Shortcrust Pastry (Pâte Brisée)
Quantity: 23-25cm (9-12 inches) pastry
Preparation time: 60 min.
The most common type of pastry is shortcrust pastry. It is used for both sweet and savoury pies, tarts, pasties and quiches. The only difference is this: For savoury pies and quiches use a pinch of salt, for sweet pies use sugar and grated lemon rind instead.
If I am pressed for time I buy the shortcrust pastry dough from my local patissier or the supermarket. While this saves me a lot of time, it has the slight disadvantage that the dough lacks the specific flavor (salty or sweet). I prefer to make my own dough, if I have the time. It's quite easy.
Ingredients:
- 150 gr (5 oz) cold butter (leave the butter in the fridge until you need it)
- 275 gr (10 oz) plain flour
- up to 3 tbsp. chilled water
- for savory pie: 1 pinch of salt (quantity depends on filling and wether you use salted or unsalted butter)
- for sweet pie: 2 tbsp. sugar and 1 teasp. grated lemon rind
Preparation:
Chop the butter into small pieces and whizz the butter, flour, lemon rind and sugar (for sweet pies) or salt (for savory pies) in the food processor until the mixture looks like sand. With the motor running, add the chilled water, drop by drop, until the mixture resembles a soft dough. Wrap in plastic and let it rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
If you use ready made pastry, which is normally frozen, you need to defreeze it for at least 15 minutes at room temperature (don't use the microwave!).
The next steps depend on what filling you use. Some fillings require that the shortcrust pastry is already baked. We call this process " blind baking", i.e. baking without filling. Examples are strawberry tarts or any other delicate fruit tarts. Other fillings require that you bake pastry and filling together.
Blind Baking: Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F). Roll out your chilled pastry or the ready made pastry you bought on a lightly floured bench. Lightly butter and flour a pie tin with a removable bottom; use a 25 cm (10 inch) diameter pie tin with a removable base. Line the pan with pastry and trim the edges, removing any excess pastry. Prick bottom of the pastry with a fork, cover it with greaseproof paper and fill with pastry weights (you can also use dried beans, but you can only use them for weights afterwards). If you do a lot of baking investing in some ceramic pastry weights is a good idea. Bake for about 20 minutes until firm. Watch the rim of the tart, don't let it brown too much. Once the tart is done, remove the pastry weights and the grease paper. Return the tart to the oven for about 5 minutes to dry the pastry base a bit further. Remove it from the oven and allow it to cool.
Don't forget to adjust the oven's temperature to the heat required for your filling!