Sweet Shortcrust Pastry

When it comes to tarts and pies, I always think – to buy or not to buy… I mean the pastry. But then, why pay for bought pastry when it’s so easy to make your own?  Below I want to share a quick and easy recipe for sweet shortcrust pastry. You can make it by hand or in a food processor. It’s great to make ahead of time and keep in the fridge or even freeze until you’re ready to fill it with something delicious.

INGREDIENTS

• 300g plain flour
• 50g sugar
• 175g butter
• 2 tbsp ice water
• 1 egg (for the egg wash)
• pinch of salt
  

STEPS

Combine flour, salt, sugar and chilled butter in a food processor or use your fingertips to rub everything into the flour until you have a mixture that resembles breadcrumbs with no large lumps of butter remaining. Work as quickly as possible, so that the mixture does not become greasy.

Gradually add ice water to bind the dough together.

Gently pat the dough into a flat thick disk, wrap it in plastic wrap and put it into the fridge to rest for at least half an hour or overnight.

Once chilled, remove the dough from the fridge and let sit a few minutes, this will prevent cracking. Roll it out and transfer gently to your pie pan.

The baking time of the sweet shortcrust pastry depends on the form and filling.

Baking an empty pie shell (blind baking)

Put some aluminum foil or parchment paper into the chilled raw pie shell. Fill the pastry with some weights, dry beans or rice for example, and then bake at 175C for 15 minutes. Don’t forget to dock the crust with a fork, so that steam can escape.

Remove the weights and aluminum foil. Sides are now set and look like that.

Brush with egg wash before baking for another 15 minutes.

At this point, reduce the temperature from 175C to 155C and bake for another 20 min or until the center of the pie is golden.

This pie shell is now ready for any no bake filling!

If the sweet shortcrust pastry is to be filled, bake for 15 min, remove the weights and paper, and return to oven for a further 5 min. Next, fill and bake according to your recipe.

Note: You can always remove sugar from the recipe for a pie crust perfect for quiche.