The expert's guide to pastry - The Hairy Bikers

In her final piece looking at the best chefs and their books, Laura Rowe gets to grips with perfect pastry.

The TV cooks: The Hairy Bikers’ Perfect Pies

Pre-diet, the lovely Hairy Bikers used to wax lyrical about fun things like butter and lard, and no more so than in their brilliant book on pies. Although slightly backward in layout – the ‘basics’ we are meant to master are positioned at the back of the book – there is a lot of useful information in here on everything from the essential kit needed for pastry making to guidance on making it by hand and in the processor.

Si and Dave prefer using metal tins to cook pastry “as metal conducts the heat to the pastry well” rather than ceramic. They say “most modern flours don’t need sifting” but if you have time it “can help add air to the mix and make it even lighter”. Use baking paper/parchment rather than greaseproof paper because “it doesn’t have the same non-stick qualities” and always have a ruler to hand.

The boys like to use cold eggs in their shortcrust, “as we think it gives a richer pastry and is easier to use [than measuring water]”, and butter is recommended to be chilled twice, before and after cutting into cubes. They also suggest lifting the mixture out of the bowl as you rub the fat in the flour, to get as much air into the pastry as possible. Interestingly they say to roll out the pastry as soon as it is combined, line the tin, then chill it in the fridge. There are also lots of pictures, in a step-by-step fashion, although they are a bit lifestyle-y rather than showing you properly what needs doing. The food processor pictures are much better, and show you how the pastry will look at each stage.

There’s a great section on variations of the basic shortcrust recipe – with a cornmeal, wholemeal, sweet and gluten-free shortcrust – as well as flavoured pastries including citrus, chocolate and spicy. They also take you through rough puff, which they add lemon juice to, ‘flaky freezer pastry’ which again calls for frozen butter to be grated in, pâte sucrée and hot water crust. Then there are detailed pages on everything from rolling out pastry (homemade and shop-bought), lining tart tins, blind baking, putting on the top crust of a pie, trimming and crimping, ‘knocking up’ (before you say anything, this is something you do to puff pastry after it has been trimmed) and decorating. There is even a whole spread of tips on things such as rolling sweet pastry out on baking parchment, rolling in one direction, cooking ceramic dishes on hot baking trays and ensuring any filling is completely cold before using.

The Hairy Bikers might not be known for gourmet cooking, but when it comes to home cooking and practical baking tips they know their stuff. They want to make baking as easy, and tasty, as possible – and if that is your mantra too, you’ll love this book.

Previous: Delia Smith's How to Cook (parts one and two) 

Next: Rosemary Hume and Muriel Downes' Cordon Bleu Cookery 

Previous experts series:
The expert's guide to Victoria sponge
The expert's guide to bread making