If you are making a pie with a traditional, shortcrust pastry crust, there are a few things you can do to make sure that your pastry is as perfect as possible. The main tip that can help you make delicious, malleable pastry is to keep everything cold.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis basically means that you should use your pastry ingredients straight out of the refrigerator. You should also make sure that your hands and fingertips are cold. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIf your hands are naturally cold, this is great and you should be fine to just make your pastry. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eHowever, if your hands tend to run warm, you should keep some ice water on hand to keep the temperature of your hands down.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIf you are making your pastry in advance, you should keep it in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it. It is important to keep the butter in the pastry cold until it enters the oven to make sure that it doesn't melt into the crust too quickly. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIf your butter is warm, it will melt straight into the crust which can make the pastry soggy and not bake right. Unlike most things that you put into the oven, the pastry should follow the rule of, the colder, the better.