chickenpie.net

Shortcrust pastry

Shortcrust is a crumbly, tender pastry made by rubbing fat into roughly half its weight of flour, bound with a little cold water.

The fat coats the flour and shortens the gluten strands, which is where the name comes from. The result is sturdy enough to hold a wet filling and tender enough to cut cleanly.

It is the default pastry for a double-crust chicken pie and for hand pies, where puff would leak at the seams.