This morning I mixed up a batch of pastry using a technique that I had never tried: one mixes the butter, sugar, and egg till they are emulsified, then the flour is added and rubbed in till a ball is formed. I found it very easy.
The finished pastry sat in the fridge, and when we came back from our little tour of Dinder and Crosscombe, it was rolling pins at the ready, zesters, lemon juicer, bowls, whisks, baking tins, came out of the cupboard, oven preheated, paper and baking beans were used.
Yesterday we had been out for a steak night out, and this morning everyone felt a little sluggish. We had a great plate of salad, followed by fruit, and this evening a light supper of home made soup and pesto rolls followed by Lemon Meringue Pie.
The proof of the pudding is in the eating, and I must agree that this is the best pastry I have made. Even with the home made fresh lemon filling, there was no soggy bottom. It was short and tasty, but strong enough to hold the thick layer of lemon and meringue topping.
Neighbours Val and Kay helped by having a piece each: a well earnt gardener's pudding following their afternoon out on their front gardens. There is just a smallish piece left which I shall have shortly....I only had one piece earlier on!
Hello Noelle, I joined the Facebook Groups for Book of Buns, and Perfecting sourdough recently and saw your posts there, and from there I got to your blog which is lovely, and interesting.
ReplyDeleteHaving visited Shipton Mill a couple of weeks ago, and seeing Sir Clive Mellum's input there, and then you mentioned his book, I bought it last week. I tried the shortcrust pastry this week, different method isn't it, used it for a meat pie and it worked very well and remained 'short'. I will be trying the sweet version maybe this weekend. I tried his bread method this week too, leaving out the butter until later in the process and that worked nicely too. I still have to read most of the book but I am pleased to have bought it.
I'd like to refer you to a bread blog I found this week, www.breadwerx.com. It has super sourdough info and videos and he makes working with high hydration look easy. I do make sourdough most of the time, and am fairly competent with it, I really cherish my starter, it's over two years old now. I'm using the Skillywash too.
Happy Breadmaking, Cynthia (Swindon)
Thanks so much for the link Cynthia. Clive's book has lots of tips and tricks, and I even tried his flying sponge technique, starting it without any salt, when I wanted to bake some granary bread fairly quickly...faster than the very long method, and it came out very well. Maybe I was just ready to receive all Clive's wisdom....which will of course help when following other great bread making ideas such as those on breadwerx.
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