December 25, 2020

This recipe shows that it is possible to get a nice-tasting shortcrust pastry without all the refined flour, sugar and butter/margarine.

Please note I can’t give proper measurements for this recipe as it uses peanut butter as a replacement for the margarine, and the recipe itself will vary a lot depending on how oily your peanut butter is. If it is quite oily, you might be able to get away with a 1:1 replacement of margarine vs peanut butter. Otherwise, you will need to use more peanut butter, and maybe add a bit of oil…

In a large bowl, put 120g fine wholemeal flour (I use atta flour) and 50g brown sugar. Add 90g of peanut butter and mix everything. The consistency should be so that it holds together if pressed, but crumbles easily. Essentially what you would use to make a crumble. If the peanut butter is not very oily, you will probably need to add some peanut butter, mix again and test the crumbliness again. You might need to add a tsp or two of coconut oil, which works well but is unfortunately unhealthy because it’s almost pure saturated fat.

After that, add some water (not too much) and mix with your hands. Add more water until the dough holds together nicely.

To roll it, sprinkle some flour (just a tiny bit is enough given that the dough is quite oily) on a kitchen countertop and roll progressively with a pin roller. This step should be done very slowly otherwise the dough will break at the edges. In fact, it’s almost impossible for dough not to break, but try to keep at minimum. Once rolled at the right shape, roll the dough over the pin roller to help you carry it over to the mould. You will typically need to half-bake it (10 minutes at 180C with fan) before adding some toppings.