Pastry - Household tips related to pastry

To stop pastry from becoming tough, keep it as cool as possible. Work with cold fat, on a cool surface, such as marble. If your hands get hot, run them under cold water. Better still, try to touch the pastry as little as possible with your hands. Rub in fat with your fingertips only, or cut it in with a knife.

Work quickly when making pastry - overworked dough becomes elastic, difficult to roll and shrinks during cooking.

Always refrigerate pastry for at least 30 minutes after combining the ingredients. Wrap it well in plastic food wrap or greaseproof paper. If dough is not properly wrapped it dries out and cracks at the edges when it is rolled out.

If the dough is too dry, add a little more water.

If the dough is too moist, chill it and then work in more flour.

Never let dough made in a food processor form a ball. As soon as it clumps together, take it out of the bowl and knead it with the heel of your hand. It becomes quickly overworked.

Always work on a lightly floured surface to stop the pastry from sticking to it, and dust the rolling pin with flour for the same reason.

To line a deep pie dish, cut a piece of pastry to fit the base. Then roll out a strip of pastry the depth of the dish sides and press it around the sides. Moisten the joining edges with cold water and press them together. Then lightly brush flour over the joins to absorb the excess moisture. Don't blind bake pastry in a deep dish - the sides will just collapse. Bake pastry blind to keep it crisp when a moist filling is added, or if the filling needs little or no baking. Weigh it down with dried haricot or kidney beans or uncooked rice on a piece of greaseproof paper.

A basic recipe for shortcrust pastry is 8oz/225g plain flour, 4oz/115g fat, ½ teaspoon of salt and 2-3 tablespoons of cold water.

Add zest to a sweet tart with sugar, grated lemon or orange rind or crushed nuts. You could also add ground nuts or spices, reducing the amount of flour by the weight of ground nuts.

Make a savoury tart even tastier by adding dried herbs or a little grated cheese to the dough.