Elevate your pastry with this recipe!
There are some recipes that are simply handy to have up your sleeve, and this Cheesy Shortcrust Pastry is one of them.
It’s a simple savoury shortcrust pastry with the addition of cheese, giving you a lovely rich, buttery pastry with plenty of flavour. It’s quick to make, uses basic ingredients and is a great alternative to reaching for a packet of pastry from the freezer.
And really, adding cheese rarely makes anything worse.
What Can You Use Cheesy Shortcrust Pastry For?
This pastry works anywhere you want a savoury pastry with a little extra flavour. Use it for:
- Savoury pies and pie tops
- Quiches
- Bacon and egg pie
- Sausage rolls
- Savoury tarts
- Little tartlets or mini pies
- Cheese straws and other savoury snacks
It’s particularly good with fillings containing bacon, ham, tomato, caramelised onion or more cheese — because apparently there is no such thing as too much.
Tips for Making Shortcrust Pastry
The secret to good shortcrust pastry is not to muck around with it too much.
Keep your ingredients cool and handle the dough as little as possible. Once everything has come together, stop mixing. Overworking pastry can make it tough rather than lovely and short.
Giving your pastry time to rest in the fridge before rolling it out also makes it much easier to handle and helps it keep its shape when baked.
When you're ready to roll, lightly flour your bench and rolling pin. You want enough flour to stop the pastry sticking without working lots of extra flour into the dough.
Can You Make Cheesy Shortcrust Pastry Ahead of Time?
Absolutely.
You can make the pastry ahead of time and keep it wrapped in the fridge until you're ready to use it. It's a great little job to get done earlier in the day if you're making a pie or quiche for dinner.
It can also be frozen for another day. Wrap it well before freezing, then allow it to thaw in the fridge before rolling it out.
Homemade Pastry Without the Fuss
Homemade pastry can sometimes have a reputation for being fiddly, but it really doesn't need to be.
This is the sort of recipe I like — straightforward, useful and versatile. Once you have a good savoury pastry recipe in your repertoire, you'll find all sorts of excuses to use it.
And when that pastry also contains cheese?
Even better.
What do i do with the scraps?
Well you make them into delicious little cheesy biscuits!
I put these in my daughters lunch boxes and they love them.
They would also go really nicely on a cheese platter!
Last of all . . . what did I make . . .
I made a simple bacon and egg pie and it was delcious.
Cheesy Short Crust Pastry
Ingredients
- 1 cup of flour 150 grams
- ¼ teaspoon of salt
- 80 grams of cold butter
- 80 grams of tasty cheese
- 4-5 tablespoon of cold water
Instructions
- This recipe will fit a rectangular tart dish 36x13cm or a circular pan/dish with a diameter of 20CM
- Begin by grating the butter and cheese.
- Place the flour, salt, butter and cheese into your cake mixer with the dough attachment or kitchen whizz. Alternatively your could rub the ingredients with clean hands.
- Add 4 tablespoons of cold water to the dough and use your hands to bring it together to form a ball. Add another tablespoon of water if it is a little crumbly.
- Wrap and chill the dough for 5 minutes before rolling out.
- At this stage you can wrap your dough and freeze it for another day. Or place it in the fridge for the next day. Which ever your choose - make sure that you bring your dough out in advance before rolling (you want it firm and malleable like clay - not soft like play dough).
- Preheat your oven to 200 degrees fanbake.
- Pat the dough down (into a rectangular shape), pinching along any cracks to make smooth edges.
- Flour your bench surface. Use a rolling pin to roll out into a long rectangular shape until the pastry is 3mm (ish) thick.
- Place in your tart dish making sure to cover the sides too. It’s a forgiving pastry and if you have a gap, simply take any excess and patch the gaps.
- Prick the bottom with a fork and leave on your bench for five minutes for the pastry to relax.
- Bake in your hot oven for 5 minutes.
- Take out . . . Now use it for what ever you like . . .
