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Posted by thomotrio on 17-Feb-2009 08:06 Report
Making pastry for a pie maker
My teenage sons love pies so I finally bought a pie maker. I'm happy that I can control the content and have no trouble coming up with ideas for the filling, but the pasty is going to be a problem.

It is recommended to use shortcrust pastry for the base and puff for the top but the frozen pastry sheets I can buy work out to be rather expensive as we are a family of five and the boys have extremely large appetites. I wont buy the generic pastry as its carp and even on special the Pampas was $4 per packet per kind - and there was none left over.

Im wondering if someone can help me out with some easy pastry recipes and if it can be made ahead and stored in the fridge for a few days and just rolled out when needed. Or can I make it and freeze it? If you have a pie-maker have you tried de-crusting and flattening out a piece of bread as a pastry alternative - would that work?

Any and all tips gratefully accepted!

Helen.
 
Replied by lacey0824 on 17-Feb-2009 08:19 (Ref 1636292) Report
Easy yes!  buy the sheets.  No that's easy.  I buy the coles brand and found it no better or worse than other brands. 
Replied by lacey0824 on 17-Feb-2009 08:21 (Ref 1636293) Report
If the truth were known coles and other brand names are made by the bigger companies
Replied by sunrae on 17-Feb-2009 08:21 (Ref 1636294) Report
I've often used the bread flattened with a rolling pin - works really well....
Replied by mirribears-andcraftsupplies on 17-Feb-2009 08:23 (Ref 1636301) Report
Woolworths generic Flaky Pastry is nice , making your own flaky pastry is hit and miss , you have to get all those horrible little cubes of butter into the pastry , right temperature etc and it still ends up like rubber sheets




Replied by suez_bitz on 17-Feb-2009 08:27 (Ref 1636315) Report
Everyone has pretty much said what I was going to about the sheets of pastry


As for the bread idea - someone else told me that ages ago and it worked terrifc

Great for using up bread thats going stale
Replied by thomotrio on 17-Feb-2009 08:35 (Ref 1636326) Report
Thanks for the comments. Its good to know the bread will work, as that'll be a cheaper alternative. I know the generic brands are often made by the 'known' companies but they do cut corners as often the product just isnt as good. I think it was the black and gold brand of pastry I tried and it was terrible, but the Coles one might be better. The thing is the Coles brand was $4 and that's what I paid for the Pampas on special so its still expensive in the volumes in which I'll be using it. Making pastry sounds hard and messy and its all coming back to me now about rubbing those pats of butter in ... yuck ... I dont really wanna do that either! I think I'm going to have to buy a rolling pin and alternate between using bread and bought pastry by the looks of it!
Replied by sacredchamberz on 17-Feb-2009 08:39 (Ref 1636332) Report
I;ve often made little quiches with slices of bread for the base. Worked out great! can't see it being any different for larger pies.....maybe just do one and see how it turns out, I reckon it'll work fine.
Replied by gocollingwood on 17-Feb-2009 09:04 (Ref 1636361) Report
I've used expensive name brands of puff pastry and also the cheap Home Brand / black and Golda and there is no difference so I recommend using the cheaper one 
Replied by thomotrio on 17-Feb-2009 09:14 (Ref 1636368) Report

Okay you've convinced me to give the generic pastry another chance .. lol ... maybe i just got a bad/stale batch that other time.

Replied by myhataddiction on 17-Feb-2009 09:27 (Ref 1636382) Report
hi thomo trio
i would definately go for the pre made sheets - or shortcrust, puff etc no name brands - yes they are made by the bigger companies - never had a problem with them - much more economical and hassle free as well

ps: check back later for my recipes on quick and easy canelloni later on today.
shahn
Replied by terri4304 on 17-Feb-2009 09:29 (Ref 1636387) Report
Hey helen
do not buy the homebrand pastry i cant rmember the name of it, but its got like 12-15 sheets in it, its feral, festy yukk!!

pampas pastry rises too much too lol, and the top will blow off your piemaker (i found this out the hard way)

I only use either the black and gold pastry OR the woolworths home brand pastry

i dont like the coles one, its yukk too

ohh and when you use the sheets, dont let them thaw right out, use them when still partly frozen - they cut better and are easier to use

Bread works fanstastic, however, you cannot freeze the pies i found if made out of bread, they freeze ok, but end up being a gluggy mess when thawed

and if you freeze your pies, yep the top will sink, but if you put them in the oven the topwill pop back up and will be just like when you made them

I bought my first pie maker when they first came out, and we use them all the time lol
Replied by creatables on 17-Feb-2009 09:47 (Ref 1636412) Report
I wanted to by a pie maker and was going to and then my darling niece in Perth told me she has posted hers over to me in a box as never uses it.
The only thing is i don't have the recipe book that comes with them.
can anyone share any recipes with me,i do have recipe books here i will go through to find differant pie ones but thought maybe the book might have some interesting ones.
If anyone has a book and they wanted to copy it for me i would pay postage and prining costs.
Replied by westy3 on 17-Feb-2009 10:02 (Ref 1636434) Report
If you want to make your own this is the recipe I use.

1 cup plain flour
30g butter/marg (butter tastes better ;)
Water

Put flour and butter in food processor and process until mix resembles bread crumbs.
Gradually add water until it all comes together into a nice ball. Roll out and use as required.

You can double the quantities as required too.

I have used this pastry for making quiches etc too.

You can also substitute the butter for olive oil if you would prefer a healthier alternative.

 Cheers, Val :)
Replied by westy3 on 17-Feb-2009 10:04 (Ref 1636440) Report
Woolworths also sell a Borg's brand of pastry which is a bulk pack of about 12?? sheets for about $5 - 6 dollars
Replied by lanalaith on 17-Feb-2009 13:50 (Ref 1636740) Report

After making my own shortcrust pastry I will never buy the packaged stuff again, it just dosn't compare and it is so easy to make. This is the recipe I use-

Shortcrust Pastry
320g plain flour
240g butter chilled and cut into cubes
1/3 cup ice cold water

Add the flour and butter to the bowl of the food processor and pulse until they just come together (anymore than this will melt the butter and over work the flour) Add the water a third at a time until you get a dough that is not sticky but holds together when you press it into your palm. Form into a ball, wrap in glad wrap and refridgerate until firm.

*Any you dont use wrap in gladwrap and freeze until needed
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