(Baker) Julie Jones - The pastry school

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A pastry revival is taking the world by storm and I am excited by it. With top restaurants once again featuring pies and pithiviers on their menus; artisan bakeries opening up aplenty; and Instagram awash with pie-art and viennoiserie, it is safe to say that pastry of all varieties is firmly back in vogue.

Lets not get confused here, theres pastry and then theres pastry. The first is pale, mass-produced, tasteless, and often wrapped around a questionable filling. The second is hand-crafted, beautifully made and golden, delivering both excellent texture and depth of flavour. These pastries are quite simply incomparable lovingly-made pastry is the starring role of a dish, not merely a vehicle to carry its contents.

As many will know, being creative with pastry is my favourite pastime. The hours I have spent honing my skills have been the most peaceful of my life. I find the whole process soothing; those mindful hours spent making pies have given both clarity of mind and a renewed sense of creativity. Artistry aside, what we mustnt forget is that the fundamental, most important and rewarding aspect of making and baking with pastry should always be in the eating. I have many food memories, yet it is those that are enveloped in pastry that are the most memorable. My Nana Mauds custard tart, mince pies at Christmas, an unctuous oxtail pie and Sfogliatella, to name just a few. Although all are very different, I fondly remember each because of the pastry; crisp, golden and flaking, just as it should be. Would they be as memorable if they had been under-baked, flabby and disappointing? Definitely not.

I often hear that reoccurring disappointments during baking not only dishearten but completely deter even the most experienced home baker from making pastry again. Upon questioning, this is mostly due to the cause of disappointment remaining a mystery. With the problem unresolved, subsequent attempts will remain just as, if not more, disheartening than the first. It is therefore understandable that many surrender to the convenience of a shop-bought, ready-made alternative.

Pastry, it seems, is the nemesis of many. I really want to change that. With this in mind, my aim in writing this book was to eliminate these shortcomings from the outset, to ensure that making and baking with pastry would be a pleasurable, peaceful and successful experience for all. How? By simplifying each process and cutting out the jargon, creating easy-to-follow, failsafe recipes that require neither expensive or professional equipment, nor a degree in patisserie.

Believe me when I say that I have willingly encountered every problem possible during testing, so that you dont have to. I have seen the buttery layers between puff pastry rupture and choux buns deflate, crack and wither before my eyes. My inverted puff pastry has misbehaved in all ways imaginable and I have had more tears in my sheet pastry than a colander has holes. Yet with contemplation, investigation, patience and perseverance, I believe that I have pinpointed and eliminated the possible cause of each. Patience; try to skip a step or save a few minutes here and there, rush any stage of making right through to baking and the pastry will undoubtedly suffer for it and ultimately time will be wasted.

Over the next few pages there are recipes for many different pastries 10 in total. From shortcrust to sheet, vegan to viennoiserie; and dare I be boastful in declaring that I have included a tasty, crunchy, easy-to-roll, gluten-free recipe, too? The recipe chapters that follow give plenty of inspiration for how to use each of these pastries, both savoury and sweet some are traditional, some inventive, all delicious. Within each recipe and you will find a key, a recommendation of the other pastries that could be used as an alternative to the one featured, proving pastry to be a most versatile component.

My hope is that this book will bring confidence and success to your baking and that you will embrace pastry-making with vigour, and, when a recipe calls for it, be inclined to make your own every time, so that using shop-bought pastry becomes a thing of the past.

Hone your skills and pass them down, keep the revival going, and never forget to share the undoubted knowledge that...

Patience with pastry is key!

This is a great pastry crumbly, tasty and crisp, perfect for encasing savoury fillings. The secret is in baking it longer than you would imagine to be necessary. There is no joy in eating flabby pastry, and definitely no appeal in that soggy bottom! This recipe yields enough to line a large circular tin measuring 23 x 3.5cm (9 x 1in), with some left over for small decorations. If you are making a covered pie, you will need to make a double quantity.

MAKES 1 QUANTITY

230g (8oz/1 cups) plain (all-purpose) flour

125g (4oz/ cup plus 1 tablespoon) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1cm (in) cubes, no need to be precise

1 teaspoon fine salt

1 egg yolk

2 tablespoons milk

For egg wash if and when the recipe calls for it

1 egg yolk

boiling water

In the bowl of a freestanding mixer, place the flour, butter and salt .

Lay out a long sheet of cling film and place the dough on one half. Flatten the pastry with the palms of your hands, then fold the remaining cling film over the top, fully encasing the dough. Roll out between the cling film to an approximate depth of 5mm (in), trying to keep it in a circular shape . If using to decorate a pie top, rest in the fridge for at least an hour. If using to line a pastry case, I have found that chilling this salted shortcrust prior to doing so will result in the pastry cracking when it is folded into the tins edge. If you are lining a pastry case, after rolling between the cling film, rest the pastry outside of the fridge in a relatively cool place for at least an hour.

After resting, roll out the pastry between two sheets of non-stick baking paper there is no need for extra flour. The pastry is now ready for use, whether topping a pie or lining a tin. Please note that an unbaked pastry case will require chilling in the fridge for at least 30 minutes prior to baking.