My mom is a horrendously picky eater, and that might be an understatement. And to make matters worst, she doesn’t even have a sweet tooth, so I don’t know where my love of all things sweet and dessert-y even came from. She rarely, if ever, asks me to make anything resembling desserts, and she doesn’t even like berries of any kind. It would be easier to name the things she does eat, then try and tell you what she doesn’t.
The first time I tried making pastry though, I was surprised that my first attempt had her complimenting me on one thing – the flaky pie crust I had ended up with. That had been a good four years ago, but I’ve kept the same recipe ever since. I don’t even remember where it came from (so if it came from you, please notify me and I’ll credit accordingly!), but I did make a couple of changes here and there, and there it remains on a crumpled piece of paper, stuck on my fridge.
The pastry recipe I used has made an appearance before, in the very first post I made for this blog, for my signature fruit tarts, but here I’ll show how exactly you can get flaky pastry cases (and as a rule of thumb, try and work with cold everything, so as to keep the butter from melting. So cold hands, cold rolling pin, cold marble top if possible… and pick cooler day, if you live in a tropical place like I do).
Ingredients
(this makes about enough for 48 regular sized tart cases. halve or add on to the recipe as per needed)
- 525 grams plain flour
- 150 grams granulated sugar
- 250 grams cold butter, plus an extra 2 tbsp at room temperature, set aside
- 2 large eggs
- 1/4 tsp salt
Instructions
- Mix flour, sugar, 250 grams butter and salt in a large mixing bowl, and using your fingers, pinch the cold butter and flour/sugar, mixing with your hands until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
- Add in the eggs, and continue mixing using your hands. Dough will begin to come together as the warmth of your hand melts the butter.
- Form in to a ball and wrap in cling wrap, before putting it in the freezer. A minimum of 2 – 3 hours is needed, but I usually put it in overnight. (Can be kept for future usage too. I usually make a big batch and split it in to four different packages, taking one out whenever I need it.)
- Take out and let defrost on the counter (or overnight in the fridge, if you made it beforehand), until the dough is just soft enough so you could use the heel of your palm to press it down.
- Setting the dough in between two sheets of baking paper (or on a floured surface, but baking paper means I have less countertop to wipe/rolling pin to wash. Heh.), roll the dough out to about 1/2 an inch thickness
- Using the previously set aside 2 tbsp of butter at room temperature, dot bits of the butter across the rolled out dough, and then fold it in half.
- Repeat process, and then fold the right in, and then the left, until you’ve got a square little pocket as above.
- Roll out dough again, and then repeat steps 6 and 7 once more. Roll out after repeating the square little pocket, and then with the dough in between baking sheets, set it in the refrigerator for 5 – 10 minutes for butter to set, before proceeding with recipe.
The key to a flaky pastry, as far as I can tell, would be the butter bits that are cold and not incorporated in to the pastry. I’m too lazy to get to know the further specifics, but it works.
I used the dough to make coconut tarts, and this as well as my fruit tart recipe, requires the tart cases to be blind baked, a process illustrated and further elaborated on below. While slightly more tedious, the results are delicious, the amazing fragrance of coconut mixed with the buttery, flaky goodness of pastry… no wonder my mother’s picky palate approves.
Coconut Tarts
Ingredients
Blind Baking
- 12 tart cases, as prepared above
- uncooked grains of rice
- baking paper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180C
- After the last 10 minutes of setting the dough in the refrigerator, take dough out and use cookie cutters to cut circles of dough, before pressing dough in to greased tart cases.
- Line each prepared tart case with baking paper, and fill each with 1 1/2 tsp of uncooked grains of rice. This is to weigh down the dough so it doesn’t puff up during the baking process. Be very careful not to drop the rice in to the tart cases, as they can be difficult to pick out and remove.
- Bake the weighed down dough in the preheated oven for 15 – 18 minutes, until the dough begins to appear a light golden brown.
- Remove the baking paper and rice from the half-baked tart cases, and fill with any filling you wish before finishing the baking process.
Coconut Filling
- 250 grams shredded coconut
- 100 grams granulated sugar
- 2 tbsp kaya/coconut jam
- 1 egg
- pinch of salt
- Preheat oven to 180C
- Mix together all the ingredients above until well incorporated
- Fill blind baked tart cases with coconut filling, and top with half a cherry or a slice of strawberry for decorative purposes.
- Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes, or until coconut flakes begin to brown. Remove and serve warm.
Hungry Tales 