Christmas Shortcrust Pastry

‘Short’ means the pastry should be crumbly by nature so don’t overwork the dough, just bring it together.

Plain flour is used as it has a lower gluten content and will again add to the crumbliness we want. Orange zest and almonds make it festive!

Good for mince pies!

Ingredients

200g plain flour

25g ground almonds

110g chilled butter

Zest and Juice of an Orange

A grate of nutmeg

A good pinch of salt

Method

Sieve the flour and salt into a big bowl. Add in the almonds, nutmeg and zest of the orange.

Cut the chilled butter into cubes and quickly rub into the flour to resemble very coarse breadcrumbs.

If a few small chunks of butter are left in the mix it’s no problem. That increases the crumbliness.

Add in the orange juice and bring together into a ball with a fork.

Flatten into a thick disc, clingfilm and chill for 20 minutes.