tart shell

This tart, adapted from the pastry chef Jacquy Pfeiffer, with whom I wrote a cookbook, is a very simple way to show off the last of the season’s plums. Use the same formula for peaches, apricots and figs when those fruits are in season. The important thing to remember when making fresh fruit tarts with cut stone fruit is that you need to pack the fruit into the pastry tightly. If you don’t, the fruit will collapse in the shell as it bakes, and it will lose a lot of liquid, which could make the pastry shell soggy. Another way to prevent the shell from becoming soggy is to line it with crumbs of one kind or another — they can be cookie crumbs or breadcrumbs, crumble topping or streusel, that will absorb the juice from the fruit.

Plum Tart

sweet pastry tart shell, fully baked (see recipe)

120 grams crumbled vanilla cookies, bread crumbs

sugar

cinnamon

apricot jam (optional)

Heat oven to 375 degrees. If using smaller, halved plums, use a paring knife to cut a 3/4-inch slit through the top of each half, from the tip of the plum to just above where the pit should be. (This will allow the liquid from the plums to evaporate during baking instead of settling into the pit cavity.)

Place pastry shell on a sheet pan or baking sheet. Spread crumbs or crumble topping over bottom of pastry shell in an even layer. Arrange plums in tight concentric circles in pastry shell, skin-side down, beginning with rim of the pan and standing plums up slightly.

Mix together sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle 2 tablespoons over plums. Place in oven and bake 45 minutes, or until tips of plums have colored; plums should retain their shape. Remove from heat, on baking sheet, and allow to cool on a rack.

Once plums have cooled, sprinkle remaining cinnamon-sugar mixture over the fruit. Alternatively, heat jam in a small saucepan until runny and, instead of sprinkling fruit with sugar, gently brush cooled plums with jam to glaze.

This vegan shortcrust pastry is incredibly easy to make, with the most delicious results. Once baked, it gives a perfectly crisp and buttery tart shell suitable for all sorts of sweet vegan tarts. The pastry dough is super easy to work with and best of all, you don’t need any egg replacements to make it. Plus, you couldn’t possibly guess that it’s vegan!This recipe makes enough pastry for one 9 inch (23cm) tart or three smaller 6 inch (15cm) tarts.

Easy Vegan Shortcrust Pastry (Vegan Pâte Sucrée)

150 g (1 ¼ cups) plain all-purpose flour

almond flour

g (⅓ cup) powdered/icing sugar

butter

g (4 tsp) cold water

In a large bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, almond flour and powdered/icing sugar.

Add the cold vegan butter and work it into the dry ingredients until you get a mixture resembling breadcrumbs.

Add the cold water and mix well until the dough starts coming together.Tip: The amount of water listed in the recipe should be sufficient to hydrate the flour and bring the dough together without any patches of dry flour. If the dough is too dry with several patches of dry flour, sprinkle a small amount of extra cold water on those places until you get a homogeneous, evenly hydrated dough.

Give the dough a quick knead and bring it together in a ball. Don’t over-work it, as that will result in gluten development and a tough pastry. The final dough should be smooth and homogeneous. It shouldn&#39;t be sticky to the touch and it shouldn&#39;t be too soft – you should be able to handle and roll it out without any problems.

Roll out the pastry and use as instructed in your chosen tart recipe immediately, or store it in the fridge, wrapped tightly in cling film, until needed.

For vegan shortcrust pastry:

Get a 9 inch (23cm) loose bottom tart tin with a fluted edge ready to have on hand.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the pastry into a rough circle about 3mm thin and at least 1-1 ½ inch (2.5-4cm) larger than the tart tin diameter.

Transfer the rolled-out pastry into the tart tin and make sure that the pastry is snug against the bottom and the sides of the tin. Roll the rolling pin gently across the top of the tart tin – this is the easiest way to cut away any excess pastry. (Alternatively, you can use a sharp knife to cut away the excess pastry.)

Gently press the pastry into the individual grooves of the fluted edge of the tart tin, for a more polished final look.

Chill in the fridge for about 15-30 minutes.

Rolling out (9 inch/23cm tart):

Note: You should partially blind bake the pastry if your tart filling needs to be baked but the baking time of the filling isn’t sufficient to give a fully baked-through pastry, or if the filling is particularly wet and might result in a soggy tart bottom.

While the pastry is chilling, place a baking sheet on the middle oven rack and pre-heat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC) with the baking sheet inside.

Once chilled, dock the bottom of the tart shell evenly with a fork.

Scrunch up a large piece of baking/parchment paper to soften it up, then use it to line the inside of the tart shell. Fill the lined tart shell to the brim with pie weights or rice.

Place the tart on the hot baking sheet and bake at 350ºF (180ºC) for 15 minutes or until you can see the edges of the tart shell becoming very light golden.Then, remove the pie weights/rice and the baking/parchment paper, and bake for a further 5-10 minutes or until the tart shell is evenly light golden brown, with slightly darker edges.

Remove from the oven and allow the tart shell to cool (in the tart tin) until warm or completely at room temperature, before filling it and baking it for a second time.

Partially blind baking the pastry:

Note: You should fully blind bake the pastry if you don’t have to bake the tart filling (for instance, if you&#39;re filling the tart shell with chocolate ganache or pastry cream).

Place the tart on the hot baking sheet and bake at 350ºF (180ºC) for 15 minutes or until you can see the edges of the tart shell becoming very light golden.Then, remove the pie weights/rice and the baking/parchment paper, and bake for a further 10-15 minutes or until the tart shell is evenly deep golden brown, and it feels and looks crisp to the touch. 

Remove from the oven and allow the tart shell to cool (in the tart tin) completely to room temperature, before filling it with your filling of choice.

Fully blind baking the pastry:

The raw pastry keeps well in the fridge, wrapped tightly in cling film, for about 3-4 days. If the pastry is very firm straight out of the fridge, allow it to warm up slightly at room temperature for about 10-15 minutes or until it becomes pliable before rolling it out.The fully blind baked pastry keeps well in a closed container at room temperature for 3-4 days.

Storage:

A classic berry tart is a perfect way to showcase your farmers’ market bounty, but it’s also kind of staid and dull, offering up visions of a vicar’s tea with an old aunt. But here, you’ll infuse the pastry cream with rose petals and sweeten the crust with almonds, giving a sexy twist to an old standby. For those with green thumbs, here’s a different way to showcase your most fragrant roses, free of pesticides and redolent of summer in the garden.

Rose-Scented Berry Tart With an Almond Shortbread Crust

all-purpose flour

confectioners’ sugar

lemon

kosher salt

(1 stick) unsalted butter,

egg,

almonds

large,

milk

blueberries strawberries

For the crust, place 1/4 cup flour and the almonds in a food processor. Run until the almonds are finely ground, about 1 minute. Pulse in remaining one and a quarter cups flour, sugar, lemon zest and salt.

Add the butter and pulse until a coarse meal forms. Add the egg and pulse until the dough comes together. Press dough into a disk, wrap in plastic, and chill for 4 hours or up to a week.

To make the pastry cream, pull the rose petals from the stem and drop into a heavy saucepan. Pour in milk and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat, cover, and let stand 1 hour. Strain and discard petals; pour liquid into pot and return to a simmer. (If you are using rosewater, skip the steeping; bring milk to a simmer and stir in the rosewater off the heat.)

In a medium bowl, whisk flour and sugar. Slowly whisk in the hot milk. Return mixture to the saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture just starts to boil, 1 to 2 minutes.

In a large bowl, whisk yolks until pale and thick. Whisking constantly, pour the hot milk mixture into the yolks. Return the mixture to the saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until custard is thick and smooth (170 degrees on an instant-read thermometer). Do not let the mixture boil. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve. Chill 1 hour before using or up to 5 days.

When ready to bake the tart, roll the dough out between two sheets of plastic to a 3/8-inch thickness. Remove plastic and line a 9-inch tart pan with the dough; chill for 30 minutes.

Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Line the tart shell with foil and fill with baking weights. Bake for 20 minutes, then remove the foil and weights. Continue baking, uncovered, for 5 to 10 more minutes, until pale golden. Allow tart shell to cool completely before filling.

Spoon chilled pastry cream into cooled tart shell. Arrange berries over the top of the tart. Serve within 2 hours for the best texture.

Want the perfect vehicle for summer fruit? Try making a sweet almond tart crust. Melissa Clark shows how.

Sweet Almond Tart Crust

Learn How To Make a rich Chocolate Short Crust Pastry Shell that you can use for so many different desserts!

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

all-purpose flour (plain flour)

g Dutch processed cocoa powder

sugar (icing sugar)

tsp fine salt

tsp vanilla extract

egg (55 grams, whisked)

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.

Preparing the tart tin

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.

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.

Crust (food processor)

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

If using for no-bake filling - bake for a final 20 minutes instead of final 15. Allow to cool before adding the fillings.

Crust (by hand)

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Plum Tart

Easy Vegan Shortcrust Pastry (Vegan...

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How To Make A Crisp Chocolate Pastr...

Top 4 tart shell recipes from across the web

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

Top Tags

Plum Tart

Easy Vegan Shortcrust Pastry (Vegan...

Rose-Scented Berry Tart With an Alm...

How To Make A Crisp Chocolate Pastr...

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