How to Make Shortcrust Pastry: Pasta Frolla
The game-changer for homemade baking is to start making your own pastries. The shortcrust is a versatile pastry made from mainly 3 ingredients: butter, flour and eggs, but we made a version of our own that enhances the flavours and give a fun twist to this classic recipe.
Equipment
- Cling film
- Ceramic beans
- Tart pan (8 inch)
- Rolling Pin
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour type 00 sifted
- 1/2 cup caster sugar
- 1/2 cup unsalted cold butter cubed
- 1 large egg beaten
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg ground
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 pinch of salt
Instructions
- Sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl and combine.
- Add the butter cubes. With the tip of your fingers, break the butter into smaller pieces to form a crumbled mixture.
- Add the beaten egg kneading the pastry with your hands until the mixture comes together into a smooth ball. Wrap with cling film and place in the fridge for 30 minutes or overnight.*
- When ready to assemble the tart, preheat the oven at 350F/180C.
- Remove dough from the fridge and roll with a rolling pin until ¼ inch (1/2 cm) thick.
- Lay the pastry over the tart tin and tuck the sides to fit evenly. Using the rolling pin, or a knife, remove the extra dough from the edges.
- Pierce the dough base with a fork and line a piece of parchment paper. Fill the crust with ceramic baking beans, dried rice or beans to weigh the pastry down.
- Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until golden brown, remove from the oven and leave it at ambient temperature to cool down.
- Now your pastry is ready to be filled with delicious filling! What about an Italian fruit tart?
Notes
- *You can prepare the shortcrust pastry a day before and take the dough out of the fridge 15 minutes before using, as it will be very hard to unroll if it’s too cold.
- Make sure to use ceramic baking beans, dried rice or normal beans when preparing the blind baking to avoid any lumps forming while it cooks.
- Store the leftovers in the fridge for up to 4 days.
- Suitable for home freezing. When ready to use, remove from the freezer a day before and leave in the fridge to thaw.