Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstall’s recipe:
I know it’s time-consuming to make pastry, but the rolling and turning is rather satisfying and it freezes well, so make two or three times as much as you need and freeze.
200g cold butter or lard, or a mixture
400g plain flour
1 pinch salt
Iced water
1 egg yolk, beaten with 2 tsp of milk (or water), to glaze
Toss the fat in the flour and salt until coated, then add a little iced water and bring the dough together with your hands, adding no more water than you need to get a medium-firm dough that is not too sticky and has large pieces of fat in it. On a well-floured surface, use your hands to shape the dough into a fat rectangle and roll it out with a well-floured rolling pin, rolling away from yourself in one direction to keep the rectangular shape as much as you can. When it’s about 2cm thick, fold the far third towards you and fold the near third over that (a bit like folding a letter), so you have a rectangle a third of the size and three times as thick. Repeat this folding and turning at least four times, preferably six or seven, dusting lightly with flour as you go. Fold it up for a final time and chill for at least an hour before rolling out for your pie.
[...] Ingredients: – big bunch of button mushrooms – knob of butter – glug of olive oil – one batch of white sauce – tarragon, 2 tablespoons fresh or 1 tablespoon dried – thigh, leg, and breast meat, shredded into big chunks – salt and pepper to taste – one batch of rough puff pastry [...]