Sweet Pastry Crust
Here’s the best pastry crust for desserts. This perfect sweet pastry crust recipe is an easy to make pastry for pies, tarts, etc. It is one of those crust recipes that every baker is looking for. This crust is perfectly sweet, super crisp (biscuit-like) with a good blend of the buttery flavor. You can never go wrong with this crust recipes if you follow all the mentioned steps. I use it for my custard tarts, fruit tarts and much more.
READ COMPLETELY TO DISCOVER VARIOUS TIPS & TRICKS AND A STEP BY STEP EXPLANATION TO MAKING THE PERFECT SWEET PASTRY CRUST
Let’s begin with Ingredients (Sweet Pastry Crust)
Butter for the Sweet Tart Crust: It is indeed an essential ingredient of any tart recipe. It’s not just the taste of the butter that matters but also the consistency and texture. The butter is what decides the crispness and texture of your tart. Do not use frozen butter, all you need is to make sure the butter is cut into smaller chunks and feels firm and cold. For a more flaky pie you can substitute the butter with shortening, however, nothing can taste as good as a buttery pie. I like to use salted butter while I bake. In case you using unsalted butter just add a pinch of regular salt to it
Sugar: Since we combine this tart base with fruits or custard on any dessert related fillings, I like to keep it slightly sweet. Sugar is what brings in the sweetness. I used castor sugar to make this one, you can use regular powdered sugar instead of castor sugar/breakfast sugar or even use icing sugar. Do not use granulated sugar but always make sure to powder it for any tart base recipe. This will make sure the tart is evenly sweet with no rough granules while you bite into it
SWEET PASTRY CRUST (How to make sweet shortcrust pastry)
Egg: This recipe calls in for an egg yolk to be combined with the remaining ingredients. Egg yolk is what helps to bring the dough together. There are times when the dough still feels dry even after adding the egg yolk. In that case, you can add a dab of egg white as well. Remember, you not making a smooth dough or sticky dough, all you looking for is the dough to come together, so use the egg white as little as possible. I end up using about one or two teaspoons of egg white, not more
Once your dough is ready, let it sit in the fridge for half n hour. This is essential to relax the gluten in the flour.
Whenever you rolling a tart crust and it cracks from the sides, it is fine. A dough which cracks on the sides while rolling will yield a more biscuit-like crust. Of course, you need to make sure your crust is not cracking too much and everywhere, this means your dough was too dry.
Sweet Pastry Crust Recipe (Tart Crust Recipe)
Ingredients
- 125 grams salted butter cold & cut into small pieces
- 220 grams flour
- 50 grams castor sugar
- 1 cold egg yolk
- 1-2 teaspoons cold egg white use if required
Instructions
- In a food processor or bowl, combine the flour, sugar & cold butter together. Using your hands or using a food processor crumble the butter into the flour & sugar mixture until it resembles breadcrumb-like texture. Do not overdo it as the butter may start to melt and make the flour soggy. The breadcrumb-like texture is what you want
- To this mixture add the egg yolk and mix well. The dough at this point should come together and form a rough ball. Only if the dough still feels dry add the egg white as needed
- Once the dough is ready, place it on a piece of cling wrap and flatten it into a disc-like shape. Cover all around with cling wrap and let it sit in the refrigerator for half n hour
- Once chilled remove it from the fridge
- How to roll the Sweet Pastry Crust Dough
- Place a big piece of cling on your platform. Dust some flour onto the cling wrap. Place the dough on this piece of cling wrap. Dust some more flour on the top of the dough. Place another piece of cling wrap on top of the dough (it’s like a sandwich now, cling wrap-dough-cling wrap). Using a rolling pin evenly roll the dough without moving the cling wrap.
- Once you have rolled it to the required size remove the top cling wrap piece and lift it carefully holding the bottom cling wrap piece (you are now transferring the rolled dough into the tart crust pan) Peel off the bottom cling wrap once you have managed to place the rolled dough onto the tart pan. Press the dough on all sides of the tart pan making sure you have clean edges
- Let this tart now sit in the fridge for 20 minutes before we put it in the oven
- Once chilled, remove the tart from the fridge and using a skewer prick the pie all over. Place a piece of butter paper on the top of the uncooked tart and throw in some raw beans on top of the butter paper. The weight of the beans makes sure the tart is flat even after is baked with no air pockets.
- Bake this in a preheated oven for 20 mins at 175 degrees C. Remove the pie from the oven, take out the beans along with the butter paper. You can even brush some egg for a nice color. Rebake this tart crust for another 20 to 25 mins or until the edges are golden and crisp.
- Once done, let cool completely before you unmould
Recipe Notes
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