Relaxing ways to start Sunday

[major_clanger]

Making pastry! I volunteered to make Apple Pie for a forthcoming Thanksgiving-themed potluck and so sought advice from E, my erstwhile coursemate on the BVC. Now, despite having acquired a Home Counties accent at Oxford so convincing she now gets the third degree from Homeland Security on visits home, E is technically eligible to join the DAR; since she is thus officially As American As Apple Pie I thought she ought to be able to tell me how to make a proper one. Sure enough she sent me her mother's allegedly infallible recipe so, as firm believer in the 6P principle I though I'd best have a trial run.

I mentioned this to my Mum yesterday whilst visiting; she thought I was a bit mad for making the pastry rather than buying it (well, I want this to be a pie I've made rather than assembled) but gave me some helpful tips on making pastry if I was intent on doing so. Apparently the idea is to gently crumble the flour and fat between your fingertips rather than knead it together - this gets a more even mix and adds air to the dough. Thus advised, and equipped with some quick calculations to turn cups into grammes, I set to work with my flour and Trex, which is apparently the best local equivalent to that peculiar US substance 'shortening'.

Well, I now have a nice ball of what looks, smells and tastes like pastry, so now to try the actual Apple Pie bit. More updates later.

Comments

[brixtonbrood.livejournal.com]

Some people can do pastry, others simply can't, the ability is very dependent on hand temperature amongst other things - if your hands are too warm then you may be congenitally crap at pastry. This is your chance to find out which camp you fall into. Let us know how it turns out - we're intrigued.

(I am reminded of my father's solo attempt to make Welsh Cakes in Belgium, with no griddle, rolling pin or cutters. It was not a success.)