Dear Pastry Chefs:
Please help this non-pastry chef. I am dough rolling challenged. Every time I roll out pastry dough for a pie/tart, even when I was in cooking school, the dough cracks and does not roll out into a round shape. Instead I end up with something that looks like a four leaf clover.
I have used different recipes inlcuding:
flour, butter, salt, water
flour, butter, sugar, water
flour, butter, baking powder, sugar, water
Doesn't matter. Still get the clover.
I have varied the amount of water from just enough to get he dough to hold together to a little too much, to no avail.
I have used salted and unsalted butter. Still no luck.
I have made the dough by hand and by food processor. Same results.
I have varied the resting time, (where you wrap it in plastic and refrigerate it), from 1 hr to many hours. Same story.
Instead of using only all-purpose flour, I even tried a mixtre of cake flour and all purpose. Nothing changed.
The moment I start rolling it out from the center with the rolling pin to form a circle it starts to crack. And the more I roll the deeper the fissures get.
I've concluded that there's something seriously wrong with me because my prior classmates, using the same recipe, methodology, and tools, would roll out neat discs while I had something resembling a daisy.
Does anybody out there have a cure for me or am I beyond hope?
Mark
Please help this non-pastry chef. I am dough rolling challenged. Every time I roll out pastry dough for a pie/tart, even when I was in cooking school, the dough cracks and does not roll out into a round shape. Instead I end up with something that looks like a four leaf clover.
I have used different recipes inlcuding:
flour, butter, salt, water
flour, butter, sugar, water
flour, butter, baking powder, sugar, water
Doesn't matter. Still get the clover.
I have varied the amount of water from just enough to get he dough to hold together to a little too much, to no avail.
I have used salted and unsalted butter. Still no luck.
I have made the dough by hand and by food processor. Same results.
I have varied the resting time, (where you wrap it in plastic and refrigerate it), from 1 hr to many hours. Same story.
Instead of using only all-purpose flour, I even tried a mixtre of cake flour and all purpose. Nothing changed.
The moment I start rolling it out from the center with the rolling pin to form a circle it starts to crack. And the more I roll the deeper the fissures get.
I've concluded that there's something seriously wrong with me because my prior classmates, using the same recipe, methodology, and tools, would roll out neat discs while I had something resembling a daisy.
Does anybody out there have a cure for me or am I beyond hope?
Mark
