Go Back

Shortcrust Pastry - Sweet

Foolproof method to making Shortcrust Pastry for sweet recipes - pies, tarts etc.
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • 300 g plain flour
  • 60 g icing sugar
  • finely grated rind of ½ a lemon
  • pinch of salt
  • 175 g cold butter, diced
  • 1 egg
  • ½ tsp vanilla extract

Method
 

  1. Put the flour, sugar, rind and salt into a food processor and pulse to combine.  
  2. Add the cold butter and pulse until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
  3. Add the egg and vanilla and pulse just until it starts to cling together to form a dough.
  4. Add up to 2 tbsp cold water if the mixture seems dry.
  5. Remove and form into a disk, cover with clingfilm and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
  6. Roll out the dough in-between two sheets of baking paper to fit the shape of your tin(s), around 3mm thick. Peel one sheet of paper off and flip the pastry into the tart tin. If making small tarts, cut with a round cutter prior. Peel the second sheet of paper off and gently press the pastry into the tin, trimming any edges.
  7. Prick the base all over with a fork and return to the refrigerator for 15 minutes (or the freezer for 5 minutes).
  8. The tart is now ready to fill and cook. If the recipe asks for the tart to be bling baked proceed as follows:
Blind Baking
  1. Preheat the oven to 200C (180C fan forced). 
  2. Place baking paper into the cold pastry lined tart tin(s) and fill with pie weights (or rice or beans). Place onto a baking tray and transfer to the oven.
  3. Bake for 15 minutes, then remove the baking paper and weights, turn the oven down to 180C (160C fan forced) and bake for another 7 minutes or until blonde in colour.
  4. Fill and cook as per whatever recipe you are making.
  5. If the tart filling does not require cooking, continue cooking the tart shell until golden and cooked through. Once cool, it can be filled with anything from fresh fruit, sweetened cream, mousse or ice-cream.

Notes

This recipe makes enough pastry to line 1 x 23cm round or square tin, 1 x 35 x 12cm rectangular tin, or 6 x 10cm round tins