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
Metric
Imperial
- 110g of lard
- 280g of water
- 500g of plain flour
- 2 tsp salt
1
Place the lard and water together in a saucepan and bring to the boil
2
Sieve the flour into a large bowl with the salt
3
Make a well in the middle of the flour and pour in the lard and water mixture. Using a wooden spoon, mix thoroughly to form a dough
4
Cover the dough with cling film and leave to rest for 20 minutes
5
To use, lightly flour the surface and roll out to a thickness of 3mm
Uses
Hot water crust pastry is commonly associated with pork pies and other rich, meaty pies, such as Galton Blackiston’s Raised game pie or Emily Watkins’ Pork loin and black pudding Wellington.
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