Fats

The choice of fat will determine the flavour as well as the texture of your pastry, and here any differences of opinion can probably be only resolved in the end by personal taste, and the type of recipe the pastry is intended for (for instance, to me in a bacon-and-egg pie or a Cornish pasty lard seems to give the ‘right’ flavour).
All margarine (block, not soft margarine which is not suitable). This gives a fairly flaky texture, but cooked at
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Fats

Adding a small proportion of fat can very slightly enrich dough and help it to stay fresh longer. Personally I find butter is best of all, but vegetable fat or lard if you prefer can be used instead. Proper enriched doughs are those that have quite a lot of fat in them, sometimes plus eggs and dried fruit (e.g. hot cross buns, mall loaves). The extra fat retards the growth of the yeast, so an extra quantity of yeast is used in this type of recipe.

 




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