Quick Flaky Pastry

I don't make pastry very often. In fact I have a phobia when it comes to pastry. So when I saw the recipe I thought to myself, this looks do-able ... I should try it. Truth be told, if it was not for the tempting photo in the cookbook I would not have given the recipe a second glance.

The dough was a breeze to roll thin and did not break or shrink. Flaky pastry is a quick and easy alternative to puff pastry. The pie crust turned out light and flaky. We loved it.

A real confidence booster especially for a non pastry person like me. No sweat to make and is much cheaper than buying readymade pastry from the shop. Do note that this dough uses milk instead of water for binding.

Makes 1 thinly rolled double crust 20-23cm pie

Ingredients
185gm flour
1 tsp baking powder
125gm very cold butter, cubed or grated

85ml - 100ml milk
1 tsp vinegar (add to milk)


Method
1. Sieve flour and baking powder together. Add flour and butter to food processor. (For picture guide see here)

2. Pulse a few times until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.

3. Drizzle milk over the mixture. Pulse until it starts to clump together and is just moist enough to form a fairly stiff dough. This should only take a few seconds.

4. Transfer the mixture to a plastic wrap. Gather the wrap round the dough and flatten the dough to form a square. Do not knead the dough.

5. Leave dough in fridge for 30 minutes or overnight.

6. Divide the dough in two, then roll out thinly. Use as required.


Note
1. Do not substitute butter with margarine.
2. The quantity of milk required is an estimate only. You may need more or less.

Tip
1. Make sure the butter is very very cold.
2. The flaky pastry dough can be premade and frozen.

Recipe : Kiwi Favourites, New Zealand's most popular recipes by Simon & Alison Holst (adapted)