Pâte Sucrée Recipe (Sweet Pastry Dough)
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5.0
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Excellent
Pâte Sucrée Recipe (Sweet Pastry Dough)
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French Pâte sucrée is the best all-round sweet pastry dough for tarts. This is the most basic and easiest French pie crust recipe to work with - taken from my book's tart chapter in Teatime in Paris (2015). The result means no soggy tart bottoms, just a delicious tart pastry base with a touch of vanilla. It's perfect as a base for fruit tarts, chocolate and almond tarts. Makes 500g pastry dough for 1 large tart or 8 tartlets.
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Ingredients
- 125 g (4.5oz/½ cup) unsalted butter at room temperature (not melted), cut into cubes. Chilled if mixing by hand.
- 75 g (2.75oz/½ cup) icing/powdered/confectioner's sugar
- ½ teaspoon sea salt fleur de sel
- 1 medium egg organic (room temperature)
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla powder or extract
- 240 g (8.5oz /1.9 cups) T45 French all-purpose/cake flour or plain (all-purpose) flour, sifted
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Instructions
- Using a stand mixer with a paddle beater (otherwise mix by hand with cold butter), mix the butter, sugar, vanilla and salt until pale and creamy.
- On low speed, gradually add the egg and flour and mix until combined. Half way during mixing, push the dough down the sides of the bowl and paddle with a spatula. Continue mixing just until the dough comes away from the sides of the bowl and stop.
- Form the dough into a ball. Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for an hour. Normally you will only need ⅔ of this dough quantity - either freeze the rest or keep it chilled for up to 3 days.
- Remove from the fridge and after 5 minutes (as easier to work with), roll out the pastry to 3-4mm (⅛ inch) thickness on a lightly floured surface. When completely rolled out about 3cm (about an inch) bigger than the tart tin/ring, transfer the dough by rolling around the pastry roller and cover the tart tin. If using a tart ring, place the ring on baking paper or a silicone mat.
- Press well into the tart tin or ring, leaving no air holes around the edges. Trim off excess pastry by rolling over the edges with the rolling pin. Prick evenly with a fork.Leave to set in the fridge uncovered in the tin/ring for at least 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/Gas 4/360°F.
- Blind bake (top with baking parchment and baking beans - see NOTES) for 15 minutes. Remove baking paper and beans.
- Bake uncovered for a further 5-10 minutes or until the pastry is golden. This step may be optional, depending on the recipe filling's instructions (such as this almond rum tart, which stays in the tin and is baked further with the filling in it).
- Leave to cool for about 5 minutes then remove from the tart tin/ring. Set aside on a wire rack to cool completely before filling.
Notes
- For the original detailed step-by-step recipe, see the tart chapter in my book, 'Teatime in Paris' (2015) along with many more tart recipes.
- For the original detailed step-by-step recipe, see the tart chapter in my book, 'Teatime in Paris' (2015) along with many more tart recipes.
- Storage: although this dough can be prepared on the day of baking, it can be made 1-2 days in advance. Keep chilled rolled in cling film until ready to roll or prepare the tart shell and keep covered in the fridge. Otherwise freezes well - either the raw dough or the baked tart shell. Just defrost thoroughly before use.
- Flour: Although all-purpose flour is good, I generally prefer a finer T45 (French all-purpose) cake flour for tarts. For more, see FAQs
- For chocolate pastry, add 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder to the flour in step 2.
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5.0
42 reviews
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