Making Short Crust Pastry

TECHNIQUES FOR SHORTCRUST PASTRY

 How to get the best results when working with shortcrust pastry

1.	For best results when rolling out shortcrust pastry use a large, clean dry area of the work surface and lightly dust it with plain flour.	2.	Place pastry dough on surface and lightly dust it and the rolling pin with flour.
3.	Roll pastry firmly, always rolling away from you, give the dough two to three rolls.	4.	Then turn the dough a quarter turn.
5.	Dust again if necessary and continue rolling out, frequently turning the pastry so it is not always rolled in the same direction as this causes shrinkage.	6.	When the pastry has increased in size, pick it up to turn by rolling it round the rolling pin.
7.	Lift the pin with the pastry around it carefully and turn it to lay out and continue rolling. Again this is done to prevent the pastry from stretching as you lift it which in turn would result in shrinkage in baking. Shortcrust pastry should be rolled out to approximately 3mm to 5mm depth.

 Lining flan tins

1.	Roll out the pastry as described in the 'Best results for rolling out Shortcrust Pastry pages. Measure tin over rolled out pastry to ensure you will have enough to line the insides of the tin with a little excess to make it easier to work.	2.	Lift up pastry around rolling pin as described in 'Rolling out shortcrust pastry pages' , and gently unroll over flan tin, starting with the edge nearest to you.
3.	Gently ease the pastry into the tin, pressing it down the sides onto the base.	4.	Once you have pushed it in all the way round, go around again to press well down on to base , so that there is almost a 'pleat' of pastry at base of sides, and press into the flutes.
5.	Fold back excess pastry so that it hangs over the sides of the tin.	6.	To cut off the excess pastry roll the pin firmly over the top of the tin in both directions.
7.	Gently pull away excess pastry	8.	Now gently pull up the sides of the pastry from the small excess you left at base so that the pastry stands slightly proud of the top. This will ensure a good depth to the sides of the flan if the pastry shrinks slightly in cooking.

 Baking blind

Once a flan tin or ring has been lined you may wish to bake it unfilled (baking blind), to then fill later with a cold filling or one which requires a lower cooking temperature. It is always best, if time allows, to chill the unbaked flan in the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes before baking blind.

1.	Take a large piece of silicone baking or greaseproof paper and pleat it so that you can fit it into the flan tin easily.	2.	Press paper gently into flan case and allow excess to stand up around edges.
3.	Cover base with baking beans or similar. It is possible to buy ceramic baking beans which are re-usable, otherwise use uncooked rice, split peas or similar to weight down the base.	4.	Bake the flan according to recipe instructions, generally the flan is baked for 12 - 15 minutes then the paper and beans removed and the flan returned to oven to finish baking to a golden brown.