Cooking For Engineers

[Pie_Designs]

Hi all,

Your assistance is required!

I am making pies with the Scotch Method (See below)

part flour (1kg)
1/4 or 1/3 fat that’s been frozen where ¼ =250g etc

1-tablespoon salt
2 cups or more of ice water
¼ to ½ cup of fresh lemon juice or white vinegar
1 egg yolk

Mix in a bowl - NB: mix water & egg first

Grate the frozen fat then mix with flour till all the fat is coated with flour.
Do Not mix so that the fat melts or merges with the flour !!!

Then slowly add the rest of the mix.

Note: The layering of the pastry is achieved by how one grates the fat.
For example, The finer you grate the fat (the less mixing) the less layering, & the rougher you grate the fat the more layering.



My problem is that my pies are hard and almost "crispy" - I am not sure what to do to rectify the problem.

What would you suggest to use as the best pastry fat?

I have been advised to add additional salt to my pastry, what would the effects of that be?

Please note I am in Botswana, which has a dry and hot climate!

Please help, your assistance is greatly appreciated!

[curryman]

Wow, I hope I'm not too late! Why didn't anyone respond?

Your pastry is hard simply because 1/4 to 1/3 fat is simply not enough.

For a kg of flour( use all purpose, not bread or high protein ), you'll need at least 500g of fat. Use butter or half butter half lard. I'm against engineered fats so I won't recommend CRISCO, pastry margarine and such but if you are using CRISCO then you can actually use less..........say 350 - 400g.

Do away with the lemon juice or vinegar because it enhances the gluten in the flour and makes your pastry tough. To prevent further development of gluten and to tenderize the "flour" part of the pastry, replace 50g of flour with butter, lard or oil. Rub this into the flour to resemble fine breadcrumbs.

Proceed as per your recipe.