The classic Shortcrust Pastry is the base dough for making cookies and pies. It consists of flour, sugar, butter, eggs, and flavors. There are different preparation methods depending on what we are going to make. For example, the creamed pastry where the flour is added last, is softer and suitable for making cookies with a piping bag or cookie press and does not need to rest in the fridge. For the sablée pastry suitable for making pies, you start by working butter and flour, and then it must rest in the fridge. The key to success is choosing excellent ingredients, measuring well, and working quickly. It is very simple to make at home, by hand or with the help of a stand mixer, and with a bit of creativity, you can make variations such as cocoa, almond, Kamut, and coffee.
Other recipes
- Difficulty: Very Easy
- Cost: Cheap
- Rest time: 30 Minutes
- Preparation time: 15 Minutes
- Portions: for 11-inch pan, 10 servings
- Cooking methods: Electric oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
- Energy 490.57 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 55.87 (g) of which sugars 20.66 (g)
- Proteins 6.98 (g)
- Fat 27.57 (g) of which saturated 17.19 (g)of which unsaturated 10.10 (g)
- Fibers 1.13 (g)
- Sodium 84.58 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 108 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients
- 4 cups cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/3 cups cups butter (cold)
- 1 3/4 cups cups powdered sugar
- 1/3 cup cups egg yolks
- 1/2 vanilla bean
- 1 tsp tsp lemon zest (grated)
- 1/2 tsp tsp fine salt
Tools
- Work surface
- Parchment paper
- Sieve
- Kitchen scale
Steps
Pour the flour onto the work surface in a mound, place the egg yolks in the center, the powdered sugar, the diced butter, the grated lemon zest, the salt, and the seeds from the vanilla bean (cut the bean in half and scrape out the seeds with a knife). Start working all the ingredients until the mixture becomes sandy.
Continue to work quickly to form a dough ball. Place it on a sheet of parchment paper, flatten it to make it thinner, seal the package and place the shortcrust pastry in the refrigerator for 30 minutes before using it.
Storage Tips
The freshly prepared shortcrust pastry dough lasts 24 hours in the refrigerator. If you want to freeze it, it can be kept for 6 months in the freezer. Before using it, let it rest 24 hours in the fridge, then 30 minutes at room temperature, and rework it to make it homogeneous again.
