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Basic pastry technique to make tarts. Today I will do this without food processor. There are three different pie crusts: Pate Brisee(shortcrust pastry), pate sucree (sweet shortcrust), and pate sablee (crumbly crust). It depends on recipes but generally shortcrust goes well with sweet fillings,

Sweet shortcrust is for less sweet fillings like crème patissiere (pastry cream).

Crumbly crust is for lemon bars, cheesecakes, etc. And today I am making shortcrust pastry because I am making a tart tomorrow. :)

Shortcrust Pastry – Tart Shell – Pie Crust – Pâte Brisée Recipe

For one 9 inch (23 cm) tart shell

Ingredients

1 ½ cups cake flour (190 g)
7 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold (0.9 stick; 100 g)
1 egg, medium-sized
1 tablespoon water
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Pinch salt
1 teaspoon caster sugar
Dash of fresh lemon juice

Fraiser demonstration — *Fraiser* demonstration

Method

First, in a mixing bowl sift cake flour, sugar, and salt. I used cake flour because tart shell should have delicate tender crumb. The cake flour has half protein content of all-purpose flour. Whisk well.

Cut cold butter into small cubes. Then add the butter into the flour mixture. With pastry blender, cut the butter into small pieces. Pastry blender is a tool used to make fat into smaller pieces. You can do this with fingers, or food processor. Keep cutting until the mixture seems like fine breadcrumbs. In French, it’s sable, sands.

Make a hole in the sands. Beat an egg a little and add in to the hole. Then add in water and vanilla extract. Finally, cut the lemon and squeeze in a few drops. With a scraper fold the mixture until it starts to form a ball.

Scrape out the dough. Then, with the heel of your hand, push the dough away from you flattening it. This motion is fraiser. It is for blending without overworking the dough. And form into a flat round disk. Wrap it up in plastic wrap and rest in refrigerator for at least one hour or overnight.

Remove the wrap and sprinkle the flour on a working surface. With a rolling pin, spread it out pressing evenly. Always roll from the center of the dough. Use short strokes. Don’t try to flatten it all the way in one pass. Keep working until desired thickness, 0.1 inch here.

Roll the dough with a pin and line the pan. Today I am using a non-stick pan. Push down the dough in the corners, don’t stretch. With a small ball of leftover dough, again press the corner evenly. Push extra dough inside of the rim, then roll the pin to cut off the excess. Lift up the extra dough on the rim. This overhang will prevent the dough shrinking. I will show you later.

Now prick the bottom with a fork. And with aluminum foil or parchment paper, line the pastry shell and fill it with baking beans or rice. Bake at 355 degrees F (180 C) for 20 minutes.

Remove the weights and brush tart shells with egg wash. The base is wet, because it was pressed down with baking beans. So, bake for another 10 minutes, or until the base is firm and dry.

See? Shell without overhang is visibly shrunk and the shell with overhang is ok.

Let the tart cool in the pan. This is le fond de tarte (bottom of tart in English literally), tart shell without filling.

Golden brown edges, dry side and bottom. It’s a time to make lemon filling!

Thank you for watching! Bye for now.

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