How do I pick up and move shortcrust pastry dough without breaking it?
Apologies if this is a bit of a newbie question!
I have no problem with making, chilling, and rolling my pastry, but for the life of me I can never manage to pick up my pastry without it breaking either due to it's own weight, or getting stuck on the surface I've rolled it on.
I've tried floured worktops, baking paper, floured baking paper, using a slice to help support the pastry as it lifts etc.
What is the best method of picking up my pastry and placing it into my pie dish without it breaking?
Best Answer
If the pastry is sticking to the rolling surface regardless of how well floured it is, it is possible that you are pressing down overly hard and not keeping the board floured throughout the process.
These are the stages I use in rolling out pastry:
- Shape the ball of pastry into a thick disc or rectangle using my hands, to make it easier to get the rolling started.
- Flour the surface well and make a pass in one direction with the rolling pin make a quarter turn with the pastry and slide it about a bit in the process to make sure there is still flour underneath. (While your pastry is still quite thick it is easy to lift it a little to scatter a little more flour under)
- Repeat this process until the pastry is getting too big to more about, but don't try to achieve a lot of thinning with each pass, much better to make more passes which thin the pastry a little each time than a few passes which thin it a lot.
If your pastry feels as it it is sticking once it has got a bit larger, use your rolling pin to pick it up to add flour. Place your rolling pin near the edge of the pastry furthest from you and slip the fingers of one hand under the edge of it to hold it eh pastry against the rolling pin, then supporting the pastry with your hand roll the pin back towards you so that the weight of the pastry is spread across the pin and lift from the board. if it is sticking you can use a palette knife to ease it free. Add more flour to your surface and roll the pastry back down.
- Use this same technique of rolling the pastry onto the pin to transfer the finished sheet to the pie-dish.
Pictures about "How do I pick up and move shortcrust pastry dough without breaking it?"
What is the easiest and safest way to move pie crust?
This is the way we usually transfer our pie crusts. You gently fold the dough in half, then in half again, making a triangle. It's less likely to tear as you pick it up, and the beauty is that the point of the triangle goes right in the middle of the pie plate.How do you keep shortcrust pastry from breaking?
One or two cracks can be fixed by brushing with water and rolling the edges together to seal. Next time, allow the dough to warm up slightly if very cold and roll as evenly as possible near the edges to prevent cracking.Why does my shortcrust pastry crack when rolling?
If the pastry has chilled for longer then you may need to let it come back to room temperature before you roll it out, if it is too cold it will crumble and crack as you roll it.How do you lift a pie crust?
Roll the dough between two sheets of non-stick paper. You peel off the top sheet and lift the rolled dough by holding the edges of the bottom sheet. You invert the rolled dough over the baking pan then peel off the paper. That's the easier way.Easy and tasty handmade shortcrust (pastry chef recipe)
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Answer 2
Take a look at this pie crust video on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ddyVpkXCY4 Starting at about 5 min 15 sec, the video demonstrates a fairly common technique of gently wrapping the crust around a rolling pin, lifting it to the pie plate then unrolling it. This is how I accomplish this too. I'm confident there are many other vids on the web demonstrating this. Perhaps there's another way which might be shown too.
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