Shortcrust pastry used to SCARE me. I saw it as this shrinking, complicated fragile nemesis only to be conquered by professional chefs. In reality it’s so incredibly easy! It is really even easier to make than any cake.
It’s super quick and in a few moments you have a crisp, golden, buttery piece of heaven! Not to mention all the possibilities for fillings and flavours!
Egg or No Egg:
I’ve tried a few different recipes over the years; some with egg, some without, some with only egg yolks. I prefer not to involve eggs because they can diminish the buttery flavour of pastry and make the pastry less short.
I think eggs work extremely well in cheesecake pastry because you need that extra structure to carry the weight of the heavy cheesecake. I only use eggs inside pastry for practical purposes and when absolutely necessary.
Blind Baking:
I used to dismiss recipes as soon as I read the words “blind bake”. BUT it’s not a big deal at all! It’s so easy and straight forward.
We need to blind bake pastry to keep it in the shape we want it. ALL shortcrust pastry WILL shrink during baking when water evaporates from the dough. All shortcrust pastry WILL change shape while baking, but we can minimize this with blind baking the RIGHT way.
Important notes on blind baking that make it a breeze:
- Use heavy weight foil, NOT baking parchment. It yields the best results and can handle the weight of baking beans etc. Remember to place the dull side of the foil (and spray it with non-stick spray) on the pastry as it has non-stick properties. Always cut a generous piece of foil so there’s enough to wrap around the upper edges of the tin – otherwise the exposed pastry will cook faster than all the rest under the foil. When you’ve frozen your pastry solid, press the greased foil directly onto the pastry in the tin. Don’t leave any air gaps between the pasty and the foil!
- Use lentils or rice for “baking beans”. Lentils are smaller, so they get into those edges a lot better than large baking beans can.
- When you’ve finished blind baking the shortcrust pastry, remove the lentils/rice by scooping them out into a bowl. If you try to lift everything out in one go, the foil will tear.
- Once you’ve removed your blind baking geat, brush the inside of your pastry thinly with egg white. Return to the oven and bake till golden. The egg white seals your pastry so that a wet filling won’t make the pastry soggy.
Shortcrust Pastry Recipe Introduction:
This is my go-to recipe for shortcrust pastry. There’s no “rest for 2 hours or overnight” thing going on. You merely chill it for 10 minutes, roll it out (no resting in between), freeze it for 5 minutes, smooth it out, freeze it for 10 minutes and then bake it!
I’ve also included step by step photos of the method I use to painlessly transfer the pastry to a tin.
You’ll need a 9″ loose bottom cake tin. I like to use a cake tin because I like a straight, smooth finish on my tarts, but you are welcome to use a fluted tart tin as well.
I love using Salted Butter in pastry. Most people prefer to use unsalted butter so that you can control the amount of salt that goes into your bakes. This makes a lot of sense and I actually agree, but with pastry, salted butter is just incredible.
If you insist on using unsalted butter, then add 1/2 tsp salt to the recipe.
You can find the instructions for MINI TART SHELLS after the main recipe!
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Shortcrust Pastry
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Author: Philosophy of Yum
Serves: 10
Ingredients
- 170 g Cake Flour
- 40 g Icing Sugar
- 110 g Salted Butter, ice cold
- 1 Tbsp Ice Cold water
Instructions
- Place flour in a food processor. Cut the butter into a 1 cm dice and add to the food processor. Try to distribute the cubes of butter evenly in the flour so that they don’t stick together.
- Process on high speed until resembling fine bread crumbs.
- Add icing sugar and process for about 10 seconds on high speed.
- Add the water and process on high speed for about 15 seconds. The pastry will not form a ball inside the processor.
- Pour the crumbly mixture onto a work surface – do not add any extra liquid! Press all the crumbs together and work the pastry till smooth and silky. This should take only about 3 minutes. Form the pastry into a ball and squash it flat to a 2 cm thickness.
- Wrap the pastry in cling wrap and refrigerate it for 10 minutes.
- Cut a 30 cm x 30 cm square of non-stick parchment paper. Place the chilled pastry directly on the paper. Flour only your rolling pin and roll out to a 3 mm thickness roughly in a circular shape by turning your pastry 90 degrees after every second roll or so. The parchment paper makes it super easy to turn the pastry when rolling!
- Spray/butter the inside of a 9 inch tin. Place the loose bottom face side down onto the pastry. Cut around the sides of the tin’s bottom and also at 12, 3, 6 and 9 o’clock to divide the excess pastry into 4 strips.
- Remove the strips one by one and place to one side. Press down on the tin’s bottom so that the pastry squishes out slightly underneath. I find this little lip of pastry helps to combine the pastry on the sides with the pastry on the bottom.
- Flip the parchment paper and tin’s bottom. Peel away the paper.
- Drop your tin’s bottom back into your tin and fill in the sides of the tin with your pastry strips using your fingers. I make the edges about 1 inch high. You will use all the pastry. Do not worry about a smooth finish just yet.
- Preheat your oven to 180ᵒC/350ᵒF.
- Place your tin in the freezer for 5 minutes. Remove from freezer and smooth the edges and bottom with a metal spoon. Return to freezer for a further 10 minutes or until frozen solid.
- Line the entire tin with heavy weight foil (enough to go up over the sides. Leave no pastry exposed). Grease the dull side of your foil with non-stick spray and smooth the foil onto the pastry. Don't leave any air gaps between the foil and the pastry. Fill the cavity with baking beans (I prefer lentils because they sink into the nooks and crannies extremely well).
- Bake in the center of your oven for 30 minutes, turning after 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to stand for 5 minutes. If you are planning to bake a filling inside the pastry, blind bake for 20 minutes, turning after 10 minutes.
- Remove the baking beans and then the foil. Prick the bottom of the pastry with a fork. Egg-wash the inside of the pastry with egg white only. This creates a nice seal on the pastry so that it doesn’t go soggy when holding a wet filling.
- Return to the oven and bake for a further 10 - 15 minutes, turning after 6 minutes. The pastry should be very lightly golden.If you are planning to bake a filling inside the pastry, bake for 8 minutes, turning after 4 minutes. It won't be golden.
- Leave to cool completely and transfer to a cake board or special plate/stand if you wish – the pastry is stable enough to handle the transfer.
If you are planning to bake a filling inside the pastry, bake for 8 minutes, turning after 4 minutes. It won't be golden.Mini Tart Shells
You can also use this recipe to make 10 perfect little tart shells in a regular muffin tin!
- Spray a standard size, non-stick muffin tin‘s holes thoroughly.
- Divide the pastry evenly between 10 holes. About 34 g of pastry each.
- Press it out evenly in each hole. Chill in the freezer for 5 minutes.
- Carefully smooth out the top and inner edges with a teaspoon. Freeze for 10 minutes till the pastry is hard.
- Line each pastry shell with heavy weight foil and fill the cavity in the foil with rice. Make sure your pastry is rock solid before you do this!
- Bake one notch below the middle of your oven for 8 minutes. Rotate the pan 180 degrees and bake for another 8 minutes.
- Remove from the oven. Remove blind baking gear. Lightly brush the inside of each tart shell with egg white to create a seal. Return to oven for another 8 minutes, rotating halfway through.
- When they reach an even golden brown colour, they are done! Allow to cool completely before removing from the muffin tin.
Thanks for reading! I’m quite confident that this shortcrust pastry recipe will become your go-to recipe as well.
I’ve used it in my Perfect Lemon Meringue Pie recipe as well as in my Milk Tart recipe.
Chat soon!
Aurelia 🙂
