Hot Water Pie Crust Recipe
Traditional hot water crust pastry ideal for use with savoury or meat pies. This recipe is enough for one large pie with 12 servings or 12 individual mini pies.
Ingredients
- 300 g plain flour (2 ⅓ cups)
- 40 g lard* (⅕ cup)
- 40 g unsalted butter (3 tbsp)
- 160-170 ml water* (¾ cup)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- 1 handful fresh herbs, finely chopped*
Instructions
- Place the water, butter, lard and spices in a medium saucepan. Heat up the mixture over medium heat until it starts to bubble.
- Once the water is bubbling, add all the flour in one go and reduce the heat to low. Stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until a dough forms. The dough should not appear too sticky or too crumbly, so if needed add either 1 teaspoon of extra water or flour. (See notes)
- Tip the dough onto your work surface and let it cool down for a few minutes. Knead the pastry gently until it all comes together into a smooth dough.
- Cover with plastic wrap and set aside until it cools down completely. Shape and bake as directed in the recipe.
Notes
- I recommend using a kitchen scale in grams for more accuracy. The cups used for the conversion are standard US customary cups (1 cup flour = 136g). There are many different types of cups across the globe, which is why I strongly recommend using grams instead.
- Lard is produced from pure pig fat and is great for baking, roasting or frying. This product has no flavour, but it can have a fatty smell when melted - don't worry, it won't smell once baked. Please note that lard is not halal and cannot be used for Muslim diets. If you want to make this recipe halal, please replace the lard with butter.
- The amount of water required can depend very much on the type of flour you use and how much protein in contains. You may need to adjust by adding more or less water by 1-2 tsp. The dough needs to hold together, but not be overly sticky or too crumbly.
- Adding fresh herbs is entirely optional and can be adjusted to fit your recipe of personal preference. I like to add either coriander (cilantro in the US) or flat leaf parsley. You can also add thyme, oregano or basil.