This was just something I made for a tomato and mushroom tart and I came up with this pastry basically on the spot. And it worked out really really well...
Ingredients
1 cup chilled cubed butter,
2 1/2 cups self-raising flour, (this is all I had in and it worked really good)
1/2 cup cold water,
2 heaped tbsp finely grated parmasean cheese,
1 tbsp dried mixed herbs,
1/2 tsp salt,
1/2 tsp black pepper,
1/4 tsp white pepper.
Method
Mix together the flour, cheese, herbs and seasoning in a bowl.
(For the next step, I used an electric hand mixer with the dough attatchment) a stand mixer would be perfect.
Turn the mixer on low and slowly add the butter. This should take about 5 minutes. Then whisk for another minute or so on high until the mixture looks like golden break crumbs, you may still have clumps of butter left, but as long as they are no bigger than a 5p peice its fine. If you have clumps much bigger than this then continue mixing on high for another minute or two.
Then with the mixer on low again, slowly poor in the water approximately a tablespoon at a time. When big clumps of pastry begin to form, touch to check its not too sticky or crumbly so you know when to stop adding water.
Then form a thick pastry disk and wrap it in foil or cling film and place im freezer for 10-20 minutes. This is allow it to firm up slightly and allow the gluten in the flour to relax after being worked when being mixed.
Then very lightly flour your surface, the part of your pastry facing upward and your rolling pin.
Roll out to fit your dish and chill again once in dish.
(I rolled it out to a thickness of about 1/4 of an inch in a 9.5" ceramic dish and blind baked it for 10 minutes in a 210 degree fan oven, before adding a thin filling.)
Enjoy :) x
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