Pumpkin Pie Part 2: Shortcrust Pastry.

I was rather nervous about attempting shortcrust pastry; many of my previous attempts have been disastrous... But I was determined make pumpkin pie, and although I could have bought a pie crust- but I was adamant I would make the whole thing from scratch (I have to learn somehow!)

So, with the help of the same ancient recipe book I made my Christmas cake and a very informative post from FrugalFeeding, I managed it!

You will need:

200g plain flour

100g butter (room temperature)

cold water (around 2 tablespoons)

a pinch of salt

1) Place the butter, flour and salt into a bowl and begin to cut it together using a knife (although the butter is at room temperature your hands will warm it up more, and we don't want that- use your hands as little as possible!)

2) Once it is mostly mixed, use the tips of your fingers to rub the butter into the flour- until it resembles breadcrumbs.

3) Start adding the cold water, a very small amount at a time; mixing it in with your fingers until the mixture actually looks like pastry- a soft paste texture. I used just over 2 tablespoons for my pastry, but this varies so you must always add water bit by bit- and only use just enough water.

4) Allow the pastry to rest for about 30 minutes in the fridge.

5) Roll it out on a floured surface- be gentle, to avoid tearing it. Then transfer it into your pie dish (for the pumpkin pie recipe you need a 23cm dish)

6) Trim off the excess pastry with a knife- but remember that it'll shrink when cooked, so make sure the pastry still hangs a little over the edge.

For some recipes you may need to blind bake the pie crust (where you bake the crust without a filling, using baking beans or dried rice etc. to hold the pastry down) but for this recipe that's not necessary.

Now we can move on to the actual pumpkin pie recipe- which I will either post later today, or tomorrow :)
Here's part 1- pumpkin puree.

                                                               
                                                                                                    xGretalRabbitx