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.
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.
Keyword crust, pasta frolla, pastry, pie crust, shortcrust, shortcrust pastry, tart crust