Can anyone tell me how to make pastry for a steak and kidney pie?!
Can anyone tell me how to make pastry for a steak and kidney pie?
or pasty′s
Answers:
Do you want a biscuit to go with it or a pie crust to put on top? Here is a biscuit recipe.
Ethereal Whipped-cream Biscuits
These diminutive biscuits are made not with butter, but with heavy cream, which is lightly beaten -- a little secret that makes the biscuits so fluffy and tender, they practically levitate.
Ethereal Whipped-cream Biscuits
1 cup flour
1 cup cake flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cups cold heavy cream
Step 1
Heat the oven to 400? and get out a large, light-colored baking sheet. Test Kitchen Tip: Don't use a dark or nonstick sheet, or the biscuit bottoms will burn.
Step 2
Sift the flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt into a large mixing bowl. Set aside. Using an electric mixer, beat the heavy cream in a medium-size bowl until it thickens, but not enough to hold soft peaks. Make a well in the dry ingredients, then pour in the cream. With a wooden spoon, stir briskly just until the dough coheres.
Step 3
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. With floured hands, knead the dough 3 or 4 times, then pat 3/4 to 1 inch thick.
Step 4
Using a 2-inch biscuit cutter, cut the dough into rounds and transfer them to the baking sheet, leaving room between them. Gather the dough scraps and cut them into rounds as well.
Step 5
Bake the biscuits until light golden brown, about 15 to 17 minutes. Transfer the biscuits to a cloth-lined basket and serve as soon as possible. Makes about 12 to 14 biscuits.
Source(s):
familyfun.com
How to make shortcrust pastry:
Shortcrust pastry is the most common type of pastry, used for both sweet and savoury pies, tarts, pasties and quiches. The usual recipe is half the quantity of fat to flour. The higher the fat content the "shorter" or more crumbly the pastry. All the ingredients need to be kept cool and handled as little as possible.
Ingredients
2 cups (8oz) plain flour
4 level tablespoons lard
4 level tablespoons butter or margarine
pinch of salt
cold water
(see measure conversions for more information)
Method
- Sift the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl.
- Add the lard and the butter and chop it up roughly with a knife.
- With cool fingertips, rub the fat into the flour until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
- Add 2 tablespoons of cold water and then, using a knife, mix lightly into a dough.
- Add a little more water if necessary but be careful not to add too much.
- The dough should not be sticky.
- Gently bring the dough into a ball by hand, gathering up any stray bits of dough.
- Leave to rest in the fridge for a couple of hours before using.
- To use, roll lightly with a rolling pin on a lightly floured surface.
8 onz SR flour, 4 onz fat. could use shredded suet. pinch of salt tiny bit of sugar. Rub the fat into the flour, or just mix if it's suet. only use the tips of your fingers to keep the mix as cool as poss. Add water to bind. Gather into a ball. Wrap in cling film and rest in the fridge for abt half an hour. Roll out on a floured board with a floured roller until about one quarter inch thick, and cut to size and shape. fill the pie put the pastry on the top. glaze with milk and beaten egg and bake.
Just roll frozen pastry from the freezer section.
Proud Walker has it partially right, I am a former chef in Canada, and have made it with the Suet Pastry, also a hotwater suet pastry and puff pastry.
For pasties, I would use a shortcrust like they use for Melton Mowbray pie, you need one that is strong enough to hold the ingredients, but be tender to eat also.
Fat is a critical element, butter is fine for sweets, but lard, Criso veg oleo, or beef fat (suet or tallow).
And thing that is going to be served hot need something to keep it tender and soft, were a cold or chilled pie needs something to add body.
Unlike a fruit pie were the crust is player, in a savoury pie, it is the star, I prefer to steam my steak and kidney pie, turn it out and finish it in a hot oven to give it colour, do not work the doughs to long, I freeze the fat and use a box grated to cut it in small and keep my hands out of the dough.
Chill it after it is mixed to first, to keep the fat solid and give the gluten in the flour a chance to relax, use plain flour not self rising, but a spot of baking powder in an dough will help create a poof.
i cheat and buy jus rol frozen pastry
this is a brilliant recipe for puff pastry most people do not want to make it because it looks to hard but i can assure you it is very very simple! heres the recipe below:
250g plain flour
150g lard or margerine (or a mixture of both)
125ml of cold water
a splash of lemon juice
salt to taste
1. put the flour into a bowl and cut up the fat into small cubes. add to the flour
2. add the lemon juice and salt
3. slowly add the water and bind together using a palette knife DO NOT WORK WITH YOUR FINGERS.
3. keep adding the water until it binds togther to form a softish dough
4. turn out onto a floured surface and roll with the rolling pin
3. when it is quite thin score the pastry into 3 equal sections and fold over the secttions. turn the pastry 90 degrees clockwise.
5.continue doing that same process 4-8 times, the more you do the more layers you will get when you bake it
6. leave it to rest for a while in the fridge and then it is ready for you to roll out and put ontop of you pie
7. bake in the oven at 200c for about 30-35mins or until golden
that recipe is fool proof and proves how easy it really is to make puff pastry
hope it al goes well with the pastry making
xx
I buy the ready made puff pastry it's quick and reliable and much better than anything I can produce.