Shortcrust Pastry

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This Shortcrust Pastry recipe walks you through the basics, step-by-step. It’s easy when you know how! The reward is delicious, homemade pie crusts for so many kinds of sweet and savoury dishes.

Prep Time15

Cook Time30

Plus chilling time:1 30

Total Time2 15

Course: Dessert, Main Course, Savoury

Cuisine: Family Food

Servings: 23cm tart tin

Author: Sarah Rossi

Ingredients

200 g Plain flour
100 g Cold unsalted butter Cut into 1cm cubes
Pinch of fine salt
1 Egg Beaten
1-2 tbsp Cold water

For sweet shortcrust:

4 tsp Icing sugar

For the tart case:

2 tbsp Plain flour For dusting
1 Egg Beaten

Metric - Imperial

Instructions

Dry ingredients in: Sift the plain flour into a large bowl and add the salt (and icing sugar if you’re making sweet shortcrust pastry.)
Rubbing in method: Add the cubed cold butter, toss through the flour then use your finger tips to rub the butter in the flour. You want your butter and flour to look like breadcrumbs or ground almonds.
Wet ingredients in: Use a fork to stir the beaten egg in.
Add 1 tbsp of cold water and use the knife to bring everything together to make a dough, only adding more water if needed. You want the pastry to just hold together when you pinch it between your thumb and finger.
Shape: Tip the mix onto the worktop and use your hands to bring it together and shape into a disk.
Time to chill: Wrap in cling film and pop in the fridge for 1 hour.

To make a 23cm tart case:

Out of the fridge: Bring the pastry out of the fridge for 10 minutes to warm up a little.
Roll with it: Lightly flour your worktop and rolling pin, then roll your pastry out to a large circle about 3mm thick.
Into the dish: Carefully lift the rolled pastry onto your 23cm tart dish and use your hands to gently push the pastry in the sides of the pan. Try not to stretch the pastry while you’re doing this. Use your rolling pin to roll the excess pastry from the top of your tart case.
Docking: Use a fork to prick the base of the tart case all over, then place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven: Heat the oven to 180°C fan/200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6.
Weigh it down: Line the tart case with scrunched up baking paper then fill with baking beans or dry rice.
First bake: Bake for 12-15 minutes until the edges are turning golden, then carefully lift the parchment paper and baking beans from the case.
Second bake: Place the tart case back in the oven for 10-15 minutes until golden all over. (If you are going to use the tart case for something that needs baking for 30 minutes or more, reduce the second cook time to 5-10 mins.
Third bake: Gently brush the beaten egg all over the inside of the tart case then place back in the oven for 2 minutes. (This helps make sure any gaps are filled in so your filling won’t leak out.)
Cool it: Leave the tart case on a cooling rack to cool completely before using.

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Notes

Nutrition: The nutrition in this case is for the entire tart dish, portions will depend on the filling you choose.

Tools for the job: A 23cm fluted flan dish, baking beans or pie weights (or dried rice), rolling pin and parchment/baking paper.

Chill the dough: Make sure you leave time for this as we chill it twice - once for an hour after we’ve formed it, and another 30 minutes once it’s rolled out and into the dish.

Cold is good: The big trick to good pastry is keeping everything cold - the butter, your hands, the room, the water. You name it, if it’s cold it will make making your pastry easier!

Cool completely before using: Make sure your pastry shells have cooled down completely before you fill and bake them again!

Good ingredients: When a recipe has only a few ingredients, it really does make a big difference if you use the best quality you can for each of them. Also, using proper butter for this recipe is the only way to make sure your pastry works. Margarine is just too soft.

Storing: Store the baked pastry case in an airtight container at room temperature. You can freeze the unbaked shell in the flan dish. When fully frozen, wrap it in cling film. You can then continue the baking as per the recipe below when you’re ready, adding a few minutes to the first cooking time. You can also freeze the unrolled pastry dough in cling film to save space. Make sure it’s fully defrosted before trying to roll it out.

Baking time: If you are going to use the tart case for something that needs baking for 30 minutes or more, reduce the second cook time to 5-10 mins OR don’t blind bake it at all.

Nutrition