Course description

Homemade pastry has a reputation for being difficult, but it rests on a few simple ideas: keep it cold, handle it lightly, give it time to rest and bake it properly. Once you understand why each step matters, a crisp tart case, a flaky pie lid or a tray of risen éclairs stops being a matter of luck.

This course teaches every main British pastry step by step, in plain words with metric weights and UK oven settings. You'll start with shortcrust and blind baking, move on to sweet tarts, quiche and double-crust pies, then learn rough puff and flaky pastry, hot water crust for raised pies, suet pastry for puddings and dumplings, and choux for éclairs and gougères. Along the way you'll learn to cook, cool and store pie fillings safely, check pies are steaming hot in the middle, label the 14 major allergens and fix the problems every baker meets. You'll finish by planning a bake-off menu of three pastries with a make-ahead plan and oven timings.

There are 10 sections and 50 written lessons, each with a worked example, common slips, questions people often ask and a short task to try, and most with a full recipe. You follow Ysobel, a vet's practice receptionist in Bridgnorth, through 2026, from her first batch of shortcrust in January to a three-pastry menu at her local autumn bake-off, with help from her neighbour Nwamaka, a retired school cook. Every section has a practice pack with a worksheet, example answers and a cheat sheet, plus tools such as recipe cards, conversion charts, a kit checklist, troubleshooting cards, a folding log, pie and steaming safety cards, an allergen label template, shopping lists and a timings planner spreadsheet.

What you'll learn

• How pastry works: flour, fat, water and gluten, why cold and rest matter, a small kit and your own oven, and safe pastry making with raw flour, raw egg and allergens.
• Shortcrust pastry: shortcrust by hand and in a food processor, rolling and lining a tin, blind baking a crisp case, and fixing shrinking, cracks and soggy bottoms.
• Sweet shortcrust and classic tarts: a rich sweet pastry, a Bakewell tart, treacle tart, custard tart, mince pies and jam tarts.
• Savoury shortcrust pies and quiche: quiche, double-crust pies, apple pie, cheese and onion pie and Cornish-style pasties.
• Rough puff and flaky pastry: the layers explained, rough puff and flaky pastry with a folding log, full puff in brief and when to buy it, sausage rolls and Eccles cakes.
• Meat and vegetarian pies: a steak pie, a chicken and leek pie, safe make-ahead fillings, a vegetarian pie, and lattices, decorations and glazes.
• Hot water crust and raised pies: hot water crust, raising a pie by hand or in a tin, a pork pie with jelly, cooling and keeping, and Scotch pies and other raised pies.
• Suet pastry, puddings and dumplings: suet pastry, steak and kidney pudding, dumplings, safe steaming and jam roly-poly.
• Choux pastry: making choux, adding the egg, piping and baking éclairs, profiteroles with pastry cream, and cheese gougères.
• Beyond the basics: freezing and storing pastry, gluten-free and vegan pastry, troubleshooting, sharing, giving and selling, and your own bake-off menu.

Who it's for

Home bakers in the UK who can already weigh ingredients, use an oven and follow a recipe, and want to make good pastry: pies for the family, tarts for friends, mince pies for a fair or a menu for a local bake-off. You don't need any pastry experience. You'll need a kitchen with an oven, scales, a rolling pin and a few tins, a computer, tablet or phone to read the lessons, a PDF reader for the practice packs and, for Section 10, a spreadsheet app if you'd like to use the timings planner.

What this course is, and isn't

This course gives general home baking information, with food safety and allergen advice based on guidance from the Food Standards Agency, the NHS and GOV.UK. It isn't a catering qualification, a food hygiene certificate or legal advice. If you bake for someone with a food allergy or coeliac disease, or plan to sell what you make, check the official guidance the course points you to. The course doesn't name or recommend any brand of food or equipment. The people in the course are fictional.

What will I learn?

• Explain how flour, fat, water, cold and resting work together in pastry, and set up a small kit, your oven and a safe, clean kitchen
• Make shortcrust by hand and in a food processor, line a tin, blind bake a crisp case and fix shrinking, cracks and soggy bottoms
• Make sweet shortcrust and bake classic British tarts, including a Bakewell tart, treacle tart, custard tart, mince pies and jam tarts
• Bake quiche, double-crust fruit and savoury pies and Cornish-style pasties with well-sealed edges and crisp bases
• Make rough puff and flaky pastry with a folding log, know when shop-bought puff makes sense, and bake sausage rolls and Eccles cakes
• Cook, cool and store meat and vegetarian pie fillings safely, check pies are steaming hot in the middle and finish them with lattices and glazes
• Make hot water crust, raise a pork pie by hand or in a tin, add jelly and keep cold pies safely
• Use suet pastry for steamed puddings, dumplings and jam roly-poly, and steam safely without letting the pan boil dry
• Make choux, pipe and bake éclairs, profiteroles and cheese gougères, and fill them with pastry cream
• Freeze and store pastry, adapt for gluten-free and vegan baking, troubleshoot any pastry, label allergens and plan a three-pastry bake-off menu with timings

Frequently asked questions