Pastry, quiche and no soggy bottoms thank you very much!

As a sort of homage to last night's show I thought I would share the recipe that received good praise from Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood. For the first round of face to face auditions we were asked to bake something sweet and something savoury that would WOW the judges, the sweet bake I made was the meringue (posted earlier) and the savoury bake I made was a smoked trout cheesecake in a pastry case, a sort of luxurious quiche if you like. 

The part of it that gave me the high praise was my pastry, something that has always been complimented but until recently I never felt it was up to scratch. That is until I discovered the baking book, Bourke Street Bakery, quite possibly one of my all time favourite baking books; everything I've baked from it has turned out well. They called for the pastry to be made over a couple of days and also the inclusion of a top ingredient, white vinegar. I know what you are thinking, vinegar tasting pastry isn't a pleasant idea but bear with me as I explain the reason.


When you mix flour with water, gluten is released. Now long gluten strands in bread is essential to give it that elastic doughy consistency but in pastry it can leave it very rubbery and not at all short. Short crust pastry needs to be melt-in-the-mouth and what vinegar does is to prevent the gluten from forming long strands. It acts to tenderise the pastry, resulting in a very short, flaky pastry.


The Bourke Street Bakery book also suggested something else which went against every instinct and method you've been told before... use butter that has been out of the fridge for 20 minutes or so! I know, we are indoctrinated with the mantra of keeping everything as chilled as possible and to reduce the amount of handling as much as you can but this pastry is amazing so be prepared to suspend that disbelief and have a go.


Perfect Short Crust Pastry


400 g  unsalted butter, chilled, cut into 1.5 cm cubes
20 ml/ 1 tablespoon) vinegar, chilled
170 ml /(2/3 cup) water, chilled
665 g plain (all purpose) flour, chilled
5 g/ 1 teaspoon) salt


Measure out all the dry ingredients and put them into a refrigerator to completely chill, do the same with the wet ingredients. Take out the butter 20 minutes before you need to use it, the butter should not be solid but still cool. 


When you are ready, add the butter to the dry ingredients and begin to rub it in. It is important that you don't go too crazy and get it to 'resemble bread-crumbs'. I know this goes against all you've been taught but trust me, all you need to do is get the butter smooshed into the flour enough so it is well mixed through and there are still some large lumps in there which have been broken down a bit. 


Empty this floury, buttery mixture out on to a clean work surface and then sprinkle over the water and vinegar mix. You may not need it all, but as you add it use the heel of your hand to smear the flour and butter away from you, bring it back to the centre and repeat. Do this, adding water as needed, until a dough is formed that isn't overly wet but at the same time isn't breaking apart into floury clumps. Form it into a disc or ball and then wrap it in cling film and pop into the fridge for 2hours or overnight (which is even better), this allows the gluten to relax!


Once chilled take the pastry out of the fridge and roll it out to the desired size. Every time you roll, start the pin in the middle of the dough and push away, rotating the dough as needed until and even thickness and size is formed, ideally you want about 1.5 - 2 cm thickness bearing in mind it will shrink in the oven. Line a pasty case or tart tin, allowing some of the pastry to overhang at the sides so it can shrink, then back into the fridge to chill again and relax that gluten, 2 hours should do it.

Right, now to blind bake the pastry. This is an important process as it pre-cooks the pastry and ensures no soggy bottoms! Preheat the oven to 200C and remove the prepared tin from the fridge, prick the bottom several times with a fork. Using foil or baking parchment to line the pastry, fill the case with baking beans or rice or something else heavy. Whatever you choose must be something that can fill the case and get into the flutes along the edge so a weight from a set of scales won't do it! This prevents the pastry forming air bubbles underneath it, and also stops it rising whilst it's cooking.

Pop it into the oven for 12-15 minutes, after which the risk of the base rising up should have gone, and then remove the beans. Put it back into the oven to finish cooking the pastry and once it's brown and crisp I recommend brushing the base and sides with a beaten egg, put it back into the oven to cook out the egg wash, which seals the pastry and also helps to prevent the dreaded soggy bottom!

Your case is now ready for a filling.


I filled my case with a thick, savoury smoked trout, cheese cake filling.


N.B. the quantities here are big, I would say this would make more than enough to fill an 8 inch tin and then some.  Then again you probably have pastry left over so why not make some individual tarts for lunch?


Smoked Trout Cheesecake

• 3 8oz. packages of cream cheese, softened
• 5 eggs
• 1 pint of sour cream
• 1 small onion, minced finely
• 1/2 - 1 cup capers (optional)
• 1/4 lb. cold smoked trout sliced
• 1 cup of fresh dill, chopped
• zest of 1 lemon
• salt and pepper for seasoning
• 
  

Put the cheese into a mixer and mix until soft, add the eggs one at a time and beat them in, pour in the sour cream and mix until combined. Add the remaining ingredients and stir them in by hand, season with salt and pepper only after you add the trout and capers because they will have some salt in them and you won't need as much.

Pour this into your prepared cases and bake in an oven set at around 180C until it is brown on top and set. One tip for avoiding burnt edges to your pastry is to cover just the rim of the tart with foil. If you want to avoid the cheesecake cracking then completely seal the base of the tin with foil and place it into a deeper baking tin, filling this tin with water that comes up to 2/3 of the height of the pastry tin. This adds a humidity to the oven which prevents cracking.

Paul and Mary enjoyed the filling as well as the pastry, complimenting the delicate flavour and the good choice of cold smoked trout as opposed to hot smoked trout. Paul suggested it would be better with some cream in it and less cream cheese, to make it less dense but overall enjoyed it. Mary liked the pastry as it was dry, short and flaky! 

Enjoy experimenting with lots of different flavours of filling and pastry!