What’s the secret to making good pastry?

The quality of the butter and flour are key. The butter should be good quality and unsalted.

The flour must not be fine cake flour but something stronger, approaching bread flour.

Your hands should be cool, and the less you handle the dough, the lighter the pastry will be.

You can use a food processor to work the flour, salt and butter together, which means you handle the dough much less and it is much quicker.