I'm experimenting with vegan pastries at the moment. And in pastry-making, many basic recipes, like pasta, use butter or eggs. It's therefore necessary to revisit some of the basics in a butter- and egg-free version. That's what I've tried here with a vegan shortcrust pastry.

If you want a classic shortcrust pastry, the recipe is always here.

Choosing the right margarine for vegan shortcrust pastry

Shortcrust pastry has only one non-vegan ingredient: butter. So it's easy enough to make a vegan version. Butter is generally replaced by vegetable margarine. Beware, some margarines can contain up to 10% of animal milk, so check the composition.

For shortcrust pastry, the texture of the margarine doesn't necessarily matter much, unlike for vegan puff pastry. You can therefore normally use a spreadable margarine. However, I recommend block margarine, which has a texture close to that of a block of butter.

Variation if you don't have margarine

You could also change the butter for vegetable oil. I've never tested it, but in theory it's possible. For 250gr of flour, use about 8 cL of vegetable oil. Ideally, use sunflower or rapeseed oil, otherwise olive oil.

As a last resort, if you don't have oil or margarine, some people make dough without fat. It probably won't be easy to roll out. If you give it a try, I'd love to hear from you!

Conservation

Shortcrust, sweet and puff pastry doughs can be frozen for later use. I often make pasta in pairs, using one right away and freezing the other for the next time.

This means you'll always have a paste ready to use when you need it.

I prefer to freeze my pasta once roughly rolled out. This makes it easy to stack in the freezer, and all that's left to do is roll it out one last time to the size needed for your recipe.

You can also freeze dough without rolling it out. But I find that dough often takes a little longer to thaw if it's in the shape of a ball.

To use frozen dough, ideally take it out of the freezer the day before and leave it in the fridge overnight.

Get cooking!