Short Crust Pastry For Tarts - cooking recipe

Ingredients

300 g plain white flour (no self-raising flour)
1 teaspoon salt (you can add 1/2 Tsp more if you like to taste the salt)
150 g unsalted butter (or 100 g unsalted butter and 50 g lard)
water

Preparation

Sift the flour and salt into a bowl/bassin.
Add butter and rub between the fingers until the mixture is flaky.
Pour in water, gradually, while continuously cutting and stirring with a knife. Stop adding water when the dough is stiff. It should not be sticky or wet. Gather up into a soft ball.
Dust your working area and rolling pin with flour and shape the pastry by rolling away from you and always turning the pastry around in order to achieve a round shape.
Remarks:
Always lift the flour out of the bowl while rubbing; it makes the butter/flour mixture airy.
Be careful not to add too much water as the pastry should not be stick to the touch.
While mixing the water to the flour/butter mixture never work the pastry like a bread dough, otherwise you would end up with a stiff, hard and elastic pastry.