Pastry - What Did I do?

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Pastry - What Did I do?

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moggins

Joined: 24 Feb 2005
Posts: 942
Location: Gloucester

Posted: Tue Mar 08, 05 6:44 pm Post subject: Pastry - What Did I do?
I did everything the way I normally do it, half fat to flour, 1 egg + 1 yolk, a little water, the pastry was a nightmare to roll, cracking and splitting all over the place. So how come when it came out of the oven it looked and tasted far better than any pastry I had ever made before? Wish I knew what I'd done so I could do it again.

judith

Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Posts: 22789
Location: Montgomeryshire

Posted: Tue Mar 08, 05 7:13 pm Post subject:
Did you chill it before rolling?

moggins

Joined: 24 Feb 2005
Posts: 942
Location: Gloucester

Posted: Tue Mar 08, 05 7:31 pm Post subject:
Yep, always do that too. It's got me mystified, my pastry is always edible (thanks to the food processor) but's never turned out this light and flaky and melt on the tongue before.

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Tue Mar 08, 05 7:35 pm Post subject:
Was it a different flour, egg or fat?

sean
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42219
Location: North Devon

Posted: Tue Mar 08, 05 7:36 pm Post subject:
Your flour may have been drier than normal. Or, as TC suggested did you use a different fat.

moggins

Joined: 24 Feb 2005
Posts: 942
Location: Gloucester

Posted: Tue Mar 08, 05 8:00 pm Post subject:
Aha, so Tesco Sunflower Spread is good for something then

wellington womble

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands

Posted: Tue Mar 08, 05 10:32 pm Post subject:
maybe it's the flour harvest - they are always different according to the flour people, who advised to put less water in the breadmaker than usual this year.

mochyn

Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 24585
Location: mid-Wales

Posted: Thu Mar 31, 05 5:51 pm Post subject:
Was it a particularly dry/rainy day when this happened? Atmospheric moisture can reputedly affect the way flour behaves.

moggins

Joined: 24 Feb 2005
Posts: 942
Location: Gloucester

Posted: Thu Mar 31, 05 8:28 pm Post subject:
I can't remember now!!

Bugs

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

Posted: Thu Mar 31, 05 9:10 pm Post subject:

I made some little quiches earlier this week, and because I thought butter would be a bit extravagant I tried a sunflower oil pastry. It was pleasant, but very, very crumbly even when cooked, and even rolling it between film didn't work. I think it may have had a bit too much oil in, and so I didn't add water either, which won't have helped.

What does adding an egg do? That might be worth a try, in that brief period of spring before those minxes go broody

Bugs

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

Posted: Wed Aug 10, 05 8:51 am Post subject:

Well the minxes are broody now so we are using eggs from the free range (free range as in you have to drive very slowly up the road so as not to come home with a free Sunday roast!) and made another quiche last night, as I forgot to make the pastry I used the food processor, half butter to bread flour, water to bind, and I didn't bother chilling it before rolling, but did chill the case before baking it.

What is new this time is that I tried out baking parchment topped with rice for the blind baking and that has worked really well to stop the base rising, had always thought it a bit of a faff before but it's well worth the effort and baking parchment being what it is I will store the rice and the circle somewhere handy so I can use it again and again.

However the edges were still inclined to puff up and lose their shape a bit; any suggestions how I could stop this if I ever fancied a more cosmetically perfect tart?

snowball
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 6246
Location: swindon

Posted: Wed Aug 10, 05 9:21 am Post subject:
Do you prick the edges before it goes in the oven? Also try leaving an excess of pastry on the edge and trimmiing with a ver sharp knife once it is cooked.

judith

Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Posts: 22789
Location: Montgomeryshire

Posted: Wed Aug 10, 05 9:27 am Post subject:

Bugs wrote:

However the edges were still inclined to puff up and lose their shape a bit; any suggestions how I could stop this if I ever fancied a more cosmetically perfect tart?

This is something that exercises my mind on the rare occasions that I make a quiche (or lemon tart, yum!).
My preferred weighting medium is dried chick peas which seem to work well enough for the bottom, even without baking parchment.
But the sides are problematic. Even if I prick them thoroughly with a fork, they still seem to bubble up. I can imagine some sort of quiche tin-shaped insert - perhaps with perforations - that you put into the pastry case to prevent the phenomenon. Does such a thing exist?

Northern_Lad

Joined: 13 Dec 2004
Posts: 14210
Location: Somewhere

Posted: Wed Aug 10, 05 9:31 am Post subject:
I don't generally bother too much with the inside of the edges as they're very rarely seen at all. Make sure it's pressed firmly against the tin (use a spare piece of pastry), leave extra over the edges and trim after the blind-bake and be generous with the filling, and no-one will even notice.

snowball
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 6246
Location: swindon

Posted: Wed Aug 10, 05 11:01 am Post subject:
If you are really that fussed, you can put a baking tin on top of the rice, beads or whatever, and weight that too. Obviously, you need a tin that fits the diameter of your pastry perfectly.

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