Plain Pastry. Plain pastry consists of fat, flour, water, and salt. Butter yields the richest flavor, but shortening will produce the flakiest crust, a mixture of the two will make a good balance. It is almost as easy to make pastry by hand, than it is with a food processor.

Ingredients of Plain Pastry

1. Prepare 3 cups of sifted flour, divided.
2. You need 1 tsp of salt.
3. It’s 1 cup of lard.
4. Prepare 1/2 cup of cold water.

I don't add any sugar or salt to the dough so I can use it for savoury or sweet pies. It's a very soft pastry so instead of rolling it out, pull off small pieces and patch it together in a non-stick tart tin. Making shortcrust pastry is easy and quick but it is useful to know a few basic tips which will ensure that your pastry is the best it can be. You can make pastry from wholemeal plain flour or from white plain flour, or indeed a mix of the two.

Plain Pastry instructions

1. In a large mixing bowl, mix 2 1/2 cups flour with salt. Cut in lard..
2. In a small mixing bowl, mix remaining 1/2 cup flour with 1/2 cup cold water..
3. Add contents of small mixing bowl to contents of large mixing bowl and knead together..
4. Divide dough into two pieces. Roll out each piece separately with a lightly floured rolling pin and pierce with a fork. Use pie crusts for desired single or double crust pies. Single crust pies can be baked at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes or until crusts are lightly browned. Double crust pies can be baked as per directions in pie recipe..

Wholemeal flour is nutty and has more texture and flavour. Shortcrust pastry is nothing more than a mixture of flour, usually plain flour or all-purpose, as it is known in the US, and a fat, either butter, lard, or a mixture of both. These are bound together with either cold water or with egg for a richer pastry. See tips for making a successful shortcrust pastry. If you want some sweetness too in the pie, then you can add one teaspoon of sugar into it as well.