How To Make A Crisp Chocolate Pastry Tart Shell (Pâte Sucrée)

Step 1

Line the bottom of your 10-inch tart tin with baking paper by removing the bottom, tracing around it on some baking paper and then placing on top of the bottom. This will stop the tart shell from sticking to the bottom of the tart tin. An issue I found I had in my testing. If you have a non-stick tart tin, sticking shouldn’t be an issue.

Step 2

Combine dry ingredients - Add the flour, cocoa powder, powdered sugar and salt to the bowl of a food processor and blitz for 20 seconds to combine.

Step 3

Add butter and egg - Add the vanilla extract and butter and pulse until you reach lentil sized pieces. Add the whisked egg and blitz until small clumps of dough form.

Step 4

Combine dry ingredients - Add the flour, powdered sugar and salt to a large mixing bowl and use a whisk to combine.

Step 5

Add butter and egg - Add the butter and use your fingertips to rub into the butter until it resembles breadcrumbs that look like they’ve been flattened. Add the whisked egg and vanilla extract and use a spatula to mix in until the dough begins to clump together and becomes too hard to mix with the spatula.

Step 6

Form dough ball and chill - Turn the mixture out your workbench and bunch it together (without kneading). Form a rough disc shape and then wrap in plastic. Chill for a minimum of 1 hour.

Step 7

Roll out dough - Lightly dust your workbench and rolling pin with flour. Place the chilled dough disc on the workbench and lightly dust the top with flour. Use a rolling pin to slowly roll dough disc out to 14 inches wide. Turn your dough as you roll and pinch together any cracks that might form around the edges as you roll.

Step 8

Transfer dough over tin - Carefully roll over the rolling pin and then transfer and unroll over a 10-inch tart tin with removable bottom.

Step 9

Form the tart - Carefully lift the dough over the tart to allow it to naturally fall into the corners of the tart. You don’t want to stretch it or it will shrink as it bakes and become uneven. Roll the rolling pin over the excess dough to cut clean. Discard excess dough.

Step 10

Dock the tart - Place the tart tin on a baking tray. Use a fork to prick holes into the bottom of the tart shell. This is called ‘docking’ and will prevent your tart from puffing up too much as it bakes the second time.

Step 11

Chill your tart - place the formed tart in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes.

Step 12

Preheat a fan forced oven to 150C / 300F (170C / 340F for no fan).

Step 13

Blind baking your tart shell - Scrunch up a large piece of baking paper and then un-scrunch it. Place on the inside of the tart tin. Fill with baking beads, dried chickpeas or dry rice. Bake for 20 minutes. Take it out of the oven, carefully and slowly lift out the beads using the corners of the baking paper. Place them into a bowl or container to cool down for re-use.

Step 14

If using for baked fillings - bake for a final 15 minutes. Once baked, allow to cool on the baking tray at room temperature until ready to use. Letting it cool before adding the filling is important as adding the filling in while the tart shell is warm can cause it to go soggy.

Step 15

If using for no-bake filling - bake for a final 20 minutes instead of final Allow to cool before adding the fillings.