This recipe for pie pastry is quick easy and can be used for all kinds of pies or quiches. Try to experiment with molds or pans to find creative shapes that can make your dishes more interesting.

Pastry ingredients

When making pastry you want to create a crumbly crisp dough. Tho achieve this it is important to work the dough as little as possible. Flour with lower protein content and fine grain is usually preferable to bread flour. After mixing the dough it is also important to let it rest in the fridge. A cold rested dough is usually easier to work with. You can also experiment with the thickness of your dough. A solid 5 mm dough will give a more full mouthful and a more crisp texture as opposed to a 2 mm thin more delicate version. Remember to adjust the baking time when experimenting with different thicknesses. One trick we use is to roll the pie dough onto our rolling pin before lifting the pastry over the pan. This will prevent it from cracking up. You can also roll the dough out on a piece of greaseproof paper.

After applying the pastry to the pan, leave the dough in the freezer for 30 minutes. This will prevent the edges from falling down while baking. And also lets you cut the pastry down to the edge of the pan

Baking pie pastry

As for baking, it is important to perforate the bottom of the pie before blind baking. This will make sure that any expanding air between the dough and the pan is released. And you will get a better result without any dome shape in the bottom of the pan. We always blind bake our pastry as this will give a crispier final result where the dough doesn’t soak up any liquid that you fill it with. It is also important to fill the pie with some kind of content before blind baking. This will prevent the edges from falling in or sinking. We find that rice is a good option and you can reuse this several times. You can also use peas or ceramic balls specially designed for this purpose. We usually use a piece of greaseproof paper that we crumble up into a ball and then unfold without tearing it apart. This will make it more pliable. After pre-baking the pastry, it is important to add a thin coat of egg wash on the inside of the pastry. This will also prevent the pastry from becoming soggy. Leave the pastry in the turned-off oven and let the egg wash sett.