Short Crust Pastry

Adapted from Le Cordon Bleu

Short Pastries have a crumbly, slightly crisp, texture. Make sure you work in a cool environment when making short pastries and use chilled ingredients. Handle the pastry lightly and as little as possible. Heavy handling results in heavy, or tough, pastry.


Pate Sable - is a rich biscuit-like crust. It is sweeter than Pate Sucree and maybe used as a crust for tarts, or for making plain dessert cookies.

Pate Sucree - is a lightly sweetened pastry enriched with additional egg yolk and flavoured with vanilla. It can be used for tarts and all sweet pastry.

Pate Brisee - is the French equivalent of the classic short crust pastry.

The recipe below is for Pate Brisee which can be used for all tarts and pies.

Ingredients:

185g flour
80g chilled butter cubes
1 egg lightly beaten
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp water approximately


Method:

Sift the flour into a bowl.

Rub the butter and flour together until evenly incorporated, when they look similar to breadcrumbs.

Beat the salt and egg lightly.

Add the egg to the flour. Sprinkle water over the dry mixture.

When the pastry begins to form clumps, press it gently together with a cupped hand to form a smooth ball.

Cover with cling wrap and refrigerate for 10-15 minutes.

Roll the dough to a circle that is 2 inches larger than the pan.

Press the dough over the bottom of the tin.

Cut off the excess overhanging dough by running the blunt edge of a knife against the pan edges.

Prick holes with a fork and refrigerate for 10-15 minutes. Do not skip this step or else your pastry will shrink while baking.

Filling:

Short crust pastry can be used for Tarts - lemon tart, fruit tart,etc.
 Pies - apple pie, pumpkin pie, etc.
It can also be used for quiches.