Shortcrust pastry

Preheat the oven to 220°C

Combine flour and salt in a mixing bowl.
Incorporate butter to dry ingredients to form a bread-crumby texture.
Mix egg and water together in a separate bowl.
Add slowly to butter and flour, using a knife to mix the liquid in evenly. Don’t work the pastry or it’ll stretch and create too much gluten.
Wrap in cling wrap and chill for 15 min.
Lay over tin, thicken the edges to prevent breakage.

Bake for 15 minutes with a baking page lining and weights (I use large beans)
Take weights off and bake for a further 15 minutes to complete the bake.
(This is known as blind baking or prebaking – to cook the pie crust
before adding the filling. This prevents the base from getting soggy.
This is often done for pies that set, e.g fridge cheesecakes, curds and
chocolate tortes.)

Useful tools: Scraper (I have a smallish one that I use to lift the edges of rolled pastry), rolling pin and cookie cutters.

Recipe reprinted with permission of Butter Fingers. To see more recipes, please click here.