on my feet. My Aunty Mel who has experience in the restaurant and cake business would have had a jolly good laugh watching me hop from one foot to the other while trying to look 'professional' and listening to Gilles take the lesson. Despite these things I absolutely love university so far, it's so much fun being around like minded people who have a passion for baking like I do. Not only that but when everyone in the hostel is going to their boring lectures I get to go and spend the day either making pastry or talking about making pastry, it's fantastic.

So this week is all about short pastry, on the Monday we made a batch of short pastry and then we left it to rest in the fridge overnight so that on the Tuesday we could use it to make Quiche Lorraine. Before I give you the recipe here are a few top tips when it comes to short pastry and recipes in general:

1. R.T.F.R, this means to Read The Freakin Recipe. When weighing up ingredients make sure you read the method first so that you can put the ingredients that need to be mixed together in the same bowl, thus saving you time and minimising the amount of dishes used.

2. Always make pastry in advance, at least an hour before it is needed. This allows the pastry to rest and will make it easier to handle.

3. The 3 main ingredients in short pastry are: Liquid, fat and flour. Gilles believes that only happy people use butter in their pastry and grumpy people use margarine. So always use butter when making pastry, it may be a bit more expensive than margarine but you can't beat the taste and quality of pastry made with butter.

4. Never overwork the pastry, by doing this you are making it more elastic and tough. Which is definitely not what you want when it comes to pastry.

5. When rubbing the flour and butter together your aiming to coat each grain of flour with a film of butter, this protects the flour protein from absorbing the water (when added) and making the pastry soggy. So rub your fingers gently together, don't try force the two into holy matrimony, just let it happen naturally.

6. Don't be afraid to use your hands as much as possible! They are the best and least expensive tool that will hopefully last a life time so don't be afraid to use them.

 Now on with the show, this is just a basic short pastry recipe that can be altered if need be:

Ingredients:
300g Soft Flour
150g Cold Butter
80g Cold Water
1/2 tsp Salt

Method:
1. Dissolve the salt in water
2. Sieve Flour
3. Cut cold butter into cubes
4. Rub butter into flour until a sandy texture is reached
5. Make a bay and mix in water to form the ingredients into a light smooth paste (Fraisage)
6. Wrap in glad wrap
7. Rest the paste for a minimum time of 30 minutes in the fridge before further use


After it has been rested in the fridge you can then make whatever your heart desires, we made a Quiche Lorraine and this is the recipe for it:

Ingredients

Filling:
75g Bacon
75g Onion
35g Grated Cheese
Chopped Parsley

Royal:
150g Milk
100g Cream
2 Eggs
Pinch Nutmeg
Pinch Salt
Pinch Pepper

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 190C
2. Spray a 20cm round tin with non-stick
cooking spray

Filling:
1. Saute the chopped onions and bacon in oil (no colour)
2. Distribute over the bottom of the tin, together with the parsley and grated cheese

Royal:
1. Combine remaining ingredients and blend together thoroughly
2. Pour the royal into the tin over top of the filling
3. Bake out in a moderately hot oven for approx. 30minutes

So there you are, something basic to start off the first week with but also very tasty at the same time. If you have any questions, feel free to comment below or message me on Facebook. Otherwise, I'll be posting next week with a new set of recipes and tips.

That's all from me,

B.