P is for Pastry

Recently, it occured to me that I seem to have some weird connection with P words.

-I have a ‘thing’ for certain words. Pony, for example.

-A good friend of mine from high school used to call me Penfold (from Danger Mouse). Apparently I look like Penfold!

-My sister and I grew up reading (but never watching) the Flumps. I had a homemade version of Pootle which I loved to death (his, not mine). B calls me Pootle sometimes. Apparently I also look like Pootle. If you combine Penfold and Pootle, you get Poofold! Hopefully I don’t look like anything called Poofold.

-I also love Pastry. Drape anything in pastry and I’ll probably eat it. Except Poofold. Inspired by Matt’s Partridge Pasties, I made Pastie versions of our curried chicken and Potato Pie dinner the other day. It was a Pleasant Pow! to the tastebuds.

-Thanks to B, I am now addicted to watching English Premier League football. That doesn’t quite start with P but I can make it : Penglish Premier Pleague Pootball!

Ok, that’s enough silliness now…

Creme fraiche pastry :
(This is my favourite standby pastry. It’s quick and easy to put together, and the end result is wonderfully tender, flaky and flavoursome. If you don’t have creme fraiche, sour cream works just as well (although it has to be said, cooking with creme fraiche is a pleasure unto itself). The recipe comes from Christine Manfield’s book, Spice. Use it for pithivier-style pies (she has a five-spice duck and shiitake mushroom pie in her book) or pasties. She doesn’t recommend it for use as a tart case because of how short the pastry is).

125g cold unsalted butter
200g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
125g creme fraiche

Chill bowl and blade of a food processor in refrigerator. Chop butter into chunks and, while still cold, blend with flour and salt in food processor until mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add creme fraiche and pulse until just incorporated. Don’t overwork dough at thisstage or pastry will be difficult to handle with rolling. Form pastry into a ball by hand, then wrap in plastic film and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Roll and cut pastry as required. Keep pastry as cool as possible when working with it – you may need to return it to the refrigerator as you roll and cut.

To bake, preheat oven to 220’C and bake until golden.

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15 Comments »

  1. the projectivist said,

    November 26, 2008 @ 1:02 pm

    oh, and look! a comment from someone whose name begins with P!
    you always have the loveliest pictures over here.
    that pastry looks deliciously crisp and flakey.
    yum!

  2. Y said,

    November 26, 2008 @ 1:14 pm

    Ooh the connection continues! hahahaha

  3. FFichiban said,

    November 26, 2008 @ 3:44 pm

    Hahah niiiceee 😉 You should change from Y to P then 😛 and those pastries look PUMMM ^^!

  4. Lorraine E said,

    November 26, 2008 @ 3:49 pm

    Hmm my name doesn’t start with P but I am a fellow pastry lover. I want to move to Paris (another P) to eat pastry! These look good and it seems quite appropriate to eat these while watching English Premier League football!

  5. snooky doodle said,

    November 26, 2008 @ 5:16 pm

    yummy i love pies this looks great. I ve never tried creme fraiche pastry. looks delicious though

  6. linda said,

    November 26, 2008 @ 7:42 pm

    I love pasties and I love your curried chicken and potato filling. As for the letter P, I don’t have a special thing with it but 2 of my (former) nicknames begin with P: pinda (or pin) (rhymes with Linda and means peanut), the second is peanut which doesn’t rhyme with Linda but has the same meaning 😉

  7. clumbsycookie said,

    November 26, 2008 @ 8:05 pm

    Looks Perfect. There’s another P for you! 😉

  8. grace said,

    November 26, 2008 @ 8:58 pm

    here are some more–pretty, pleasing, and PHENOMENAL. you always impress me, poofold. (i kid, i kid–i’ll never call you that again.) 🙂

  9. Y said,

    November 26, 2008 @ 9:13 pm

    Oh grace, what have I started!!!

  10. matt wright said,

    November 27, 2008 @ 4:57 am

    Awesome stuff! Pasties are great aren’t they!! I completely forgot about the flumps. those guys were awesome. I really miss the good old days of the BBC. Lower budget, but 1000x more character.

    Your pastry looks a darn sight better than mine!

  11. Helen said,

    November 27, 2008 @ 7:53 am

    Wow! I would never have thought to use creme fraiche to make pastry but then, my baking skills are limited to say the least and especially compared to yours. I think these are so adorably cute too! I bet you could munch on them all evening!!

  12. Sophie said,

    November 27, 2008 @ 2:51 pm

    I love the alliteration :), I can’t say I have a favorite letter…but I do have a couple of favorite desserts, pastries are at the top of the list…and I have to tell ya that your blog really makes me miss gluten! This looks like a great go-to recipe, I need to get ahold of a gluten one like this :D!

  13. Sophie said,

    November 27, 2008 @ 3:57 pm

    Thank you for your sweet comment! I’d be happy to draw something for you, just let me know if you have any ideas :)!

  14. Anne said,

    December 2, 2008 @ 1:11 am

    hi,
    looks delicious.
    Do you have the link to your curry chicken and potato pie?

  15. Y said,

    December 3, 2008 @ 12:26 pm

    Hi Anne! I don’t have a recipe for the curry – I tend not to stick to recipes when I’m cooking dinner. But that curry actually turned out very well, so next time I make it again, I’ll try to write things down and include it in this post 🙂

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