Basic Pastry Recipe and Its Many Uses

This recipe has appeared a number of times on my blog. I use it to make pies, cheesy twisty straws, and cinnamon-sugar pastries to go with my pumpkin dip, to name a few. It even inspired my cheese crisps recipe. So I thought I'd finally give it its own page.

Ingredients:
 2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup shortening
5 to 7 tablespoon cold water

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix flour and salt in a large bowl. Cut in shortening using two knives until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add 1 tablespoon of water at a time until the mixture is moist and can be pressed into a ball. Shape into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap, and store in the refrigerator for 10 to 15 minutes.

On a lightly floured board or work surface, roll the dough out so its about a quarter inch in thickness and do with it what you will. Baking time depends on what you're making. A crust for a pie, quiche, or tart. A savory or sweet pastry. You can't go wrong with cinnamon-sugar pastries; they're Eric's favorite (and mine too). Pies take about 45 minutes. About 15 minutes for small pies or tarts. About 5 minutes for cookie-like pastries.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

Cinnamon-Sugar Pastry with Pumpkin Dip

Pumpkin dip with cinnamon-sugar pastries

Eric's all-time favorite pie is pumpkin pie. This year he asked if I could make my pumpkin dip instead of pumpkin pie. That's how good this dip is.

I serve the dip on cinnamon-sugar pastry or ro-ro's as my maternal grandmother would say. She died when my mom was still growing up, but whenever my mom baked a pie from scratch, she would turn the dough scraps into what my grandmother coined as ro-ro's. For ro-ro's, cut the dough in strips, roll them into a log then dip them in a mix of cinnamon and sugar, and bake them. Instead of rolling the dough into bit-size logs, I use cookie cutters on the dough.

The pumpkin dip and sugar-cinnamon pastry make a great appetizer for an autumn dinner party or even Thanksgiving.

Pumpkin Dip

Pumpkin Dip

Ingredients:
8 ounce brick of cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 8-ounce tub cool whip, thawed

Beat the cream cheese in a bowl until it's creamy. Add sugar, pumpkin puree, and pumpkin pie spice and mix well. Gently fold in cool whip. Serve or cover and store in the refrigerator.

Cinnamon-sugar pastries

Cinnamon-Sugar Pastry

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup shortening
5 to 7 tablespoon cold water
cinnamon-sugar mix (recipe to follow)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix flour and salt in a large bowl. Cut in shortening using two knives until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add 1 tablespoon of water at a time until the mixture is moist and can be pressed into a ball. Shape into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap, and store in the refrigerator for 10 to 15 minutes.

On a lightly floured board or work surface, roll the dough out so it has a 1/8-inch thickness. Cut out shapes using small cookie cutters (I used leaf and acorn cookie cutters). Dredge the pastry shapes in cinnamon-sugar mix, shake off extra spices, and place on a cookie sheet. Cook for 5 to 8 minutes or until the bottoms are slightly golden. Serve warm with pumpkin dip.

Cinnamon-Sugar Recipe

Mix 1/2 cup granulated sugar with 1 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon. Store in an air-tight container at room temperature.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Autumn Recipes:
Acorn Donuts 
Pumpkin Swirl Brownies 
Pumpkin Bread 
Pumpkin Penne Casserole 
Cinnamon-Sugar Pastry with Pumpkin Dip