Shortcrust Pastry Recipe
Tale as old as time, why make my own pastry when I can save time and buy shop bought. But honestly, you can actually experience – yes, experience – a difference with homemade pastry and it’s worth the extra effort you put it to get that buttery base.
So this recipe is simply using the half method. That is half fat to flour. 1:1/2 flour to fat ratio. 250g flour to 125g butter. Get it? Great!
Alternatively, some people also tend to use two different fat sources; 50:50 butter to lard.
- Lard improves the texture of the shortcrust pastry
- Butter improves the flavour of the shortcrust pastry
Using only butter provides you with that rich buttery flavour. This is completely at your hands to choose from. Test out what you prefer (let us know in the comments what you like!) For our recipe, we have gone for the butter only route.
It’s best to have cold hands when making pastry (sorry all those with clammy hands) as to prevent the butter from becoming too heated. This causes the butter to become to oily preventing the flour grains from absorbing water. Essentially, this will cause your pastry to become too crumbly and it will be hard to roll.
Shortcrust pastry is so versatile and can be used in both sweet and savoury dishes, from pies to quiches or tarts. We found it gave a lovely butteriness to our Apple & Blackberry pie.
Tips
- Resting the dough in the fridge allows the gluten from the flour to relax, helping to stop shrinkage of the pastry dough when cooking.
- Keep pastry dough in the fridge for up to a week, if not ready to use straight away.
- Fresh pastry can also be frozen. When you are ready to use the dough, defrost at room temperature overnight.

Prep Time | 25 min |
Passive Time | 30 min |
Servings |
batch pastry
|
- 300 g plain flour sifted
- 150 g butter diced
- 1 tsp salt
- 1-2 tbsp water to bind
Ingredients
|
![]() |
- Add in the sifted flour, salt and diced butter into a food processor (continue to step 2) or alternatively a bowl (skip to step 3).
- If using a food processor, blitz all the ingredients until they resemble a fine crumb. (Skip to step 4).
- If using a bowl, cut up the butter with a knife a bit more and use fingertips to rub in the butter to the sifted flour and salt. Lift the mixture up high from the mixing bowl and let it drop down to incorporate air and keep the pastry light.
- Add a tablespoon of water into the mix. Pulse in the food processor or slowly bring dough together with fingers in the mixing bowl.
- Once the dough has just started to form roll out onto a slightly floured surface and knead lightly to form a dough.*
- Do not over knead the dough, this will give the pastry a hard texture. Use your hands to slowly squeeze the pastry dough ball together to flatten it slightly.
- Wrap in cling film and place in the fridge to rest for at least 30 minutes.
- Take the rested pastry dough out the fridge. When the pastry is slightly cooler than room temperature, it is ready to roll. Lightly flour work surface before working with your shortcrust pastry dough and rolling pin too if need be.
*Do not add too much water, be patient - more liquid may make the dough easier to work with but will create a tough pastry.