How To Make A Quick Basic Pie Crust, Shortcrust Pastry. This is the easiest, quickest and probably the most popular of pastries to make than the richer pastries. Suitable for freezing before or after baking. https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/sweet-shortcrust-pastry Has anybody made pastry with egg and what are the pros and cons? Add the Probably the most useful and versatile pastry, shortcrust is a crumbly pastry that is ideal for both sweet and savoury pies and tarts. Rub in the butter. I was thinking this might be the case and, for miners who ate their lunch in one hand down in the mines, it might have made sense to have a slightly tougher, less fragile crust. The basic shortcrust pastry can be used to make nearly any type of dish, from sweet to savory, although two variations can be made — one that uses sugar in the dough for sweetness and another that uses an egg instead of ice water for a heartier taste. Do the egg proteins toughen the pastry a little? But, for those of us who have the luxury of eating our pasties at the table, it's not necessary. How To Make A Quick Basic Pie Crust, Shortcrust Pastry. We will cover different types of pastry such as flaky, puff and choux on other pages of the site. Shortcrust pastry is the simplest to make, so let's start our pastry making section of the site with this. Sieve the flour and icing sugar into a bowl. Shortcrust pastry contains only butter or lard, flour, water, and salt. Sweet or savory.