Notes

If you want to use the mixer, do the following: Put the cold butter cut into pieces in the mixer with the flour and blend quickly several times to get a crumbly mixture. Add the sugar, egg, yolks, salt, lemon zest, and, if you wish, the baking powder. Blend quickly again until you get a combined dough. Remove the shortcrust pastry from the mixer and form a ball. Then, of course, wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate.

If you use shortcrust pastry often, prepare more batches, divide it into portions, form balls, put them in bags, and freeze them.

If you have difficulty rolling out the pastry, use this method: slightly flatten the dough, dust it lightly with flour, and place it between 2 sheets of parchment paper. Roll it out with a rolling pin, turning it several times until you reach the desired thickness. Transfer the sheet with the 2 parchment paper sheets directly into the mold. Press with your fingers to adhere the bottom parchment paper and dough to the mold. Remove the top parchment paper.

If you liked this recipe, you might also be interested in Grandma’s Cake or Milk Apple Cake or Jam Cookies (to recycle leftover shortcrust pastry).