Making Pastry With Oil
this was my rhubarb forest in June 2012. DP is a confirmed fan of rhubarb crumble and apple pies
Making pastry with oil
Before we go into making pastry with oil, a word about making it. I have been making pastry since I was a child as it was one of the ways Mum made things stretch, meat pies with not much meat in them and lots of vegetables, apple pies to fill us up and rhubarb pies with rhubarb from the garden together with custard so thick you could slice it. So I don’t find pastry making in the least daunting.
I know a lot of people do however, and this recipe may well help you. There is no rubbing in of the fat, just a bit of a stir. Too dry? Add a little more water. Too wet? Add a spoonful more flour.
Which fat to use?
Usually when making pastry, some kind of solid fat is used as shortening. Butter, lard, hard margarine or blocks of shortening sold especially for making pastry. But on the Meal Plans on this site, we don’t usually have enough solid fat to spare to make pastry with, so I will be using a technique I learned, to make pastry using the vegetable oil that we will have available
When I was involved with the £100 a month plan over on www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk , and we needed to make pastry, but only had oil, no solid fat, I was up for the challenge.
If you want to reduce your saturated fat intake, then using oil for pastry fits the bill too.
I’ve used cheapest vegetable oil, sunflower oil, mild olive oil and extra virgin olive oil, all of which worked really well. Each contributes its own flavour, with the olive oils contributing most. You may want that, in a savoury pie for example, or not. I wouldn’t particularly want a strong olive oil flavour when making a fruit tart for instance.
Measuring the oil
NB oil needs to be measured by volume in ml. OR by weight, in grams. The weight in grams for vegetable oil is roughly 94.4% of the volume in ml
100mls of vegetable oil weighs 94.4 grams
How To Make Pastry Using Oil
If you are familiar with making pastry, you will know that usually you have to add the minimum of liquid to keep a pastry short, otherwise it can go rubbery and unpleasant. With oil pastry, my first thought was that it wouldn’t need any liquid as the oil would provide all the moisture needed. My goodness! It was like trying to roll out a crumble topping!
After a lot of experimentation, I found that if I added almost as much water in ml as the oil, the flour sort of slurped it all up and became very compliant, rolling out beautifully.
So when you make this kind of pastry, put the flour and oil in a bowl, and add almost as much water as oil, and just gently stir it with a spoon.
Add the water bit by bit, it might look a little like a batter at first. If you add too much water, the pastry is easily rescued by adding a little more flour, but if you are following the weekly plans, you may not have enough flour to spare from the weekly bag to do this and still have enough to make the other flour requiring dishes for the week, so go slowly.
You can rest it for a bit if you like, it helps the dough to relax and the gluten to develop. Or you can go straight into rolling it out. If there is enough water in it, it should roll out and stick together like this, like pastry made with solid fat
If you haven’t got it quite as amenable yet, don’t worry, everything that we make on these plans you can stick bits and pieces together in the pie tin etc, and it will taste just fine
What can oil pastry be used for?
You can use this kind of pastry for most recipes using pastry. I use it for tarts, large and small, 2 crust pies, pasties and more.
I’ve used it for making little dumplings dropped into a soup or stew. Or steamed it as a pudding, although, admittedly, it still tasted just like pastry baked in the oven.
What variations are there for oil pastry?
You can add a tblsp or so of icing sugar if you are making a sweet case if you like; or a little sieved cocoa. Personally, I don’t add sugar to the pastry when making a sweet tart or pie. I don’t think it needs it.
Or for a savoury one, there is grainy mustard and/or a little grated cheese.
You don’t need to, they are just optional flavourings, I usually use it just as it is.
Ingredients
- 70 ml water up to 100ml, you may not need it all
- 100 ml oil 100ml or 94g. NB ml of oil DO NOT weigh the same as grams
- 200 g flour self raising, 6p
Instructions
- Put the flour and oil in a bowl, and add almost as much water as oil, and just gently stir it with a spoon.
- Add the water bit by bit, it will look a little like a batter at first. If you add too much water, the pastry is easily rescued by adding a little more flour.
- The flour will bind everything together and you will have a soft ball of pastry dough, ready to roll out.
Hi Neil, thank you so much for your lovely comments!
I’m very curious why you Googled pastry with oil if you had previously used hard fats to rub in?
The recipe was born out of a need as a cash restricted meal plan had no solid fat. After a lot of trial and error, I found a way to make it work 🙂
Hi there
Now retired after being a chef most of my life. I couldn’t stand making pastry, rubbing in the fat was always a total waste of time and therefore annoyed me, I was making a family steak pie last night and realised I never bought in the pastry, “Annoyed”, I Googled “Pastry with oil” and found your site and recipe, it goes against my experience ! I threw it together and “knew” it wouldn’t work, WELL ! it was fantastic, even my wife commented. THANK YOU. I am never going back to the boring old time wasting Rubbing it to breadcrumbs, that’s all gone , thanks to you.
You have a new fan.
Hi New England Flybaby – I did reply saying that I would post your comment on the FaceBook Group as I hadn’t heard of this technique before, but the reply got chewed up and disappeared. Only realised when I came back to update
There are some replies that you may find helpful
Hello, Lesley!
Thank you for posting all these recipes, and especially the “Christmas on a Budget” recipes. I have a pie crust question for you and your readers:
Does anyone remember their mother or grandmother covering the edges of their pies with the torn piece of an old sheet or pillowcase (possibly dampened?)
I seem to remember my mom doing this, but I’m not sure if she really did this, or whether I’m remembering wrong. Thank you to you and your readers.
now that’s a good idea. I don’t tend to add sugar to sweet items, but it sounds good!
I can’t believe how easy this pastry is. I added 50g of icing sugar to make a sweet pastry and made some early mince pies. Yum.
Fantastic, so glad you liked it. And welcome
I was making a pie tonight and realised I didn’t have enough butter so quickly googled ‘oil pastry’ and found this page. Delighted to say that your recipe worked a treat! I used sunflower oil and plain white flour. I hesitated adding so much water, so only added about 40ml at first but you’re right – it is like rolling out crumble! So I added about the same again and it came together fine even though it seemed a bit gloopy at first. I chilled it before rolling out and also before putting the pie in the oven. The raw pastry feels much softer than that made with solid fat but cooks just the same. Thanks!
I’m so glad you were successful. Those pasties sound delicious !
Made the oil pastry Couldnt believe it .Made cheese,onion and potato pastys. Usually my pastry is vile but this is super Well done Lesley!
Ali
I just use water straight from the cold tap
Most pastry are made with cold water. What temperature should the water be?
Amazing thank u x
Hooray! I’m so pleased it worked for you
My pastry never ever worked, – until I discovered and tried your recipe with oil. You’ve made me a star! It works! So far, one double crust pie using leftovers which just slid beautifully out of the tin, and a quiche. Fabulous, easy and foolproof. Many thanks.
Ooh, lovely. Look forward to reading what you write
Hi Lesly
Thank you for this recipe for pastry. It have revolutionised my cooking. I have put a link to your site on my blog. I will be shortly doing a blog post on oil pastry and will of course link across to you.
Ceri – I haven’t yet. I’ll try it and let you know what it’s like
Hi has anyone made this with gluten free flour? Thanks Ceri
Thanks….perfect…..
Hi Mark, it’s the same ratio as a shortcrust pastry. So for a double crust 20 cm pie, it would be 200g self raising flour, 100ml oil (not grams) and start with 100ml of water, adding 75ml to start with and see how it goes
There are no measurements…. Flour, oil, water..what ratios….?