Pastry Dough

I always had a fear of pastry dough. It used to always crumble and fall apart or be so sticky, that it would stick to everything. So for years, I used ready-made pastry dough, to house my favorite apple-pie fillings. I decided that if I am going to be a proper cook, I need to overcome these fears.

I have found that if I are feeling angry, negative, frustrated and I try to cook, usually what I was making, turns out bad. Same thing happens with fear. So, today, I pretended that I was making pastry dough for years. I need to try to do this more often, in other aspects of my life. I am finding that things I used to feel were so difficult are not as bad ask it seems. I just need the confidence.

Key to making pastry dough. You want COLD dough. If your dough is warm, you will have a sticky mess and a thick dense dough. The butter flakes are what makes a light dough, by forming air pockets, when they melt in the oven. So the colder you keep the dough, before baking and the finer the crumbs of butter you have, the lighter the dough.

Pastry Dough

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup  of all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1/8 teaspoon of baking soda

1/8 teaspoon of baking powder

1 stick of butter, cut in small cubes

1/4 cup of COLD water

Directions:

1. Deep breath, you are a pro at this! Combine the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder in a bowl.
2. Cut in the butter with two forks or run everything in a food processor until you get crumbs of butter and flour.
3. Add COLD water and knead until all the dough is combined
4. Cover in plastic wrap and keep in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour, before using

Pastry Dough, ready for the fridge

This is going to be part of tonight’s Turkey Pot Pie!