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Pastry Boats

A really fun way to serve a wide variety of things as a dessert, appetizer or snack!

1 hour, 30 minutes

Serves: Varies

Medium

These pasty boats are a cute and fun way to use pie crust to serve up all sort of delicious things from salads to desserts.

These pastry boats are a really fun and easy way to take an appetizer or dessert to the next level and really wow your guests! The recipe is a version of Grandma Jackie’s pie crust recipe which is just rolled out and shaped into boats. You can see in the photo that I filled mine half with a savory ham salad and half with sweet lemon curd. The possibilities are really endless as to what you can use for the filling.

The biggest challenge in making these is of course, making the pie crust. A pastry blender is a great help of course but you can also use a fork or simply your finger tips. You basically just need to get the flour, salt and shortening all blended together with no big chunks. Just keep blending until you don’t have any clumps larger than the size of a pea. Then, just add enough water so that the dough comes together and doesn’t crack.

When Grandma made these, she would make them for dinner parties and would roll out the dough and cut it into 5″ by 2″ rectangles. This makes really large boats. I think that size would be great for a small group and as something you could serve as an appetizer or along side a green salad. However, when I gave this recipe a try, I needed to take something that was closer to bite size and I wanted quite a few more. I cut the rectangles out in a rectangle that was 3″ by 2″ and found that size was just about right to make pastry boats that were closer to bite size.

For the filling, you really could do anything. Grandma suggests crab or chicken salad in her recipe and both of those would be wonderful! We did half filled with ham salad and a cherry tomato on top and the rest with filled with lemon curd and a blueberry. Shrimp salad or tuna salad are other savory fillings that I think would be great. The possibilities are really limitless with sweet fillings. Any good pie filling or pudding would be great.

I hope you give these pastry boats a try. They really are a brilliant and unique appetizer for any dinner party or big get together. I would LOVE to hear what you use to fill yours and please share a photo with me on Instagram (@bdhbakes).

Steps:

Preheat Oven to 475º
Blend Flour, Salt and Shortening
In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt and shortening with a pastry blender, fork or simply by rubbing between your finger tips. Mix until no clumps are larger than about the size of a pea.
Add Water
Add the water and mix until combined and dough holds together. Be careful not to over mix. Form into a large ball.
Divide Dough and Roll
Divide the ball of dough into two even sizes. Wrap one in plastic wrap while you work with the other. Roll the dough you are working with into a rectangle as best you can. The dough should be about 1/8" to 1/4" thick. Cut into strips at least 2" wide and anywhere from 3" to 5" long.
Form into Boats
Now, take the cut rectangles one by one and moisten the ends (the shorter sides) and pinch them together. Gently wide the center to create a canoe type shape. Place on baking sheet.
Bake Boats for 10-12 minutes
Bake boats until just golden brown. While the first batch is cooking, roll, cut and shape the second piece of dough. After baking, allow boats to cool completely on a wire wrack.
Fill and Serve
Once the boats are completely cool, fill them with your filling of choice and serve!