Many people think pastry is a difficult thing to make. The reality is, it's actually pretty easy if you know a few tricks, and it depends on which type of pastry you are trying to make.
Shortcrust is the easiest and by far the most forgiving. In most cases you can either roll it out or press it into your pie dish. If you choose to roll it out and you have breaks simply press another piece into the gap. The reason you would roll is you get a more consistency in the thickness. However if you have a tear or a gap at the rim you can easily press a piece in.
Whatever the ingredients are the rules stay the same for shortcrust pastry. Pastry is like bread and scones, if you knead it too much if gets tougher. What you are doing by kneading it is working the gluten to be stronger. Quite like chewing gum...it reaches a point where is no longer nice. So rule 1 is the less you handle your pastry or dough the shorter is it. Shorter means short gluten strands which equates to a more tender pastry.
So basically don't work or knead your pastry too much and it will be delicious.
Puff pastry is a bit more of a process but with a bit of planning, and a Thermomix, it's really easy. I use the Quick puff pastry recipe which achieves such good results. The recipe can seem quite a bit, but if you break it down it is really quite simple. There are a few steps you can do to plan ahead an make it easier.
Make your pastry ahead of when you know you will need it and store in the freezer
Freeze cubed butter ready for the time when you are planning to make puff pastry.
Watch my video on how easy it is
Good luck. Happy to answer any questions.
Cheers
Jenny
0427 535 248