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The Basics: Pastry

The Basics: Pastry

Pastry! Sweet or savoury, it's the bones of so many great dishes. From tarts to galettes, there's nothing better than fresh, homemade pastry to bring your dish to life. So, here's a rock-solid recipe. 

 

You'll need:

  • 2 cups wholemeal spelt flour.  (We love using wholemeal spelt flour as it's packed with fibre, easier to digest than wheat, full of essential nutrients and has a delicious nutty flavour) 
  • ¾ cup (175g) chilled unsalted butter, cut into cubes
  • Pinch of salt
  • 3-5tbsp iced water
  • For a sweet pastry add 1 tablespoon coconut sugar

Method: (either by hand or in processor)

  1. Mix spelt flour (coconut sugar if making a sweet pastry) and salt together in a large bowl. 
  2. Rub the butter into the flour using fingertips or gently pulse until mixture is about the size of lentils. 
  3. Drizzle in enough iced water (only a tbsp at a time) to just bring the dough together. It will still be shaggy but will hold together when pressed. 
  4. Bring together on floured surface, flatten into a disc, return to the mixing bowl and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to allow the dough to rest.
  5. Heat oven to 190°C

 

Pastry tips: 

  • Gently, gently! If processing, only pulse gently and if mixing by hand, use a light touch on dough, flour should be on the tips of the fingers only - by not overworking the dough makes for tender, flaky pastry.
  • Overworking can cause elasticy/chewy ‘tough as old boots’ pastry 
  • Keep things chilled! the butter, the water - you want everything as cold as possible.

Inspired to make more pastry dishes? Check out the full list of our recipes here