tart pastry

Recipe video above. If I only had room for one Sweet Tart Crust recipe in my life, this would be it. Called Pâte Sucrée in French, it&#039;s an excellent master pastry for all sweet tarts, such as the Pistachio Pear Tart recipe I shared today.Buttery and not too sweet, flaky but not so crumbly that makes it difficult to eat with a fork. Plus, the dough is extremely easy to work with - easier than Shortcrust Pastry.Makes enough pastry for a tart tin up to around 24 x 3 cm / 9.5 x 1.2&quot; big.

Pâte Sucrée - French Sweet Tart Crust (pastry dough)

flour (, plain/all purpose)

6 1/2 tbsp soft icing sugar / powdered sugar (, sifted (Note 1))

tbsp almond meal / ground almonds ((Note 2))

tsp salt

/ 7 tbsp butter

Whisk together flour, icing sugar, salt and almond meal in a bowl.

Add butter. Use your fingertips to rub the butter into the dry ingredients until it resembles breadcrumbs. (Note 4).

Add egg. Mix with a rubber spatula until it becomes too hard to stir anymore, then use your hands to bring it together into a dough.

Turn dough out onto a work surface, then knead to bring together into a smooth ball. Flatten into a 2cm / 0.8&quot; thick disc. Wrap with cling wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Tart dough:

Unwrap chilled dough. Place on a lightly floured work surface.

Roll out into a 32cm / 13" round (3mm / 1/8" thick).

Rolling out:

Line tart tin: Roll pastry lightly on to a rolling pin (ie. so it wraps around itself). Then unroll it gently over the tart tin.

Fit pastry: Adjust the pastry to fit into the tart tin, fitting into the corner, taking care not to stretch it (causes shrinkage during bake).

Trim excess dough: Roll the rolling pin over tart tin to trim excess dough. Pictured tart tin is 24 x 3 cm / 9.5 x 1.2&quot; - you can use any up to this size.

Chill pastry in tart tin for 30 minutes.

Line tart tin:

Preheat oven to 200°C / 390°F (180°C fan).

Baking beads: Cover pastry with 2 sheets of baking paper (parchment paper), in a &quot;X&quot; arrangement. Fill with baking beads (or 2 cups dry raw rice or beans).

Baking:

Baking times for a Par Baked Tart to be used for tarts that are baked for &gt; 30 minutes once the filling is added into the cooked tart shell.

Bake 15 minutes the remove from oven. Use excess paper to remove baking beads.

Bake uncovered 5 minutes: Return tart crust to oven for 5 minutes. Pastry should be light golden, crispy on surface, but slighty undercooked inside (will finish cooking once filled and baked again). 

Par Baked Tart Crust:

Use these baking times if the tart shell is to be used for raw fillings (ie tart not baked once crust is filled) OR fillings that are baked for &lt; 25 minutes.

Bake 15 minutes the remove from oven. Use excess paper to remove baking beads.

Bake uncovered 10 minutes: This will fully cook the pastry through and give it nice colour which we need as the pastry won&#039;t cook through in less than 25 minutes once filled.

Fully Cooked Tart Crust:

Cool: Remove then cool in tart tin before filling (this ensures crust stays crispy once filled), then baking again if filling needs to be cooked (like this Pistachio Frangipane Pear Tart).

Make ahead up to 3 days, suitable for baking once filled.

Cool &amp; use

The perfect short pastry made with real ingredients and the added deliciousness of vanilla bean. You can easily use vanilla bean paste in this recipe.

Thermomix recipe: Vanilla Bean Pastry

Grams sugar

Vanilla Bean vanilla bean,

200 Grams cold butter, cubed

380 Grams plain flour

water

Place sugar and vanilla bean into Thermomix bowl and mill **10 sec/speed 10**.

Add butter and flour and mix **10 sec/speed 6** until resembles breadcrumbs.

Add water through hole in lid while you continue to mix **22 sec/Interval**.

As soon as the dough starts to form a ball, stop and remove pastry from bowl onto lightly floured baking mat. Roll and use as directed.

This rather simple tart recipe is open to interpretation. Bake it according to the recipe, which includes pastry bolstered with ground almonds and a filling rich with apricots that suggests frangipane with more almonds and mascarpone. But as the season takes on summer’s glow, you could use this recipe as a template and swap out the apricots for a layer of lightly sweetened fresh raspberries splashed with framboise eau de vie. Diced poached sweetened rhubarb, diced fresh apricots or quartered and stemmed fresh black figs would work, too.

Almond-Apricot Tart

apricots,

whisky

all-purpose flour,

salt

sugar

unsalted butter, diced

eggs

confectioners’ sugar

mascarpone

almond extract

almonds

Place apricots and whisky in a saucepan, bring to a simmer and set aside. Turn apricots in warm whisky from time to time while continuing with preparation.

Heat oven to 450 degrees. Combine flour, 1/4 cup ground almonds, salt and granulated sugar in a bowl or food processor. Whisk to combine. By hand or machine, add butter, pulsing or using a pastry blender to make a crumbly mixture. Beat egg yolk with 4 tablespoons cold water and add, mixing or pulsing until ingredients come together to form a dough. Add a little more water as needed.

Shape pastry into a flattened disk on a floured surface and roll to fit a 9-inch straight-sided tart pan. Prick the bottom. Line with foil and pastry weights and bake 10 minutes. Remove foil and weights and bake 10 minutes more, until lightly golden. Remove from oven. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees.

Drain apricots, reserving any whisky. Tightly line pastry shell with apricots. Whisk together the remaining 1/2 cup ground almonds and confectioners’ sugar in a bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk mascarpone until smooth. Beat 2 remaining eggs and add to mascarpone along with reserved whisky and almond extract. Mix into combined almonds and confectioners’ sugar. Pour over apricots in pastry shell.

Place tart in oven and bake 20 minutes. Sprinkle sliced almonds around the outside edge of the tart filling to form a border about an inch wide. Return to oven and bake another 15 to 20 minutes, until the filling is puffed and lightly browned. Remove from oven, place on a rack and let cool to room temperature before serving.

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Top 3 tart pastry recipes from across the web

The most viewed tart pastry recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engineic_arrow_forward_48px

Top Tags

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Thermomix recipe: Vanilla Bean Past...

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The most viewed tart pastry recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine