Shortcrust pastry

This is a basic all purpose shortcrust pastry good for pie and tart crusts.

Ingredients
1/2 cup all purpose flour
4 tablespoons of room temperature margarine
A pinch of salt
Cold water

Sift the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl, holding sieve as high up as possible to aerate the flour.

Cut margarine into small cubes add to flour and lightly rub into flour - lift hands high into air to aerate.

When mixture looks uniformly crumbly, sprinkle about 2 tablespoons of water into the bowl. Cut and mix with a palette knife adding a little more water at a time until you can bring the mixture into a smooth bowl that leaves the bowl clean.

Wrap in foil or food wrap and refrigerat for 20 to 30 mins before rolling out.