Sweet Shortcrust Pastry

This homemade sweet shortcrust pastry is ideal for all your fruit tarts or small pies. I love to use this recipe for jam tarts or to make Christmas mince pies.

Sweet shortcrust pastry doesn’t include leavening agents and when baked is crisp rather than puffed and layered.

This is an easy recipe and is best made by hand rather than in a food processor. We want to handle the dough as little as possible and keep it cold throughout the making of it. This way the dough won’t shrink so much or become tough after baking. Another important factor is resting the dough. It’s best to rest it after it’s made and then again once you have rolled it out and filled your baking form.

The French call this pastry pâte sucrée, as it is mostly used for fruit tarts, just like in my apricot streusel tart, sour cherry ricotta tart or my cherry Bakewell tart recipe. The dough is actually also great for making biscuits, similar to sable biscuits or shortbread.

If you decide to give this recipe a try, let me know! Leave a comment below and rate it – it’s really helpful to me and other readers knowing what you think! And don’t forget to take a picture and tag me @thegourmetlarder or hashtag it #thegourmetlarder on Instagram or Facebook. I love seeing what you’ve been baking! 🙂

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RECIPE HIGHLIGHTS

• EASE: quick to make and is best made ahead of time.
• FREE FROM: this recipe is nut-free, check out my gluten-free option in the substitutions section.
• GREAT FOR: sweet tarts, small pies (Christmas mince pies) or sable biscuits.
• TASTE & TEXTURE: light, buttery, crispy sweet crust.
• QUANTITY: this recipe is enough to line a 25cm (10 inch) maximum, flan tin or eight 10cm (4 inch) tartlet tins. (approx. 500g dough)

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INGREDIENTS

For this recipe all you need are these ingredients:

• Plain or all-purpose flour – is ideal for the pastry as it does not contain high levels of gluten.

• Butter – gives the pastry a nice rich buttery taste and should be chilled to ensure the pastry dough remains cold to avoid overheating while mixing.

• Fine sea salt – enhances the ingredient flavours.  

• Icing sugar (powdered sugar) – gives this pastry a refined sweet taste.

• Eggs – are used to bring all the ingredients together in a nice smooth paste.

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SUBSTITUTIONS

While I am making recommendations for alternative ingredients, I haven’t necessarily tried them. If you try making any adaptions, I would love to know how you get on and share it with the other readers.

SUGAR-FREE AND LOW-CALORIE OPTIONS

• Icing sugar suggestions: try alternatives such as Pure Via Baker’s icing sugar or Canderel Bake! sugar free icing sugar.

GLUTEN-FREE OPTION

• Flour: replace the gluten flour with a 1:1 alternative gluten free flour, such as Doves Farm Free plain gluten free flour. If possible, choose a flour which contains xanthan gum or alternatively, add 1 tsp to your batter for stability. You can also try Doves Farm gluten free self-raising flour.

VEGAN OPTIONS

• Butter: I recommend Naturli vegan block or Flora plant-based block butter alternative.

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WHAT VARIATIONS CAN I MAKE?

• Citrus flavouring – for a bit of zing, add the zest of a lemon, lime, or orange to the flour before mixing.

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NUTRITION

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STORAGE AND FREEZING

This dough will keep well for up to 5 days, wrapped well in the fridge.

Freezing: Once prepared this dough can be wrapped in clingfilm and frozen for up to 1 month.

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TOOLS YOU’LL NEED

Here is some kitchen equipment that I use and recommend for this recipe.

• Earthenware Mixing Bowl Mason Cash, Cream 29 cm Chip Resistant.

I like the sturdiness of this bowl and its 4 litre capacity means I can use it for mixing just about everything in the kitchen. It is also microwave, freezer and dishwasher safe.

• Mixing Bowls Set of 5, Stainless Steel Nesting Bowls with Airtight Lids, 3 Grater Attachments, Size 5, 3, 2, 1.5, 0.63 QT

These different size mixing bowls are really useful depending on the amount of food you are preparing. They also have airtight lids that fit snugly to seal and keep food fresh, great for using as dry storage bowls with lids. The plastic lid of the largest bowl has a removable centre, where one of 3 graters can be used for grating cheese or vegetables.

• 3 Plastic Mixing Bowls, Non-Slip Base, Soft Grip Handle, Microwave and Dishwasher Safe, Compact, Stackable, Ideal for baking and cooking, off-white, 1.5 Litre, 2 Litre, 2.5 Litre.

I do own a plastic mixing bowl but I am personally not a big fan of them. These 3 bowls are on the smaller size but good for the odd cake making.

• Fine Mesh Strainer – Flour Sieves for Baking, 8cm 12cm & 18cm

These strainers are durable and sturdy, built to last, for a wide range of needs in the kitchen.

• Rolling Pin with Removable Silicone Thickness Guide Rings, Beech Wood (40 x 3.9 cm)

I love this rolling pin, its variable guide rings make rolling out biscuit doughs, pizzas, or flat breads so much easier!

• KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer Die-cast Metal, 300 W, 4.8 ltrs
  

Not everyone is lucky enough to have one of these but they are useful if you do a lot of baking or making bread.

Please check out my Shop for a curated collection of some of my favourite baking equipment. The Gourmet Larder is an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

TIP: I highly recommend using metric measurements and a digital kitchen scale, rather than cup measurements. If you have ever ended up with dry, dense or crumbly baked goods, it might be because of inaccurate volume measurements, not all measuring cups are made equally. All my recipes on this blog are carefully developed so that you can easily recreate them in your own kitchen with success, using metric measurements. It is also a lot easier, less messy and you will get far better, consistent results. 🙂
If you are interested in understanding conversions, here you will find the best conversion chart.

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RECIPE TIPS

The golden rule of making shortcrust pastry is to keep the ingredients, equipment, and your hands as cool as possible. With this in mind, gather together all your equipment and weigh all the ingredients before you begin. 

Don’t overwork the dough – Constant kneading of the dough activates the gluten in the flour, causing the dough to become tough and even shrink more when baked. Remember that the less you touch the dough, the shorter and flakier your pastry will be.

Use the least amount of flour when rolling out your dough to keep it from sticking to your kitchen worksurface. The more flour there is, the heavier your dough will be.

Don’t skip chilling the sweet shortcrust dough for as long as possible. If you’re in a rush, you can get away with freezing it for half an hour. Keep in mind that allowing it to rest for longer in the fridge gives time for the gluten in the dough to relax, making it easier to roll and decrease the amount of shrinking during baking. Make sure to let the dough come back to room temperature before you try rolling it out, or it is likely to break apart.

Make sure to use flour that is low in gluten (proteins). Plain or cake flour are usually the best, alternatively 00 is good.

To get a really crisp bottom on your tart shell, place a heavy baking tray in the oven while it is heating up, then place the tart or pie directly on it.

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