Old-fashioned sweet shortcrust pastry

Name: Old-fashioned sweet shortcrust pastry
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 15 min
Yield: 8
Ingredients: 500g organic plain flour, plus extra for dusting; 100g icing sugar, sifted; 250g good-quality cold butter, cut into small cubes; zest of 1 lemon; 2 large free-range or organic eggs, beaten; a splash of milk

For making the perfect pie

Vegetarian

15 mins plus chilling time

Super easy

serves 8

About the recipe

Master this buttery shortcrust pastry recipe and you're halfway to a blinding homemade pie

nutrition per serving

Calories

26%

Fat

40%

Saturates

84%

Sugars

15%

Protein

17%

Carbs

22%

of an adult’s reference intake

Recipe From

Jamie at Home

By Jamie Oliver

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Ingredients

500g organic plain flour, plus extra for dusting

100g icing sugar, sifted

250g good-quality cold butter, cut into small cubes

zest of 1 lemon

2 large free-range or organic eggs, beaten

a splash of milk

Top Tip

If you don’t fancy using lemon zest, try another dry ingredient like orange zest instead. Or a pinch of cinnamon, nutmeg or cocoa powder. Vanilla seeds are great too. Just remember to be subtle and don’t go overboard with any of these flavours!

Method

This pastry is perfect for making apple and other sweet pies. Even if you’ve never made pastry before, as long as you stick to the correct measurements for the ingredients and you follow the method exactly, you’ll be laughing. The one place where you can experiment is with flavouring. If you don’t fancy using lemon zest, try another dry ingredient like orange zest instead. Or a pinch of cinnamon, nutmeg or cocoa powder. Vanilla seeds are great too. Just remember to be subtle and don’t go overboard with any of these flavours!
Try to be confident and bring the pastry together as quickly as you can – don’t knead it too much or the heat from your hands will melt the butter. A good tip is to hold your hands under cold running water beforehand to make them as cold as possible. That way you’ll end up with a delicate, flaky pastry every time.
Sieve the flour from a height on to a clean work surface and sieve the icing sugar over the top. Using your hands, work the cubes of butter into the flour and sugar by rubbing your thumbs against your fingers until you end up with a fine, crumbly mixture. This is the point where you can spike the mixture with interesting flavours, so mix in your lemon zest.
Add the eggs and milk to the mixture and gently work it together till you have a ball of dough. Flour it lightly. Don’t work the pastry too much at this stage or it will become elastic and chewy, not crumbly and short. Flour your work surface and place the dough on top. Pat it into a flat round, flour it lightly, wrap it in clingfilm and put it into the fridge to rest for at least half an hour.

Try to be confident and bring the pastry together as quickly as you can – don’t knead it too much or the heat from your hands will melt the butter. A good tip is to hold your hands under cold running water beforehand to make them as cold as possible. That way you’ll end up with a delicate, flaky pastry every time.