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Shop bought pastry is very convenient indeed. In fact I would never try making my own puff pastry. But shortcrust pastry is another story altogether.
If you have a food processor, then please try making your own. Not only is this process fast anabling you to make dozens of jam tarts in one go, but they are also delicious! Keeps the family happy as well.
Pastry making is a very time consuming process but this method of making short crust pastry using a food processor really does work. You can have a whole batch - enough to make several dozen jam tarts - in just a few minutes. Also very suitable for mince pies, family fruit pies and so on.
You will need a food processor obviously, but in addition to that, all you will need is:-
275g of self raising flour
Pinch of salt
50g of Lard
50g of Baking spread, margarine or butter
About 30ml of cold water
Place all the ingrediants, EXCEPT the water in the food processor and using the pulse feature, operate for about two minutes. When the mixture looks even and resembles breadcrumbs, very slowly add the water into the processor until the pastry starts to cling together forming a ball.
Stop the machine, take the pastry out and collect together. Gently form it all into a ball, wrap in it cling film and place in the fridge for about 30 minutes. Now, while you are at it, why not make another batch (saves on the washing up!).
After the 30 minutes in the fridge is up, bring the pastry out into the warmer atmosphere of the kitchen and allow to reach room temperature. Now you can start the fun bit - Baking!