This super simple shortcrust pastry recipe is unbelievably easy, doesn’t require much effort and uses minimal ingredients. The entire process takes me less than 1 hour total (which is very quick for shortcrust pastry). Due to the fact that normal shortcrust pastry uses high FODMAP ingredients such as dairy and gluten, I thought it would be great to share this low FODMAP alternative, especially as we are entering into the cold months, where dishes like pies and pastries are a create way to feel warm and cosy! Enjoy this quick and easy recipe!
I keep this recipe very simple and basic, using only gluten free flour, dairy free butter and a few other ingredients. But do feel free to spice it up a little by adding ingredients like rosemary and other herbs and spices for savoury dishes. Alternatively, you could switch it up by adding icing sugar for sweet shortcrust pastry recipes such as pies. I have a sweet shortcrust pastry recipe in the works at the moment, so look out for this if you plan on using shortcrust pastry for one of your future low FODMAP dishes!
You want your butter, flour and salt mix to be fully sanded and lump-free. You want the final product of this step to be parmesan-like in texture and appearance. The best way to achieve this consistency is to use your fingers and rub the ingredients together. Warmth from our hands will encourage the butter to melt slightly (be aware that you don’t want to melt the butter- just enough so that all the ingredients fully combine). By melting the butter slightly, you can get it to gather up the flour mixture and create this fully incorporated mix.
Why it is important to refrigerate your shortcrust pastry:
Because the dough is made with butter, we need to make sure that the dough stays as cool as possible. The warmth from our hands will melt the butter and make it soft, which in turn will make the dough softer too. This leads to the dough becoming more difficult to work with and too sticky to form. I suggest placing the dough into the fridge for 20 minutes after mixing all the ingredients together, and again after rolling it out to shape. This way, you ensure that the dough is as chilled as possible and easier to work with, place into your pie tin and decorate before baking it.
You will find that this dough is far crumblier and won’t hold together as well as a shortcrust pastry dough made with normal gluten flour. This is because the blend of gluten free flours makes baked goods grittier and crumbly in comparison. Although this is hardly noticeable after the baking process, it is more difficult to manage and work with throughout the process. But stick with the dough and be resilient, it will turn out okay and you will have a successful shortcrust pastry dough at the end!
Some inspiration for what you could use your shortcrust pastry for:
- Vegetable pie (this is what I did in this recipe)
- A steak and ale pie
- Cream of chicken with mushrooms pie
- Pumpkin pie (check out my pumpkin spice recipes- pancakes or porridge bowl)
- Mince pies
- As a make-shift pizza base (although I find that the base is quite crunchy compared to my pizza dough recipe)
For my pie filling, today I chose to use carrots, white potatoes and spinach. I seasoned the filling with my low FODMAP veggie bouillon cube, some salt and pepper. This was enough to make it taste absolutely delicious, because so much flavour is packed into my homemade bouillon cubes! I highly recommend that you try out the recipe because it is onion and garlic free, has only low FODMAP ingredients and is so simple. You also make a huge batch at once, meaning that you have bouillon cubes for weeks!
To make this recipe vegan, you can substitute the egg brushing for vegan butter. This will still help the shortcrust pastry to brown in the baking process. On a completely different note, I highly recommend getting yourself one of these single-serve ceramic dishes. Not only are they absolutely adorable, but I also find them super practical. I usually make one of these dishes per each member of my family, meaning that I can make low FODMAP meals for myself whilst cooking a non-low FODMAP alternative for them!
Ingredients:
- 1 1/3 cups gluten free flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup cold dairy free butter
- 1/4 cold water
- 1 beaten egg (for brushing the top of the pastry)
Method:
Step 1: add all dry ingredients to a bowl and mix.
Step 2: add in your butter and rub the mixture with your fingers until you get a sandy consistency (you want it to look like parmesan).
Step 3: add the water and briefly combine till you have a dough.
Step 4: wrap the dough in cling film and leave in the fridge for at least 20 mins.
Step 5: remove the dough from the fridge and roll it out on a floured surface. You may need to add a little more flour to avoid it sticking. Put dough back into fridge before adding to pie dish.
Step 6: preheat your oven to 180°C. Add the filling to your pie dish. I like to add shortcrust pastry to the sides and top of my pie dish (since my vegetable filling would make the bottom soggy).
Step 7: add your filling, brush the top of your shortcrust pastry with your beaten egg and bake for 30 mins/ when it is golden brown.
This shortcrust pastry is good to eat for 5 days after baking it. But I recommend you eat it freshly baked- this is when it tastes the best!
Send me over images of your shortcrust pastries and creations to my Instagram TheLazyLowFODMAP and join our lovely community!
