The egg pastry rolls out fairly easily - I usually use a regular pie crust recipe only because I make awesome piecrust (not bragging; I'm not a top notch cook like my mom, but that's one thing I do very well!)
There's several secrets to a flaky crust:
1. Don't over-work the dough when you're cutting in your shortening or lard - when it gets to the size of a big pea, STOP cutting.
2. When you add your water to the crust mix, use ice water - the colder, the better.
3. Handle a pie crust dough as little as possible. The more you roll, kneed, shape, etc., the tougher it will become.
4. And did I say not to handle the dough too much?
And use good flour; King Arthur is the best, in my opinion.
My baklava recipe comes from one of the ladies who makes it for the Greek Orthodox Church here in Laconia. We've modified it by using less walnuts, more pistachios and a little roasted almonds, and we use fresh Clementine juice in the syrup. We mix and chill the syrup first, then make the baklava. Cold syrup is poured over HOT baklava - and you should hear it crackle! That's the secret to sweet, not watery and too sticky, pastry.
Finally, the plum pudding has to steam for several hours; I think it's four or five hours. I'll ask my mom the next time I talk with her. She made a bourbon sauce, I believe, last year and lit the pudding on fire to burn off the alcohol - it was beautiful! It burns in a blue flame and was so elegant looking. The taste is outta this world; I don't have the vocabulary to describe it other than wonderful!