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Pastry

Here are our recipes for pastry: Standard Flaky . Sweet . Almond . Italian . Strudel

Flaky Pastry

makes enough for top and bottom crusts of a 9 inch pie (savoury or sweet) or several tarts, depending on the size of your tart pan.

N.B. It's important to handle pastry as little as possible.

Ingredients


Preparation

  1. Mix the flour and salt together in a bowl. Cut the shortening into the flour and salt until it is pea sized. Add ICE-COLD water a little at a time and mix lightly with your hands until it is pastry consistency. Please note that the amount of water changes drastically, depending on the humidity. (For whatever pastry recipe you use, if it is very humid, reduce the amount of water called for.)
  2. Divide the pastry into two equal parts. Handling it as little as possible, roll out the two crusts on a lightly floured board. Put the bottom crust in the pie plate and loosely drape the top crust over the top of the pie plate. REFRIGERATE AT LEAST ONE HOUR.
  3. Then assemble the pie, pinching the two crusts together with water or juice from whatever filling you have chosen. Bake as you would normally. (15 minutes at 425F; about 30 minutes 350F or until bubbling in centre. Don't forget to put holes on the top layer.)

It's the refrigeration before baking that does the trick. It makes the pastry flakier.

Many thanks go to my mother for teaching me how to make pastry. On that fateful day when I was barely 10 (or was I even younger?), my mother was making bread. I wanted to make something too. She decided that I should make pastry. I got through the cutting the shortening into the flour with flying colours and was happily adding a little water at a time and kneading, kneading, kneading... just like she was kneading, kneading, kneading the bread dough on another counter. Mom caught me on about the 500th knead and laughed, "Are you STILL mixing that???" We made the pie anyway and because it was my first pie, nobody complained (very much) that the pastry was like boot leather. However, I learned my lesson well and after that first disastrous time, ever since I was 10, I have to say that I can make great pastry.

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Pastry & Fillings:
Apple Pie . Apple Tarts . Apricot . Berry . Cherry . Lemon . Mincemeat - Mom's . Mincemeat - vegetarian . Pecan . Plum . Pumpkin . Strudel (Cherry) . Strudel (Peach) . Beef & Mushroom . Prune Onion Blue Cheese Tart . Sausage Rolls . Spinach . Tourtiere . Pastry

Festive Dishes:
Roast Stuffed Capon . Cornbread Stuffing . Cranberry Confit . Cranberry Sauce . Mashed Root Vegetables . Green Beans with Pimiento . Jelly Salad . Tourtiere . Cherry Snowballs . Crescents . Coloured Sugar Cookies . Fruit Cake . Fruit Pudding . Ginger Shortbread . Hard Sauce . Linzer Torte . Lucia Cats . Vínarterta . Mincemeat




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