PASTRY

I have been looking for pastry recipes that do not use butter for some time now. Commercial pastry has disappointed often as it will include vegetable oil without specifying which type. My suspicion that “vegetable oil " was indeed palm oil was confirmed by making phone call to the manufacturer of one of those brands that has been a long time household name in Australia.

Happily not all manufacturers succumb to this failing. My local supermarket now carries Antoniou filo pastry that is a joy. It includes safflower oil.

I have included recipes here that have approach the pastry dilemma ina different way. One of the first recipes I found that fitted the bill was a fluffy dough used in steamed buns. My version has a spicy mushroom filling.

Another approach that works very well is a simple dough that combines flour hot water and oil. It is a very eastic and strong dough that can be rolled very thinly. This dough can be used as a pancake recipe as for the Eggplant rolls.

Yeast based dough has worked well for vegetable pies and spinach pies. If you havea bread machine preparation is very easy. The dough has more yeast than most bread I have cooked which makes it light and flexible. I have found that any leftover dough can also be used to make fruit or perhaps olive bread by simply rolling it out not so thinly and spreading it with the filling of your choice. Then rolling the dough like you would a roulade. Leave it to rise again before baking.

And there is a clever way to use bread in Salad Tarts.