Hot water pastry. Most commonly associated with pork pies, hot water crust pastry is perfect for shaping into pie cases because the high quantity of water present makes it hard and strong. The pastry is baked until rich brown in colour and stands up well to wet and heavy fillings. Hot water crust pastry requires the fat to be 'hot' when added, rather than chilled as is needed for most other kinds of pastry.

Ingredients of Hot water pastry

1. Prepare 2 cup of all-purpose flour.
2. Prepare 1 cup of hot water.
3. You need 1/2 cup of of ANY kind of fat.
4. Prepare 1 tsp of salt.
5. You need 1 of extra flour for kneading.
6. You need of utensils.
7. Prepare 1 of Mixing bowl.
8. It’s 1 of your hands.
9. Prepare 1 of cutting board or counter top.
10. You need 1 of coffee pot or stove top.

It's a serious wonder why it's taken us so long to jump on the bandwagon. How water crust is crazy crispy, but still manages to have great flavor. But most of all, it's super sturdy. Place the butter and water in a medium-sized saucepan, and heat gently, stirring occasionally, until the butter melts, then bring the mixture to a rolling boil.

Hot water pastry instructions

1. Sift flour and salt together in a large mixing bowl.
2. Now, you can EITHER 1) heat your fat and water to boiling on the stove OR 2) Run your water through a clean coffee maker and melt your fat in the microwave. Either way is fine as long as they're boiling hot for the next step.
3. Move fast but be safe! Dump your hot fat and boiling water into your dry ingredients and combine until a soft dough forms.
4. Let it rest until its cool enough to handle safely, then knead until it stiffens up, I usually rest it 10 minutes or so then knead it just until stiff (use a lightly floured surface obviously).
5. Now you can either use it immediately or you can wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate it for up to 2 days. Just take it out, roll it or shape it however you wish and stuff it!.
6. Bake according to your recipe, it blind bakes well too provided you dock it.
7. This makes enough for 2 9" pie crusts or 1 13×9" pan (bottom only) I don't usually mature it and you can use any kind of fat: butter, lard, shortening, I've even used hamburger grease straight from the pan. You can also season it with various seasonings or spices instead of salt. It makes a nice flaky pastry that is also quite sturdy if you wish to mold your pie instead of using a pan.

Meanwhile, sift the flour and salt. Hot water crust is ideal for savory pies, such as this beef and potato pie. Since this pastry is quite strong when baked, it's traditionally used for freestanding, hand-raised meat pies like pork pies or these chicken, bacon, and apricot pies. Unfortunately while this one was by far easier to handle without needing time in the fridge the end result was quite a bit tougher after the pie was cooked. Put the flour, salt and egg into a bowl and roughly mix together.