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Sweet Tart Crust Recipe

Sweet Tart Crust Recipe


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5 from 1 review

  • Author: Rebecca Neidhart
  • Total Time: 3.5 hours
  • Yield: 1 9" round tart crust, or 6 4" tart crusts 1x

Description

This basic tart crust recipe (pâte sucrée) is lightly sweet with a short, melt in your mouth texture, but it’s also sturdy and easy to work with. It’s the perfect pastry recipe for any dessert tart recipe you wish to create.


Ingredients

Scale
  • 2 cups (240 g) all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup (63 g) powdered sugar
  • 1/4 tsp. salt
  • 10 Tbsp. (143 g) butter, cool and not completely hard
  • 1 large hard boiled egg yolk, grated
  • 1 large egg yolk
  • 3 Tbsp. heavy whipping cream
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Instructions

Fit your stand mixer with the paddle attachment. In it’s bowl, combine the flour, powdered sugar, and salt. Stir on low to combine. Cut the butter into small chunks, and add them to the flour mixture one at a time while the mixer is running. Continue to mix until it is all worked into the dry ingredients, and the mix looks like slightly clumpy sand.

Stir in the grated egg yolk, then the raw egg yolk, cream, and vanilla extract. Stir until a dough is beginning to form. The dry ingredients should be completely absorbed, but you want to stop mixing while the dough is still in several smaller clumps and hasn’t come together into one large ball.

Remove it from the bowl to a sheet of plastic wrap and press it together gently to form a ball, then wrap it with the wrap and press it into a disc. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before rolling and baking. It can be kept in the refrigerator for up to three days.

To Bake the Tart Crust: Removed the dough from the refrigerator and, on a lightly floured surface, roll it into a round 1/4″ thick. Carefully lift the dough into your tart pan and press it into edges and side. Allow any extra dough to hang over the sides, and either run your rolling pin over the edges to remove it, or cut it off with a sharp knife. If any cracks are visible, press a bit of the excess dough into it with your fingers to fill it in. Put the crust back in the fridge for another hour.

Preheat the oven to 375F. Poke the crust 10-15 times with a fork, then line the crust with a sheet of parchment paper and fill it with baking weights, dry beans, sugar, or rice. Bake for 10 minutes, then remove it from the oven and lift the parchment paper with the weights from it. Return the crust to the oven and bake for another 5-8 minutes, or until the bottom crust is no longer shiny. The edges should be golden brown. Remove it from the oven and cool completely before filling. The crust can be frozen for up to two weeks if wrapped well.

Notes

  • The rest time after rolling and lining the tin is really important. It allows the gluten in the dough to relax, giving you less shrinkage and fewer cracks.
  • You want to be pretty deft with the dough to avoid as much gluten development as possible. The less gluten gets worked, the more delicate and less tough your crust will be.
  • This recipe can be made ahead and the dough frozen for up to a month. Alternatively, you can blind bake the crusts as directed and freeze them for up to two weeks.
  • If you pat the dough into a disc instead of a ball before chilling, it will be ready to bake sooner. 
  • Take any leftover dough, roll it out, and cut into cookies. Bake for about 10 minutes at 350F (bake times will vary based on how thick and large you cut them). They can be eaten plain, dipped in chocolate, or sandwiched with ganache, jam, or buttercream.
  • Prep Time: 15 minutes || 3-24 hours resting time
  • Cook Time: 15-18 minutes
  • Category: Pastry
  • Method: Baking
  • Cuisine: Dessert