Alternative Pastry Crust Recipes

During the World Wars, finding creative ways to “do without” or to use “essentials”  in lieu of preferred ingredients was a way of life. Potatoes were abundant as was oatmeal. As a result, many of the recipes during that time of history make use of these types of essentials in recipes that we normally wouldn’t expect. Potatoes and oatmeal were also used in an effort to “bulk up” their recipes to be more satisfying and to squeeze in more calories and vitamins.

Recently I’ve been playing with different pastry crust recipes and thought that I would share some of the options that I’ve enjoyed that come from that era.

A lot of the pastry recipes from that time period call for “self-raising flour”—yep, that’s raising, not rising. You can easily create your own “self-raising flour” by combining 1 cup of white, all-purpose flour with 1 teaspoon of baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon of salt OR you can use the lower protein option of cake flour. I only use the aluminum free baking powder such as the Trader Joe’s brand. In the interest of packing in calories or nutrients, I always opt for RealSalt or Pink Himalayan Salt that doesn’t have the minerals stripped from it.

Many of these WWII era pastry recipes called for potatoes and suet. Suet? Yep suet. If you’re like me you’ve only heard of suet as it’s used in bird feed, but it’s simply the fat that’s found in the cow near the kidneys. It’s very, very mild in flavor. As an alternative you can use the fat of the pig that’s also near the kidneys in the pig, which is also mild in flavor. In Europe you can still find suet easily and it’s also available in a dried form. But if suet hasn’t already made its way to your pantry or a butcher near you, don’t fret. You can easily use the regular shortening that’s widely available. In my everyday living I’m not a big fan of using shortening as I prefer to use real butter or coconut oil, but I also realize that in tough times these items may easily run out and I can keep shortening good on the shelf for a lot longer than I can butter and for a lot less money than I can obtain coconut oil. So for now, I live “high on the hog” with butter and coconut oil in my everyday pastry recipes, but at least I know that I can “make do” by familiarizing myself with these alternative, more frugal recipes. I have to say though that I have found these recipes to be more than just convenient and cheap as they add a different texture and taste to my savory crusts. While I do use butter to make my pie crusts typically, understand that the recipes below have much different ratios than traditional pie crusts of today. As such, I wouldn’t suggest that you use butter instead for these particular recipes, because it will brown very differently than suet.

One of my alternative crust strategies is to use bacon fat when I’m making a savory pastry as well as my vegetable or fruit water for the binding water the recipes call for.

What’s vegetable or fruit water?  It’s the water I drain from canned veggies or fruit or the water I have left over when I’m reconstituting freeze-dried fruits or vegetables. My motto is why use just plain water in a recipe when I can use water that’s flavored with something complementary to the recipe? Why have pizzazz when you can have pa-zazzle-razz? (Yep, I just made that up.)

As the veggie or fruit water collects in the ½ gallon jars I use it, but if it gets to the point where I’m collecting more of it than I can possibly use in my cooking I boil it for a few minutes and then can it via the water bath canning method. I figure the jars were just going to sit there empty in the first place, so I might as well preserve cooking water in them, right?

Back to the pastry recipes…these pastry crust alternative recipes were intended to be convenient and cheap and to be viable from the very basic essentials that housewives could get their hands on during the strict food rationing times of the World Wars.  When it comes to taste, I won’t say that I love these alternatives better than my traditional pie crust recipes, but they definitely add a foundation to traditional savory and sweet dishes that one wouldn’t expect, and thus makes them a little fun to use and memorable. Most importantly though, they give you options! I’m all about the options…lots and lots of options.

You may be aware of the highly favored “potato bread.” The addition of the potato or potato water is known to make this bread lighter and tastier. Well, the same happens when you use a potato in your pastry recipe.

Soft Potato Pastry

4 ounces self-raising flour (self-rising flour)

Pinch of salt

1 ½ to 2 ounces of cooking fat (suet preferred)

4 ounces smoothly mashed potatoes

A little water to bind

In a medium bowl sift the flour and salt together. With your hands work in the cooking fat completely and then add the mashed potatoes. Mix thoroughly by hand and then add a little water to finish off the blending until you’ve got a nicely blended dough. (I do it in increments of Tablespoons and I like to use cool water.)

Roll out on a lightly floured board and use as you would any standard single pie crust.

Textured Potato Pastry

6 ounces of self-raising flour  (self-rising flour)

Pinch of salt

2-3 ounces of cooking fat (suet preferred)

2 ounce grated raw potato

A little water to bind

In a medium bowl sift the flour and salt together. With your hands, incorporate the cooking fat until it’s nicely integrated throughout. Add the raw potato until completely blended and then add a little bit of cool water until your crust is mostly smooth.  (I do this in 1 T. increments)

Roll out on a lightly floured board. And use as you would any standard single pie crust.

Oatmeal Pastry Crust

6 ounces self-rising flour

2-3 ounces cooking fat (suet preferred)

2 ounces rolled oats (not QUICK)

A little water to bind

In a medium bowl sift the flour and salt together and then add the rolled oats and fat. Mix well with your hands until all ingredients are evenly disbursed. Add a little bit of cool water in 1 T. increments until your pastry dough is bound together properly.

Roll out on a lightly floured board and use as you would any standard single pie crust.