sweet pie crust

The perfect sweet shortcrust pastry or sweet pie crust is not hard to make if you follow the step-by-step recipe in this post.Homemade sweet pie dough makes all the difference, no matter what type of pie or tart you make!

How to make sweet shortcrust pastry

(120 grams) powdered sugar

salt

(250 grams) all-purpose or cake flour

egg,

In a large bowl cream butter with a spatula or wooden spoon until it is smooth.

Add powdered sugar and mix until all is incorporated.

Add egg and mix with a fork. It will not be smooth or completely incorporated. That is fine.

Mix it but don’t wait until the flour is completely incorporated before adding the second half.

Now, mix it until lumpy and few dry spots remain.

Turn it out onto a clean surface or counter and mix with your hands, trying to make it come together but touching it as little as possible.

When you have a smooth dough ball, wrap it in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour and up to 2 days.

When ready to roll, take the dough from the fridge and let barely soften at room temperature.

The dough must still be cold. Simply wait until you can start to roll it but not until it is very soft. This is important to ensure a tender dough.

On a lightly floured counter start rolling the dough disc, making sure you do quarter turns (I do them to the left) often to ensure the dough is not sticking and adding more flour to the counter if it is sticking.

Once you have the dough rolled a few inches larger than the pan, fold it in half and place the fold in the middle of the pan.

Open the dough and line the pan, being careful not to stretch the dough.

Use your hands to lower the dough and reach the union between the bottom and sides of the pie pan.

Go over the rim of the pan with the rolling pin to remove excess dough.

Prick the bottom with a fork and freeze for 20 minutes or put in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

At this point, you can leave the dough frozen in the pan for up to a month, wrapped in plastic.

Or you can blind bake it or bake it completely, depending on what you’re making. (Every pie or tart recipe in this blog has the steps to bake the pie crust. This post is about how to make and store the pastry).

How to prepare a pie crust for blind baking: take out the cold lined pie pan from the fridge or freezer.

Cut a piece of aluminum paper

that is larger than the tart pan. Line the inside of the pan by covering the cold dough with it and adjusting it so that it takes the shape of the dough. You can also use parchment paper, but it's usually coarser and more difficult to make it take the shape of the pan and cover the dough well.

Add weight

. I use round ceramic weights that you can buy online, but you can add any raw grains and legumes such as beans, lentils, rice or even flour (simply fill the aluminum paper with flour or rice or whatever you're using until you have added a layer of weight that will be enough to keep the paper down during baking.

Bake for 15 minutes

It might be a few minutes more or less depending on the type of pie crust, but the idea is to let the dough bake and dry out enough so that we can lift the aluminum paper without it attaching to the raw dough. The paper should lift easily and the dough below will be half baked, very lightly golden. Fill and bake further following instructions in the recipe for the tart or pie you're making.

To completely bake the shortcrust pastry: first, follow the steps to blind bake it, above.

After removing the paper and weight, return the pan to the oven and bake for another 10-15 minutes, depending on how golden you want it. The crust should be dry. Let cool on a wire rack.

If fully baked it will keep for a few days in a metal tin or at room temperature if the place is dry and cool.

But I suggest you bake it the day you’re filling it.

https://content.jwplatform.com/videos/H0t8NsSb.mp4

Make perfect sweet shortcrust pastry or sweet pie crust following the step-by-step recipe in this post.
A homemade crust makes all the difference!

How to make Sweet Shortcrust Pastry

Pate Sucree is one of the three basic French pastry dough recipes. It's sweet and used for a variety of sweet pie fillings. It's perfect for cream based pies that have a lot of moisture. 

Pâte Sucrée (Sweet Pie Crust)

(360 grams) all-purpose flour

(50 grams) granulated sugar

(235 grams) cold butter, cut into ¼” pieces

(115 grams) cold water

Add the flour, sugar and salt to the bowl of a food processor.

Process for 30 seconds to combine and pulverize the sugar.

With the motor running pour pour in the cold water in a steady stream into the flour mixture. The dough should be crumbly and it should hold together when squeezed. If the dough is too dry drop in more water until it holds together.

Empty the flour mixture onto a work surface and spread the mixture out into a rough horizontal line in front of you. Fraisage the dough by taking the heel of your hand smear a small pile of dough into a thin line. Repeat this process until most of your dough has been worked (see note) and the dough is cohesive.

Using a bench scraper, scrape up the dough in chunks and stack it into two piles.

Place each in a piece of plastic wrap and wrap tightly. 

Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out until until it stretches to the corner of the plastic wrap. 

Refrigerate for at least 2 hours, but preferably overnight

I used half of this crust recipe to make the Pumpkin Mascarpone pie and it is delicious!!!!  Thank you for the amazing and easy recipes!

I made this pie for my husband's birthday and he loved it.

I used this recipe today to make a traditional pumpkin pie and of course I couldn’t wait to try your crust and  it was fabulous and quite possibly the best crust I’ve ever eaten. Also made your gluten free crust for some family members and I’m sure that will be great at well. Thanks to you and your recipes this thanksgiving!

Top 2 sweet pie crust recipes from across the web

The most viewed sweet pie crust recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 6,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine

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How to make sweet shortcrust pastry

Pâte Sucrée (Sweet Pie Crust)

Top 2 sweet pie crust recipes from across the web

The most viewed sweet pie crust recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 6,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engineic_arrow_forward_48px

Top Tags

How to make sweet shortcrust pastry

Pâte Sucrée (Sweet Pie Crust)

The most viewed sweet pie crust recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 6,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine