Perfect sweet pastry crust

If you’ve got a dessert pie to make, you’ll need the perfect sweet pastry crust recipe. Here, we’re sharing all our secrets: top tips that will yield the flakiest, tastiest (with just a hint of sweetness) pie crust. Just follow our recipe, all you need to do is come up with something to fill it with! Decisions, decisions! Here’s an idea!

Making the Crust:

Don’t make things harder on yourself than what they need to be. Many recipes will have you preparing pie-dough with only the coldest butter, and working with your hands. While you can certainly do it this way, I like to use the food processor in these steps:

1. Cream the butter and sugar
2. Pulse in the flour until only just combined – fine breadcrumbs is what you’re after (see the pic below.)
3. Add the egg and wet ingredients until it just comes together

Turn the breadcrumb-like mixture onto the work surface, you’ll see it will come together easily with your hands.

For the next steps, a bot of powdered sugar and plastic wrap are your two new best friends. Sandwich the dough between two pieces of plastic wrap that you’ve sprinkled with a little powdered sugar. Flatten the dough into a disk and chill.

To roll out the dough, keep it inside the 2 pieces of plastic wrap: you can turn it easily and roll to just the thickness and size you need. In the pic above, I place the tart tin over the rolled out dough to make sure I have enough to cover the bottom and the sides.

Peel off the top layer of plastic wrap, and then flip the dough into the tart pan. Peel off the second layer.
Trim the over-hanging pastry with scissors. I’ll save some of these extra trimmed pieces, roll them into “sausages” that I’ll use to make repairs: such as if the dough doesn’t uniformly come up the sides of the pan, or if I have any rips.

“Blind-baking” is essential for the perfect sweet pastry crust:

“Blind-baking” the pastry is essential — you’ll often pre-bake your tart before filling so that the pastry shell is crisp as a cookie (no soggy bottoms!). Then you’ll fill and bake again.

To “blind bake” successfully, it’s nice to bake in 2 stages. First, weigh the pastry down with baking beans, rice, or (like me) dried garbanzo beans. I make a cartouche by folding a rectangle of parchment paper into triangles, measuring the radius of the tart pan, and cutting on an arc. If I’ve done it right, I’m left with a circle just a little larger than my tart pan. I “dock” the pastry (pick it with a fork to allow air to escape), lay the cartouche atop the pastry, and rain in the beans over that. I bake for about 15-20 minutes until the pastry is dry, remove the beans and parchment, and bake again until the pastry is golden.

Easy as pie!

Our perfect sweet pastry crust is perfect with our Quince & Frangipani Tart!

Perfect sweet pastry crust

Print Recipe

 : makes pastry to line a 10 or 12-inch tart pan Prep Time: 20 minutes Cooking Time: 40 minutes 40 minutes

Nutrition facts: 200 calories 20 grams fat

Rating: 5.0/5

( 1 voted )

Ingredients

9  tablespoons butter
½ cup powdered sugar
a pinch of salt
zest of a lemon or orange (optional, but nice!)
1½ cups flour
2 egg yolks
1 tablespoon of cold water, if you need it

Instructions

Cream together butter,  sugar, salt, and zest in the food processor. Pulse in the flour. Add the egg yolks, pulse in a few short blasts,  and turn the dough onto a clean surface. If necessary, add cold water for it to draw together.

Wrap the dough in 2 pieces of plastic wrap and flatten it with the heel of your hand to a disk-shape. Set in the fridge to rest for at least an hour.

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Roll out the dough in between the plastic wrap until it reaches the size you need. To gauge, place your tart pan on top of the circle of rolled dough to determine if you have enough to cover the base and sides.

Carefully peel off a layer of plastic wrap and flip the pastry into the tart shell. Once positioned, peel off the top layer. "Dock" the pastry by pricking it with a fork, and pop in the freezer for another round of chilling (at least 5 minutes, while you make the cartouche. Fold a square of parchment paper into a triangle, and again. Measure the radius of the tart pan, plus 3 inches for overhang.

You are ready to pre-bake, blind! Place the cartouche on the pastry case and fill with baking beans or rice. Bake for about 20 minutes, until dry, and then lift out the parchment with the baking beans and bake for another 20 minutes or so until golden. Allow it to cool before filling.