Pâte sucrée (tart dough recipe)
Pâte sucrée is a sweet shortcrust that is often used to make fruit tarts. It is buttery, flaky and oh-so-easy to make. This recipe makes enough dough for TWO 8" round tarts. Freeze leftover dough.
Servings: 2 9 ½" tarts
Calories: 443kcal
Equipment
- Stand mixer with paddle attachment
- Tart pan with removable bottom (or a regular pie pan)
- Tin foil
- Pie weights (or dry beans/rice)
- Rolling Pin
Ingredients
Pâte sucrée ingredients
- 8 oz room temperature butter
- 4 oz powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
- 12 oz all purpose flour
Instructions
How to make Pâte sucrée
- Add the butter into the bowl of your stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed for about 30 seconds until smooth and creamy.
- Add in your sifted powdered sugar and salt and mix until combined and smooth.
- Add in the vanilla and the egg and mix until combined.
- Gradually add your flour while mixing on low until everything starts to come together and a dough forms.
- Divide the dough into 2 pieces, wrap in plastic wrap and flatten into disks. Refrigerate for minimum of 1 hour before using your dough. If you skip this step, your crust will melt in the oven.
- Leftover tart dough can be refrigerated for up to a week or frozen for 6 months.
- To bake your tart, bring the dough out of the fridge or freezer for 30-60 minutes or until it's flexible enough to bend without cracking
- Preheat your oven to 350ºF
- Roll your tart dough out to ⅛" thick using a rolling pin and a flour dusted surface
- Roll the dough up onto your rolling pin and unroll it into your tart pan
- Carefully push the dough against the sides and corners of the tart pan
- Then use your rolling pin to roll across the top of the dough to trim off the excess
- Freeze your tart for 30 minutes
- Place some tinfoil into the tart pan and fill it with some pie weights (or you can use dried beans or rice instead). Place the tart pan on a larger cookie sheet to easily lift and move it in the oven.
- Bake your tart for 30 minutes, rotate the pan halfway through baking to promote even browning
- Remove the foil and pie weights and bake for another 10 minutes to evenly brown the tart
- Let the tart cool completely before filling it with things like pastry cream, lemon curd or ganache!
Video
Notes
- Make sure your butter is room temperature. Room temperature butter is when it's soft enough to leave an indent with your finger but it still holds its shape and is not melted all over the plate. I make my butter room temperature by microwaving it for 10-second increments until its the right consistency.
- Cold eggs must be room temperature to combine with the butter properly. Place cold eggs (while still in the shell) into warm water for 5 minutes to bring them to room temperature.
- If your dough keeps cracking, it could be too cold. Let it rest for 10 minutes and try rolling again.
- When you make a fresh fruit tart that is not baked, you have to bake your tart shell on its own first and let it cool before filling it. This is called blind baking or pre-baking.
- Brush the surface of the tart shell with some melted chocolate (optional) to keep the fillings from making the crust soggy (you can skip this step if you don't like chocolate but then you should fill your tart no more than 4 hours before serving).
Nutrition
Calories: 443kcal | Carbohydrates: 93g | Protein: 10g | Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 52mg | Sodium: 313mg | Potassium: 110mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 28g | Vitamin A: 75IU | Calcium: 21mg | Iron: 4.2mg
