Pastry

[Hilary B]

I wanted to make an apple pie, discovered I had no plain flour, and very little SR. I decided the best bet was a mix of breadflour and cornflour, it ended up about 60% breadflour, 40% cornflour. I then used real butter (because it was what was in the house). I used the SR to flour the work-surface for rolling out.
We all thoroughly enjoyed it, some of the best pastry I've ever made!

[Flummery]

I know the books give you hard and fast rules but it's surprising how far you can bend them. I've done the same with bread - not enough bread flour - added wholemeal self rasing. What a no-no! But it turned out really well.

[Jardiniere]

there an advert on french TV for cornflour whiich says that its the best thing for making crepes (pancakes)....havent tried it yet..................

[Dottie]

I'm not a pastry fan at all, so although I also don't eat bread much either (but do like toast every now and then), I started using pizza dough for making little food parcels. Started off with little mincemeat calzone or any other filling I fancy or have handy, such as curry dishes. It seems to be flour that is not really my thing, just too heavy for my liking, so as toast drys it when toasted, maybe that makes it less heavy, so more to my liking. Having said that I'd probably only make pizza or bread mix about once a month/6 weeks, but it's definitely a good substitute for pastry. So I suppose my contribution to this thread is, you can make up your pastry anyway you like, as it's the filling that makes it for me.

I'm Irish decent, so I'm a great lover of the old potato. Yet I'm sure there are lots of pastry fans, who find potato too heavy? So don't know why I'm not keen on foods made with flour added. Love rice too, but not a pasta fan, yep too heavy!

[Patchninja]

Dottie, try making your own pasta. It's much lighter than dried or even bought so called fresh. One egg to 100g flour. Nothing else. Simples.

[Hilary B]

The apple pie had 3 large Bramleys, some sugar, and a little cinnamon to a pastry mix made with 8oz mixed flour and 4oz butter. The secret is not too much pastry for the amount of filling!