Melbourne

You can't go wrong with Julia Childs' recipie - many heaps of vijos on youtoob. This is the old school classic, and takes a fair bit of work and time. The good side is that the raw pastry freezes well, so making a large batch and only using the portion you need for one use, and then for the next use 90% of the work is already done - at least until the stash is used up. Recommend using unsalted cultured butter for the authentic flavor. The original and best.

For quick pastry, I like using the Womens Weekly Rough Puff for savory recipies - so quick and easy and the results taste just fine though the texture is not quite as flaky. Again, one zillion recipies on youtoob. You can play a bit fast and loose with the proportions for this recipie depending on what you have available, so it's a very user friendly method. The only real secret is using chilled water to mix and resting the dough before rolling out and using. This weather is perfect for pastry - it's a pain to make in hot weather.