Coronation Tart using Savoury Pastry using Clive Mellum's Technique

 I shan't be making any tarts for street parties as we have not one near us or have been invited to one, but on the Sunday I will be involved with a fun day on the Cathedral Green on our WI games stall.  Seeing all the comments concerning 'The Coronation Quiche', it inspired me to make a savoury tart today.  I made the pastry using Clive Mellums short crust pastry recipe earlier in the day, with plenty left over to make some steak and kidney pies in a couple of days time.  

We are having a new fridge and a new freezer next week, and I am working on getting everything used up.  There happens to be some frozen spinach lurking.  Why I bought this before Christmas I have no idea, and at least it does contain a little spinach, but I thought instead of broad beans I would use a couple of leeks nicely soften in goat's butter. Since we cannot tolerate cow's milk etc, and no goat's cream is available, I used three eggs and three tablespoons goat's yogurt instead of the cream.  Local Sheep and Goat  milk cheese were used.

Here it is...we shall have it for lunch over the next couple of days with salad. I peeped at the bottom through the wrack and the bottom is nicely cooked.  I followed HRHs timing for cooking the pastry, and was concerned that it was not returned to cook without the paper and beans after the initial 15 minutes, but everything worked out even without that.  I may well make a second tart next week with asparagus and smoked salmon...a far more regal tart.

Some time ago I contacted Clive Mellum for permission to share some of the techniques, and for anyone serious about Bread Making I highly recommend his book My Life in Baking 50 Years on.

The recipe for both the Sweet Short Crust Pastry and the Savoury Pastry follow on to the extreme end of using the same flour: strong, and understanding what fats can do depending how they are used.  I once make the Sweet Pastry using plain flour and it was so very short!

I usually make double the recipe as it keeps so well in the fridge or freezer.  Being a baker Clive put percentages as well as weight:

White Flour 200 grams: 100%

Salt   2 grams: 1%

Lard 50grams: 25%

Butter 50grams: 25%

Water  34grams: 17%

Clive explains that the method for the savoury pastry will be a little different from that explained in the preceding Sweet Pastry recipe,  as it is more difficult to emulsify the liquid with the fat without the aid of the sugar as in the sweet pastry. 

"It is advisable to place the fat, salt and just 25% of the flour into the bowl first, mash these up to form a paste, fully coating all the flour particles with the fat, then add the water to make the creamy batter. Once fully emulsified, add the remainder of the flour and carry on mixing until smooth."

Since I brought the lard and goat's butter (intolerances to cow's products) straight out of the fridge,  it was a bit tricky for me to emulsify these with the fork in the bowl, so I took it outside and enjoyed the birdsong but it did get my forearm.  No baker's strong forearms available.  In the future I would take the fats out of the fridge and leave on the side for about a hour to reach room temperature.  I would then mix the two fats together first with the salt, then add the flour and mix until fully coated.  It helped to get my hand in, but I am sure a hand held whisk would be fine, though you would not enjoy the sound of the birdsong!

Mix in the water a little at a time, and when fully emulsified, then add in the other three quarters of the flour, and here I think using your hands works.  Rub through until the pastry forms a ball, clearing the sides of the bowl.  Then tip it out onto the work surface and start to grind it to create a smooth pliable plasticised-like texture.  

In Clive's words" it is impossible to overwork this, so don't worry, get it to a nice smooth texture....It will be more user-friendly if it is allowed to settle down for 1hr at room temperature, if you want to use it the same day, or if you make a large batch keep it in the fridge for a day or so."

I have frozen it very successfully.