Shortbread Shortcrust
I’ve been told that people often feel bewildered when it comes to making pastry. And as I look back on my very first experience with it, I can remember that familiar unsettling feeling of total defeat. I was living above a dingy, rather uninspiring cafe when the baking bug hit, (incidently, not the only bug to lurk in this kitchen!). At the time, all the cookbooks I had, were borrowed from the local library, where I would take out the absolute maximum allowed and study them in the back upstairs bedroom. I would often climb out the window onto the roof where you could see tall trees in the distance, blanketing the view of the ocean. I don’t have a clear recollection of what cook book the rather plain recipe had come from, only that it seemed to make out the whole process to be a piece of cake (pun intended), and so when the pastry became tough and unworkable, it lead me to feel totally demoralized.
Baking 101, rule 1: have a really good set of recipes that work for you. And work from there.
This is a staple recipe of mine because I know it will always turn out. You can make it using a food processor, or you can make it in the traditional way by hand. I’ve done both and although I’m somewhat of a traditionalist, I use the food processor everytime. Lazy? I prefer to call it ‘innovative’.
Two things: make sure your butter is cold and that you have baking paper on hand.
Makes one 30cm tart case or one 20cm tart/pie case with lid.
Ingredients
180g unsalted butter (cold)
2 & 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 cup icing sugar
1/2 cup corn flour
125g eggs (approx 2.5)
Method
Cut butter into small cubes and place into a food processor or a large bowl, if making by hand.
Add in all dry ingredients and blend until you have the texture of breadcrumbs. If you are making this by hand, rub in the butter using your finger tips until you reach the same consistency.
Weigh out the eggs or if you are ‘innovative’ like me, crack two eggs into the food processor and one into a cup. Whisk the one in the cup with a fork until combined and then pour approximately half of it into the food processor. If you are making the dough by hand, make a well in the centre of the bowl and add the eggs in there.
‘Pulse’ until the dough is combined. This is a really important step, don’t be tempted to run the food processor as normal, as it will over work the dough. Again, if you are making this by hand, slowly combine the egg with the dry ingredients until a loose dough is formed and knead for a few seconds until smooth.
At this point, I would say to wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. If you don’t have this luxury, you can roll the dough out straight away. Just keep in mind that this is a soft dough so its better handled cold. However I have done both.
My best tip for making shortcrust is to use a silicone pastry mat (linked below), however if you don’t have one on hand, baking paper can be used as a substitute. Simply dust your baking paper or silicone dough sheet lightly with plain flour. At this point if you are making a 20cm tart or pie and you want to keep aside some pastry for the lid, I would suggest to divide the dough into two and wrap and place remaining dough back into the fridge to roll out later. Don’t be tempted to roll the whole dough out twice, as this will cause your pie lid to shrink in the oven.
Make the dough into a round ball, before placing it in the centre of your sheet. Press the dough down with the palm of your hand to create a flat disc. This will start your dough off on the right track to make a nice round circle. Of course if you are using a different shaped tin, create the appropriate shape as per your mould.
Lift the dough up from your surface and dust a little more flour underneath. Place dough back down and sprinkle a little flour on top.
Place a second piece of baking paper on top of your dough and start rolling. The best way to get a perfect circle is to roll evenly in each direction. Roll up and down to create a rough vertical rectangle. Turn dough (still attached to sheets of baking paper/silicone mat), 90 degrees to the right. You should be looking at a rough horizontal rectangle. Roll up and down. This should give you a rough square shape.
To make a circle we want to do two more rolls, this time roll diagonally. Roll from the top left hand corner to the right right hand corner and repeat with the other side.
Repeat rolling steps until you have a circle which measures approximately 36cm in diameter.
Grease your tart tin with butter. Keep the dough attached to the bottom baking sheet or silicone mat and flip onto your tart/pie tin. This pastry is very forgiving so if you have any holes or tears, you can easily just patch them up and it won’t show.
The next step in the most time consuming one. Make sure the dough is eased into the shell by lifting the edges up and over the case, making sure the dough is very relaxed. Using the inside of your index finger, press the dough gently into each crevice of the tart shell, making your way around until the entire fluted edge is complete.
To remove the excess dough, roll a rolling pin over the top of your tart shell. Go around again with your index finger if needed. I go around up to three times, depending on how perfect I want my tart to look on the day. If you would like a visual aid, you can view a video of this process here.
Once completed, refrigerate until ready to use. This pastry will bake well, up to 200 degrees C.
Storage
Store in the refrigerator wrapped in plastic wrap until ready to use. Your tart case should stay fresh for up to 2 days.
The essentials
Recipe inspiration sourced from
My own collection of recipes.
