Paste With Lard

Ingredients

• 1.5 cups flour
• 0.5 tsp salt
• 0.33 cup lard

Method

Lard pastry works because fat coats the flour particles, preventing full hydration and gluten development. This creates the flaky, tender crumb you're after — the opposite of a cohesive, elastic dough. Start by whisking 200g flour with 2g salt in a bowl. Cut 85g cold lard into small cubes and add all but 15g to the flour. Work it in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs — the pieces of fat should remain distinct, roughly the size of lentils. This fragmentation is critical: during baking, each pocket of lard creates steam and separates the gluten sheets into lamination|thin, crispy layers.

Add 60–80ml cold water gradually, mixing with a fork until the dough-making|dough just holds together. It should look shaggy and loose, not smooth. Turn it onto a floured work surface and bring it together with your hands — brief kneading only, just enough to make a cohesive mass. Pat it into a rough rectangle about 1cm thick. Now the traditional lamination begins: spread the reserved 15g lard thinly across the surface, dust with flour to prevent sticking, then roll the dough up like a Swiss roll. Pat the roll gently to flatten it slightly, then roll it out again to roughly the same dimensions. Repeat this fold-and-roll once more. This process redistributes the fat and builds more discrete layers.

After the second roll-up, let the dough rest for 15 minutes in the fridge if it becomes warm or difficult to handle — warm dough tears and the fat melts out. Roll it out to the thickness required for your pie shell, keeping the edges as even as possible. Line your tin, trim, and chill for at least 20 minutes before filling and baking. This rest firms the fat again, preventing shrinkage in the oven. For a burnished top crust, brush with cold water or milk just before baking; for deliberate flakiness, dot with tiny knobs of the remaining lard and leave unglazed. The water creates a sealed, golden surface. The bare dots of lard will bubble and brown separately, adding textural contrast and a savoury depth that suits savoury fillings especially well.