Sweet Tart Dough

Step 1

Place all the dry ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer or food processor and pulse to mix.

Step 2

In a small bowl, mix the egg, vanilla extract and the lemon zest until combined.

Step 3

Cut the butter into chunks and mix with the dry ingredients. Pulse until the mixture resembles uneven breadcrumbs.

Step 4

With the machine running, pour in the egg mixture. Mix just until it comes together into clumps—it should not be a cohesive mass yet.

Step 5

Turn the dough out on to your work surface. Then, with the heel of your hand, smear a small amount of the dough on your counter by pushing it away from you. Repeat with small amounts of the remaining dough. When you’ve worked all the dough in this manner, give is a couple more strokes to bring it together. The French term for this method is fraisage.

Step 6

Mound the dough back together, scraping any bits off the counter, and divide into two 12oz portions. Press each into a flat disk. Wrap in waxed paper and refrigerate at least 20 minutes. The dough can then be either rolled or pressed into the tart pan. I recommend rolling for large tarts, and pressing for mini tartlets.

Step 7

Lightly dust your work surface with flour. Roll the dough out into an 11 inch round—keeping the dough moving as you roll to make sure it remains round and doesn’t stick. If your dough has become very cold and is hard to roll out, you can cut up the dough and press it together again into a smooth workable disk—or just leave it on the counter until it is malleable. Don’t let it get too warm.

Step 8

Once you have a round piece of dough that is approximately 1/8 inch thick, roll the dough onto your rolling pin and gently drape it over your tart pan being careful not to touch the rolling pin to the pan, as that may result in your cutting the dough on the edge of the pan. Lift the edges of the dough and tuck them tightly into the pan’s crevices, making sure there is no space between the dough and the tart pan sides. If there is space between the dough and the pan, the dough will shrink as it bakes and the crust will not have nice straight sides.

Step 9

Wrap the pastry lined tart pan in wax paper or plastic wrap and put into the fridge to chill for 30 minutes (or up to 2 days), or freeze for up to one month.

Step 10

To prebake the tart shell (also called blind baking): Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line the tart shell with foil or parchment paper and fill completely with pie weights (the best weights are rice or lentils). Place in the oven and bake about 20 minutes until the exposed crust turns light golden brown. Peek under the parchment (or foil) and see if the bottom of the crust looks dry. If the bottom is dry, gently remove the parchment and weights. Put the tart shell back into the oven for 10 minutes or so until the crust is golden brown. Remove from the oven and cool to room temperature.