Sweet Tart Crust

By Dorie Greenspan

Sweet Tart Crust
Gentl and Hyers for The New York Times. Food stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. Prop stylist: Amy Wilson.
Total Time
45 minutes, plus chilling and cooling
Rating
4(236)
Comments
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This recipe, my trusted go-to, turns out a cookielike crust — sweet, golden and more crisp than flaky. Typically French — it’s a pâte sablée — I use the recipe for my whole lemon tart as well as for the less French bakewell tart. I make the dough in a food processor using very cold butter, and while it sounds like culinary heresy, I roll it out as soon as it’s made. Sandwiched between parchment or wax paper, the dough is a cinch to roll at this point — just make sure to chill it before you bake it (better yet, freeze it once it’s in the pan). I also like to partly bake the crust before I fill it, a step you can skip, but prebaking will give you a crisper bottom crust.

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Ingredients

Yield:One 9-to-9½-inch crust
  • 1½cups/204 grams all-purpose flour
  • ½cup/60 grams confectioners’ sugar
  • ¼teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 4½ounces/128 grams very cold unsalted butter (1 stick plus 1 tablespoon), cut into small pieces
  • 1large egg yolk
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (1 servings)

1942 calories; 110 grams fat; 67 grams saturated fat; 4 grams trans fat; 29 grams monounsaturated fat; 5 grams polyunsaturated fat; 216 grams carbohydrates; 6 grams dietary fiber; 59 grams sugars; 25 grams protein; 609 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Put the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor, and pulse to blend. Scatter in the butter, and pulse about a dozen times, until the butter is cut in — you’ll have pieces the size of oatmeal flakes and others the size of peas. Stir the yolk to break it up and add it in 3 additions, pulsing after each. Pulse until the dough has curds and clumps; it should hold together when you pinch it. Turn it out onto a counter, knead it into a compact ball and flatten it into a disk.

  2. Step 2

    Roll the dough into an 11-inch circle between layers of parchment (or wax) paper. If it’s cold enough, fit it into a 9-to-9½-inch tart pan with a removable bottom, trimming the top even with the pan’s edges; if it’s not, chill it until you can work with it. Refrigerate the crust (in the pan) for at least 1 hour (or cover and freeze for up to 2 months).

  3. Step 3

    Heat the oven to 400. Place the pan on a baking sheet, and cover with a piece of buttered foil or parchment, pressing it lightly to cover the crust’s bottom and sides; fill with rice.

  4. Step 4

    Bake for 20 minutes. Carefully remove the foil and rice. If you're going to bake the tart again with a filling, bake it uncovered for 5 minutes more. If you'll be using a no-bake filling, bake the uncovered crust for an additional 8 to 10 minutes. Cool for at least 30 minutes before filling.

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Ratings

4 out of 5
236 user ratings
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Comments

Chris B

If that's the annoyance in your day, you're doing fine, just fine.

sally

Bake for 20 minutes, remove foil and rice and bake an ADDITIONAL 5 minutes if you are baking the filling in the tart. Bake an ADDITIONAL 8-10 minutes if using a no bake filling. So, a total of 30 min pre-baking for a baked filling and 38-40 minutes for a no bake filling.

Elle

That might be why it’s always a good idea to read your recipes through before you dive in. More than once, is best.

H. Ricks

Having read the various complaints about this crust, it occurred to me that two of the ingredients will vary in ways that simply weighing them won’t help with. Egg yolks vary in size and European butters can have as much as 6% less water than American butters. This is enough to make a difference (though not the tablespoon that some have suggested adding). Because I was using a European butter, I added a teaspoon of water. The crust worked perfectly.

LHRow

If it’s still sandy, KEEP PROCESSING!

RS

Complete fail. Adding no water to the dough meant I got a bunch of dry flour with scattered huge lumps of butter that never came together. Use Bittman's recipe instead.

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Credits

Adapted from “Paris Sweets,” by Dorie Greenspan

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