Pastry made Easy for RSG
Posted on May 1, 2013 by in beef, rsg
Pastry is a problem for so many cooks and again this weekend at the SA Cheese Festival, I was asked so many times, what the secret to good pastry is! My answer is simple: Know the basic stuff and you are halfway there.
Pastry making does not have to be that difficult. As with so many other processes, life is to short to sweat about stuff. I will show you the easy pastry recipes, the recipes that will make your life easier, not more difficult. O f course we all want to, at some stage, try our hand at the integrate processes of real puff pastry, but I am talking about life here…… mom comes home at 5 and has to serve supper at 6. Yes, you can stop at the shop and buy some puff pastry… or you can make your own. It cost less and it tastes way better!
The cottage cheese recipe was given to me yesterday in a coffee shop by my dear friend and chair lady of the Fynproewersgulde, Retha Cronje. I made little Spanish Empanadas with the pastry today and it was delicious. Flaky, crumbly and rich pastry, just the way I like it. So in this post I will aim to share a whole variety of easy pastry recipes. Recipes that have been passed down through generations on little scraps of paper. I love those recipes, because they work.
First recipe for pastry has to be our “Slap Degie vir menige gebruik” ( Soft all-purpose batter)
Slap Degie
Ingredients
250 ml self-raising flour
1 egg
125 ml milk
125 ml vegetable oil
salt/pepper
Method
Place flour in a mixing bowl. Break egg in a cup, fill halfway with milk and then to the top with oil. Beat the egg, milk and oil mixture and add to the flour. Use this batter/pastry to cover sweet or savory pies.
Easy Puff-pastry
Ingredients
550 g flour
500 g butter
5 ml cream of tartar
5 ml salt
250 ml boiling water
Method
Place the flour and cream of tartar in a mixing bowl. Cut the butter into cubes and pour the boiling water over it and allow to melt to lumpy consistency. Pour over the flour and mix. The mixture will look like thick sour milk, but just pour it out onto some cling film, cover and leave in fridge until set, a few hours. Roll out and use as needed.
Gluten-free Almond Pastry
Ingredients
500 ml ground macadamia nuts (or almonds )
45 ml butter
1 egg
½ t salt
½ t dry mustard
Method
Place all the ingredients for the crust in a food processor and mix well. Press the dough into a 23cm loose bottom tart pan and make holes in the pastry with a fork. Place in the fridge to rest for at least 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 180 C and bake the tart crust until lightly browned. Refrigerate.
Choux Pastry
Ingredients
250 ml boiling water
125 ml butter
250 ml cake flour
3 jumbo eggs or 4 large
Method
Preheat the oven to 180C. Prepare a baking sheet by spraying it with non-stick spray or lining it with baking paper. Boil the water in a small pot and add the butter and allow to melt. Add all the cake flour in at once and stir with a wooden spoon until the mixture comes away from the sides of the pot. Remove from the heat and place the mixture in the bowl of your mixer. Beat the flour mixture for about 1 minute so that it can cool and then add the eggs one by one, beating in between each addition of eggs. Spoon the mixture into a piping bag and pipe 10cm long choux buns on the baking paper. Bake for 25 minutes, remove from the oven and make a small cut on the side of each choux bun to release the steam. Place back in the oven, with heat now reduced to 160C. Bake for another 5 minutes or until choux buns have now hardened. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack.
Sweet Short Crust Pastry
Ingredients
300 g(2 cups) self-raising flour
50 g caster sugar
125 g butter – cold and cubed
3 extra large egg yolks
Ice water
Method
Place flour and sugar into a food processor and pulse until mixed. Add the butter cubes and pulse a few times to cut the butter into the flour mixture. Beat the egg yolks and add it to flour mixture. Pulse a few more times until the dough starts to form a ball. Add a little ice water if too stiff. Remove from the processor and throw out on a floured surface. Bring together with your hands and cover with cling film. Refrigerate for at least an hour.
Cottage Cheese Pastry
Ingredients
250 ml cottage cheese
250 ml butter – room temperature
250 ml flour
Method
Place all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse until it comes together in a ball. Press into a flat disc and cover with cling film. Keep in refrigerator until needed.
Tomorrow morning just after the 9 o’clock news, I will be back in my seat at RSG studios, chatting to you about easy pastry recipes. I will also in weeks to come take you into the kitchens of other bloggers, chefs and interesting South Africans this year. So buckle up, it is going to be an awesome ride. Tune in 100-104FM or listen online here!
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