Shortcrust pastry

This is a very easy to make shortcrust pastry recipe good for sweet or savoury fillings.

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 cups of plain flour
  • 1/2 cup of vegan margarine (Nuttalex brand is good in Australia)
  • 1/2 tspn of good quality salt – Celtic for example (make sure salt is finely ground)
  • 3 1/2 tbsp of water

The doing:

  • combine flour and salt in a bowl
  • add margarine and cut through with knife, then rub with fingertips until “breadcrumbed”
  • add water and mix with wooden spoon (don’t flour your kneading surface)
  • if the pastry is not pliable enough, add a very small amount of extra water – think “a teaspoon at a time”
  • wrap in greaseproof paper and refrigerate for 30 minutes
  • roll out to suit (again, do not flour bench or pin)

NOTE: cooking tray will NOT need greasing