In search of perfect pastry...

So, I followed this "Fabulous Baker Boys'" recipe for pastry:

600g strong white flour
150g beef dripping
150g butter
2 tbsp water*

I usually like recipes with lots of reviews but this didn't seem to have any. I gave it a go anyway.

I assume when then say "mixer" they mean a "stand mixer" as there is no way this amount of dry ingredients would fit in a food processor. Well not my Magimix anyhow.

So in my mixer it went. It's nothing posh - in fact, it's about a third of the price of a Kitchenaid, although not as pretty. I only went upto speed 3. Any faster and my mixer did a little dance on the worktop.

I mixed in the dripping until I could hardly see any lumps then added the butter. It takes a while to resemble breadcrumbs and I'm not that patient so it was kinda crumby/lumpy - but isn't that how they make rough puff anyway?

Now the water*... 2 tbsp? WEIGH OFF! And by that I mean way off. More like 20. OK, 10 to 20. Your guess is as good as mine. And that is what I did. I just kept adding the water with the mixer set on 1 until the mixture formed clumps, gathered it up into a couple of fat sausages and put it in the fridge.

I'm going to make chicken pot pies. I'm not very hopeful when it comes to making my own pastry so watch this space...