Herby Short-Crust Pastry

I've often wondered if I could make short-crust pastry with olive oil instead of butter. Yesterday, I decided to put it to the test. I didn't use just plain olive oil but a thick coriander-and-lime oil I made a few days ago, which needed using up. And I didn't dare use just oil, so used equal amounts of oil and butter. It worked beautifully.

This recipe is enough for a 26 cm fluted flan tin.

150 g wholegrain flour
100 g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
65 g coriander-and-lime oil
65 g soft butter, cubed
3-4 tbsp warm water

Mix the flour and baking powder, then add the oil and butter and knead into a smooth dough adding water as necessary. Cover and keep at room temperature until ready to use.

Yoghurt and Oil Dough

Fresh Pea Quiche

In Germany, many cakes and savoury dishes are made with a quark and oil dough, which is a lot lighter than a shortcrust pastry. However, finding quark in the UK is really difficult. 20 years ago I would have bought French fromage frais but nowadays I can only find 0% fat fromage frais, which means this product has thickeners added to it. And I refuse to buy processed foods like that. Ricotta might be a good alternative but it's expensive (in comparison) so I've experimented with yoghurt and I've finally come up with a recipe that work. Only, it was a wee bit too much dough for my 26 cm flan dish and as you can see there's rather a lot of pastry for my fresh pea quiche. But that's okay, I'll reduce the amount of dough next time or buy a larger tin. It's delicious at any rate.

200 g strong white bread flour
100 g wholemeal flour
15 g baking powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
4 tbsp olive oil
200 g yoghurt/Greek-style yoghurt/soured cream

Combine all the ingredients either by hand or using the kneading hooks of an electric mixer/the kneading knife of a food processor. Roll out and line a lightly greased 30 cm cake tin.

Top with a quiche mix of your choice.