British · serves 2
Shortcrust Pastry
Cold butter, ice water, minimum handling. Every pie on this site starts here.
Ingredients
- 340g plain flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 170g cold unsalted butter, diced
- 90ml ice cold water
- 100g icing sugar for a sweet version
Method
- Everything must stay cold. Warm hands are the enemy here.
- Rub the butter into the flour and salt until it looks like breadcrumbs — or pulse it in a processor a few seconds at a time.
- Water a little at a time, lifting and turning the flour so it spreads evenly.
- Bring it together into a ball the moment it holds. Kneading develops gluten and makes it tough.
- Wrap and chill at least 30 minutes before rolling.
- Add the icing sugar with the flour for sweet shortcrust.