How do you make crumbly pastry instead of flaky?

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g23

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i made the most delicious cornish pasty today ( i thought so anyway:) ) and so did my husband but said that he doesn't like flaky crust much and if i could make a less flaky crust the next time .

so far most of the instructions i've come across always aim for a flaky crust. what do i do to make a more crumbly crust. it should taste more a more like a soft biscuit? that's what dh said. i hope he knows wht he's talking about!:dry:


anyway my basic recipe was 225g flour and 112g butter and lard. oh and dh wants it a bit less fatty as well

now can i cut back on some of the butter and lard? and if so how much

how do i get this crumbly crust then, knead the dough more?

any help from experienced bakers is most appreciated. thank you
 
I vouch for that too Andy. Works great for my crusts, though I add butter to my crust as well. If you need a recipe g23 just give me a shout.
 
amber said:
I vouch for that too Andy. Works great for my crusts, though I add butter to my crust as well. If you need a recipe g23 just give me a shout.


hi amber would love that recipe as i lke using butter on my crust.
 
Andy M. said:
Use vegetable shortening in place of the other fats.


hi andy. are u sure it won;t taste horrible using all vegetable shortening as last week i used all lard and it tasted disgusting!
 
Pie crust: You'll have to convert the measurements sorry

2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup cold butter, cut into pieces
1/3 cup vegetable shortening
4-8 tablespoons icewater

To make the crust, sift the flour and salt into a bowl. Cut in the butter and shortening until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Sprinkle with 6 tablespoons of icewater and mix until the dough holds together. Add a little more water, 1 tablespoon at a time if needed.

Gather the dough into a ball and flatten into a disk shape. Wrap in waxed paper and chill for at least 30 minutes. You will see chunks of butter in the dough.

After that period of time, I place the dough onto a cutting board using flour to keep the dough from sticking, then roll the dough out with a rolling pin to about 1/4" thick.

This dough is not exactly fat free since it calls for butter, but then no dough is completely fat free if it is to be flaky and light.

Hope you both like it.
 
amber said:
Pie crust: You'll have to convert the measurements sorry

2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup cold butter, cut into pieces
1/3 cup vegetable shortening
4-8 tablespoons icewater

To make the crust, sift the flour and salt into a bowl. Cut in the butter and shortening until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Sprinkle with 6 tablespoons of icewater and mix until the dough holds together. Add a little more water, 1 tablespoon at a time if needed.

Gather the dough into a ball and flatten into a disk shape. Wrap in waxed paper and chill for at least 30 minutes. You will see chunks of butter in the dough.

After that period of time, I place the dough onto a cutting board using flour to keep the dough from sticking, then roll the dough out with a rolling pin to about 1/4" thick.

This dough is not exactly fat free since it calls for butter, but then no dough is completely fat free if it is to be flaky and light.

Hope you both like it.


thanks very much amber. you said in last sentence the dough is flaky? i want dough to be crumbly not flaky. husband don't like flaky crust.do i still use this recipe? thanks again for your help
 
g23 said:
thanks very much amber. you said in last sentence the dough is flaky? i want dough to be crumbly not flaky. husband don't like flaky crust.do i still use this recipe? thanks again for your help

The top is flaky, and the inside crust is more crumbly due to the butter. My husband is british as well, and really likes this type of crust, so maybe your husband will too.
 
amber said:
The top is flaky, and the inside crust is more crumbly due to the butter. My husband is british as well, and really likes this type of crust, so maybe your husband will too.

cheers amber!
 
You may be thinking of Mealy pie crust -

Mealy Pie Dough

For about 2 lbs:
1 1/2 lb. Pastry flour
¾ lb. + 1 oz. Shortening
1 oz. Salt
¼ lb. + 1 oz. water


These are approximate measurements – my recipe is for ~9 lbs. of dough.
Mix the flour & shortening till like coarse cornmeal.
Add the salt & water; mix just till absorbed.

Place in pans, cover and place in fridge or retarder for several hours.
 
I think pastry for something like empanadas would be more crumbly. Or Jamaican pasties.
 
cjs said:
You may be thinking of Mealy pie crust -

Mealy Pie Dough

For about 2 lbs:
1 1/2 lb. Pastry flour
¾ lb. + 1 oz. Shortening
1 oz. Salt
¼ lb. + 1 oz. water


These are approximate measurements – my recipe is for ~9 lbs. of dough.
Mix the flour & shortening till like coarse cornmeal.
Add the salt & water; mix just till absorbed.

Place in pans, cover and place in fridge or retarder for several hours.

hi cjs, thanks for the tip on the mealy pie dough. googled it and i think that's what my husband wants. i will give that a try and knead my flour more. i think this is just excuse for husband to make me bake more!:rolleyes:
 
Here's my recipe for pastie crust. It's a very dense crust. This recipe makes 6 pasties (when dough's rolled out to a 9 inch circle for each pastie)

Crust

4 c flour
1 ¼ c lard**
1 tsp salt
½ c cold water (add slowly—may not need full ½ c)

Mix crust like piecrust dough.
(Bake time, for mine, is 425F for 15 minutes. Then reduce heat to 375F for 45 minutes.)

**make sure lard is at room temperature.
 
Whether a crust is flaky or not doesn't depend on the type of fat (though it does to some extent, with shortening/lard giving a more flaky crust because they don't have water in them) as much as it depends on the size of the fat pieces which are combined with the flour.

For flaky crusts, you want to combine the fat with the flour only until the mixture gets to the size of small peas. The larger sized peices of fat melt and create steam as the crust cooks, which, in turn creates layers of flaky crust.

For a short crusts ("crumbly" "mealy"), you need to combine the fat until the peices are much smaller. Like cjs's recipe says -- till they resemble coarse cornmeal. cjs's recipe looks like a good one for a short (or "crumbly") crust.

DO NOT knead more!

Consider replacing a t of water with vinegar for a more tender crust.

From Baking911

"
Fats: The differences in textures of many pastries has to do with the type of fats and how it's introduced. Fats contribute to the tenderness (shortness) and especially flakiness of pastry. Pure fats, such as shortening and lard, produce to flakier pastry than those that contain water such as butter. Pastry is often a trade-off between flavor and texture, much of which comes from the fat in the recipe. Some bakers use both butter and shortening to capture the best qualities of each, but I prefer to use all butter because of its better taste.

Fats contribute to the flakiness and tenderness of pastry by being layered in between sheets of thin dough. It can also be cut in or rubbed into the flour as pea-sized shapes before the final dough is made. The fat melts during baking, leaving air spaces. When placed in the oven, the flour starches set around the fat, leaving a layer or space when the fat melts which is reabsorbed back into the dough. The longer the fats take to melt in the oven, the more well defined the air cells. The melting point of shortening is higher than that of butter, and it stays solid longer. As a result, it forms better flaky pastry, but without the butter's wonderful flavor."
 
Last edited:
My vote goes to PAB's recipe. Lard is an excellent choice for crumbly crust with rich flavour.
 
thanks pa baker for your recipe

and jennyema for your input as well especially about not kneading more. i mistook that for mixing it to the size of coarsemeal like you said.


and big thanks to everyone else as well for you excellent advice. now i will go put the advice into practice. i will be making more pasties tomorrow as husband is pestering me for more pasties as he said they were delicious even if they were flaky.:rolleyes:
 
urmaniac13 said:
My vote goes to PAB's recipe. Lard is an excellent choice for crumbly crust with rich flavour.


i don't know about lard being rich in flavor. i made my first pasty with all lard and they were disgusting!:sick: since then i've half the fat with butter which taste so much better.
 
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