Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Wholemeal Pastry



I am so sorry that this has taken so long Jane. You see she asked me for my wholemeal shortcrust pastry recipe and I have been o'so slack, tired and busy. So please forgive me?
In order to show off my pastry skills I decided to make Casey one of his favourites, Apple pie. I know you might consider that Apple pie and Wholemeal pastry so don't go together, but that is definately not the case! The slight nuttiness of the pastry matches really well with the caramelised cinnamony apples. To eat with the pie I made some strawberry cream, it was so yummy! Ok, Ok I will stop blabbing already and give you the recipes :)

Apple Filling
Peel, quarter, de seed then finly slice enough apples to fill your pie dish (my pyrex one took 3 large apples)
In a fry pan melt some butter, add the apples a couple tablespoons of sugar and a few good shakes cinnamon. cook the apples for a couple of minutes until they start to release there juices and they smell alittle caramelly and cinnamony.

Strawberry Cream
Blend 5 large strawberries (or to taste) 100gms of ricotta (fresh!) and some honey or sugar to taste til it is smooth. ( whisky and cinnamon instead of the strawberries would be really good too ;) )

Wholemeal shortcrust pastry
11/2 cups of wholewheat flourpinch of salt
(1 Tablespoon of sugar if for a sweet pie)
1/2 cup of butter, cubed or grated
1 egg, beaten
Ice water

Mix the flour and salt (and sugar if for something sweet). Cut in the butter til the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Add a tablespoon of water to the egg and mix into the flour/butter mix, if too dry add alittle more water. The mixture should just come together into a ball.

The egg is not strictly necessary, but it makes the pastry so easy to roll out and it wont crumble apart. (we d on't have the same shortening that you can get in the US). If the pastry is cool still it can be used straight away or can be rested in the fridge before use (well wrapped). The pastry can be used not prebaked (as I did here). In Australian cup sizes (250mls = 1 cup) it makes enough pastry for a bottom and a lattice top. Mixture can be easily doubled etc.... if you increase by abit still only add one egg. (I use large eggs)

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Clare - Nice recipe - I'll pass on to the Missus, she says she wants to start baking again. 

Posted by Kirk

Anonymous said...

Hi Kirk
Ooh I heart baking :) and of course she does cause we r so alike ;)
 

Posted by clare eats

Anonymous said...

I LOVE whole-grain or nut crusts with fruit pies--you're right, Clare. The contrast tastes wonderful. That strawberry cream sounds really good, too, although I wouldn't have thought to combine with the apple pie. Mmmmm. 

Posted by Amy

Anonymous said...

I just new you would agree :) (about the wholemeal taste contrast!) as for the cream I wanted a cream to go with it and they were the only other fruit I had. actually the taste worked very well together, well at least case didn't complain :) 

Posted by clare eats

Anonymous said...

clare, guess whose blog is offically up and running!!! 

Posted by Cara

Anonymous said...

Who? I know it couldnt be you :P 

Posted by clare eats

Anonymous said...

Well, who would complain about homemade fruit pie made by the lovely Clare? :) I am seriously going to try that combo--they are 2 of my favorite fruits. 

Posted by Amy

Anonymous said...

Fabulous! Thanks for the recipe. You don't have Crisco? Interesting, well, the only real "trick" with Crisco is that it is pure vegetable shortening. MOST, not all, other brands have meat fat in them as well and the meat fat does something to the crust, been so many years since I tested, I really can recall. Anyhow, I've seen pie doughs that use butter but never tried them. I like the idea of using whole grain flour. What about adding nut meal? 

Posted by Jo

Anonymous said...

That looks so yum! I have never even thought of making a wholemeal pie crust. Thanks for the great idea--and the recipe of course. : ) 

Posted by farmgirl

Anonymous said...

Hi Amy
If I had of remembered I had strawberries earlier they would have been baked into the pie ;)

Hi Jo
Yep no Crisco/shortening. I like the taste of butter so I am not that upset ;) Some nut meal goes well, I almost put some almond meal in aswell then remembered I was treying to make my plain pastry :)

Hi FG
I think the wholemeal would work great with your cream cheese pastry, which I keep meaning to make but keep forgetting to buy Cream cheese :P 

Posted by clare eats

Anonymous said...

Yum, that looks great. I have just sent you the tortilla recipe but it uses Crisco. Oh no, I am really not sure if it works with butter though.

WCB time too, here's my link before I head out for the weekend.

http://masak-masak.blogspot.com/2005/09/weekend-cat-blogging-wcb-13.html

Thanks so much. 

Posted by boo_licious

Anonymous said...

Thats ok boo :) I am sure I will figure it out, thanks for sending it to me :)
xxx
wcb will be alittle later in the day here folks... sorry :) 

Posted by clare eats

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the WW pastry recipe - I will have to try it out! 

Posted by Joe @ Culinary in the Desert

Anonymous said...

Looks great! I'll have to give your recipe a whirl. I'm a big fan of using wholemeal flour so the pastry should come in very handy. 

Posted by Ben

Anonymous said...

Hi Joe
I bet you will do fabulous things with it ;)

Hi Ben
Nice of you to drop by, I am a fan too and it is so tasty! (really good with spinach pie) 

Posted by clare eats

Anonymous said...

Yum. The tart looks amazing, Clare. Just what I need for breakfast over here =) 

Posted by Nic

Anonymous said...

hi clare, wholemeal pastry sounds really interesting..will have to try it someday! 

Posted by eatzycath

Anonymous said...

hi clare, i've been looking for a wholemeal pastry recipe for ages - thanks for sharing!  

Posted by J

Anonymous said...

Hi J
not a problem
you probably don't need the egg like I do though.... 

Posted by clare eats

Anonymous said...

Clare: The tart is beauuutiful but what I really noticed is the embroidered tea cloth underneath it! Did you sew that?? I loove embroidery.. stitching it or finding it in antique stores.
 

Posted by cherrybegonia

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