Wednesday 17 December 2008

Bah humbug

So having made even more mince pies last night, I decided to treat the boys at work to their deliciousness. Doused in icing sugar and neatly laid out on a plate, I walked into the yard bearing my gift to be greeted with howls of pleasure. There is nothing quite like food to have them eating out of your hand....in a manner of speaking.

An hour later there is mockery.

There is mockery across our radio waves as to the need to watch out for loose teeth when partaking of the said mince pies.

OK, so my pastry is not the soft pappy stuff that shop-bought mince pies are made of. It has a bit more substance to it. But a danger to loose teeth it is not. I learnt how to make pastry at my mother's knee and it's tasty and yummy. She says adamantly.

Bloody ingrates.

But it does lead me to ask all you pastry makers out there what your recipe is. I would like to make a slightly softer pastry sometimes.

8 comments:

  1. Ungrateful twits ;)

    I wonder if the ribbing was due to a little embarassment at your generosity. There is nothing wrong with "substantial" pastry - especially in a pie.

    I have made pie crust with varying degrees of success, but my most successful version came rolled up from a store.

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  2. Hey ho! I like a harder pastry, but can't eat it these days - so I use more butter/marg (better with butter!) to make it shorter - and sometimes add a little bit of self raising flour, sometimes all, which does make short, fluffy, rich pastry.

    Niki xxx

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  3. I'd like to help you out but my pie crust could double as a frisbee for the dog.

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  4. My pastry can break diamond-tipped tools, so go advice from here. Sorry.

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  5. More fat, less cooking time - I like brown-coloured pastry, but then the pastry goes really hard, so you have to force yourself to take the things out of the oven while they still look pale and flabby, then cover them in sugar. I'm on the dog-frisbee end of the spectrum myself, but family members have learned to watch the oven and hold me back while they remove the not-yet-brown mince pies.

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  6. Loose teeth? Well if we are not talking about 5 year olds or 85 year olds, then the joke must be on them ... tsk tsk tsk. Don't forget to floss, gentleman.

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  7. my husband says my pastry isn't like his Gram's was. She used lard.

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