Question: pastry  recipe
By: Mary Mc Nutt
Published: January 27, 2011

best  pastry  for   beef  pie?

Answers:
Chris Paulk

Depending on the type of pie you're making- pot pie, hand held pie ect. you may want either a pie crust or a puff pastry. You can also use an empanada type pastry if you're filling isn't too liquid. Quite often an empanada dough uses a corn flour, so it will also depend on the filling recipe and ingredients.
The Apprentice

Do you want a pastry pie base and pie top, or are you using a ceramic pie dish? Are you making individual pies or a large pie? Do you want to serve it in the pie dish or remove it to serve? What style of filling are you using (ie, ground beef or diced steak, with English/French/American/Italian flavours, etc)?
The answer to these questions will decide which pastry (or pastries) are best for your pie...
Dahlia Chan Tang

Traditionally, it's made with a suet-based short crust, but you can always make it with a butter/shortening shortcrust.
The Apprentice

True, the traditional English style is with shortcrust.
Shortcrust pastry is very easy but requires a bit of care:
for a roughly 500g (just over 1lb) dough:
300g plain flour
250g salted butter, cold (or fresh suet, or shortening if desired)
1 tbsp table salt
cold water
Place the flour and salt in a bowl. Grate the butter into the bowl. using your fingertips, rub the flour and butter together until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. (try not to handle it too much or the heat from your hands will melt the butter). Once it reaches this stage, add cold water a tablespoon at a time, mixing thoroughly to form a firm dough. Do not knead. Place the dough in a bowl, wrap tightly and refrigerate for 1 hour to rest the dough. This step is essential to prevent the pastry from becoming tough and rubbery.
Once rested, roll out (again not working it too much) on a floured bench. A trick for getting the pastry off the bench and onto your pie is to wrap it  around the rolling pin and lift it over to the pie. this dough is very delicate and will break easily, so be careful! If using as a base, it should be pre-cooked before filling the pie.