So Good Semolina Pastry Recipe - GWC Mag

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My daughter MK makes this semolina pastry often. Semolina adds a hint of nutty flavor and yellow color to pastry. If you make homemade pasta, you may have semolina on hand. Or, if you make this semolina pastry and have never tried making pasta, you need very few additional ingredients (water for the pasta recipe in my award-winning cookbook or all-purpose flour and eggs for the pasta recipe on my blog).

Homemade pastry versus store-bought

Homemade pastry contains a handful of recognizable ingredients—flour, fat, water and perhaps a bit of salt and sugar as in this semolina pastry recipe. Because I make mine with pastured organic butter and organic flour, I don’t save much money compared to store-bought pastry shells. But I get to eat pastry made with pastured organic butter and organic flour.

Meaninglessly labelled as “made from scratch,” these plastic-wrapped, store-bought pastry shells contain: Enriched Wheat Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Soybean Oil, Water, Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Dextrose, Salt, Dough Conditioner (Sodium Metabisulfite). Not only does this pastry contain industrial ingredients, the hallmarks of ultra-processed foods, it won’t taste as good as homemade (no surprise there).

By making my own, toxic plastic packaging doesn’t come into contact with my fatty pastry (or the landfill or ocean). Plastic contains fat-soluble chemicals that have a greater chance of leaching into fatty foods. “But how will I chill the dough without plastic wrap? Every pastry recipe calls for it!” you may be saying. See the images down below for a low-tech solution.

In pictures: Making semolina pastry

This method applies to standard pastry also. If you don’t have a food processor, use a bowl and pastry blender to make the dough.

A food processor containing flours, salt and sugar that has been combined. The food processor sits on a dark wooden tabletop. A scale sits in the bottom right corner. — Flours and salt combined (left); adding butter (middle); pulsed together (right)

Cubes of butter sit on top of a flour mixture in a food processor. The food processor sits on a dark wooden tabletop. A scale sits in the bottom right corner. — Flours and salt combined (left); adding butter (middle); pulsed together (right)

A tablespoon of water is held above a food processor containing pastry ingredients. The food processor sits on a dark wooden tabletop. — Adding first tablespoon of ice water

Pastry ingredients after the first tablespoon of water has been incorporated. The food processor sits on a dark wooden tabletop. In the bottom right corner sits a scale. — Processed after tablespoon one of ice water (left); tablespoon two (right)

Pastry ingredients after the second tablespoon of water has been incorporated. The food processor sits on a dark wooden tabletop. In the bottom right corner sits a scale. — Processed after tablespoon one of ice water (left); tablespoon two (right)

Pastry ingredients after the third tablespoon of water has been incorporated. The food processor sits on a dark wooden tabletop. In the bottom right corner sits a scale. — Tablespoon three (left); tablespoon four (right)

Pastry ingredients after the fourth tablespoon of water has been incorporated. The food processor sits on a dark wooden tabletop. In the bottom right corner sits a scale. — Tablespoon three (left); tablespoon four (right)

A piece of freshly mixed semolina pastry is pinched between a thumb and forefinger — A piece of dough pinched together should hold; if not, add a small amount of additional water

Hands are pushing freshly mixed semolina pastry together on a light colored wooden cutting board dusted with flour — Form a ball of dough and flatten into a disk

A ball of semolina pastry for one pie crust sits on a flour-dusted wooden cutting board — Form a ball of dough and flatten into a disk

A hand places a disk of semolina pastry on a turquoise colored plate — Chill without plastic wrap

An inverted turquoise Fiesta Ware plate is about to cover another turquoise plate holding a disk of semolina pastry — Chill without plastic wrap

A disk of semolina pastry is chilling in the refrigerator between two turquoise colored plates — Chill for at least an hour

Hands roll out semolina pastry using a tapered rolling pin on a lightly flour-dusted wooden board — Rotate while rolling out to prevent sticking

A rolled out pastry shell for a 9-inch pie is folded in half on a flour-dusted wooden board — I often bake in easy-to-clean cast iron

Semolina pastry lines a 12-inch cast iron pan. A tapered rolling pin rests below it. The background is a light colored wooden cutting board. — I often bake in easy-to-clean cast iron

Pastry in a cast-iron pan filled with apples in the center for an apple galette — Apple galette

A baked apple galette made with semolina pastry cools in a cast-iron pan — Fill, bake, devour (after cooling a bit…)

Pastry-making tips

Perhaps, like many people, you’d love to make your own pastry but find the process intimidating. The following tips will help you succeed:

Chill everything. Use ice water and chill the butter, the pastry after forming it and (ideally) the pie or galette or tarts before baking.
Don’t overwork the dough. Although a food processor makes dough quickly, it can also overwork it. Overworked dough is tough dough. So only process as much as necessary. Or use a pastry blender. It requires a bit more elbow grease but you’re less likely to render tough pastry.
Move the dough around as you roll it out. On a floured surface, roll the dough, rotate it a quarter, roll it again, rotate it again, roll it and repeat. The rough circle you roll out won’t become stuck to your work surface if you move the dough around as you go.
Dust the work surface with additional flour only if necessary. Add only a small amount at a time. Too much flour will toughen the pastry.

How to make a low-waste fluted edge

My daughter MK makes amazing pastry. Below, she demonstrates how to flute an edge using all the pastry rather than trimming a bunch away.

With more pastry-making practice—and more pastry eating—you’ll become a pastry pro. Win-win!

So Good Semolina Pastry

Makes one 9-inch pastry shell

Servings: 8

¾ cup all-purpose flour

½ cup semolina flour, finely ground

1¼ teaspoon granulated sugar

½ teaspoon coarse salt

½ cup butter, chilled and cut into ½-inch pieces one stick

3 to 4 tablespoons ice water

If using a food processor, pulse the flour, sugar and salt a few times until combined. Add the butter pieces and pulse until the mixture resembles large peas. If making the pastry by hand, whisk the flour, sugar and salt together in a bowl and then cut in the butter with either a pastry blender or two knives.

Slowly add the ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time. In the food processor, pulse a few times; by hand, mix with a fork. Continue adding water 1 tablespoon at a time until the dough easily sticks together when you pinch a large piece. If the pinch crumbles, add more ice water but not so much that the dough becomes sticky.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and form into a ball. Flatten the ball into a disk. Place the disk on a plate and invert another plate over it. Chill the dough for at least 1 hour in the refrigerator or store for up to 2 days. Or store in a container in the freezer for up to 3 months.

Prepare the dough for your pie, galette, tart, pot pie…

Remove the chilled pastry from the refrigerator or freezer and allow it to warm up just enough to render it rollable.

For a pie, roll the pastry into a circle about 12 inches in diameter and ⅛ inch thick. Transfer the dough to a 9-inch pie plate. Fold the excess pastry edge under itself, making it flush with the top of the pie plate. Pinch this rim with your fingers to crimp it. Place in the refrigerator to briefly chill while you make the pie filling.

Follow your favorite recipe, fill and bake.

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Related

So Good Semolina Pastry Recipe – GWC Mag

Homemade pastry versus store-bought

In pictures: Making semolina pastry

Pastry-making tips

How to make a low-waste fluted edge