Olive oil shortcrust pastry without yeast perfect for Easter pastiera, quick to prepare, without butter it’s lighter and healthier, and it’s ready to use immediately because it doesn’t need to rest. I’ve always made both butter shortcrust pastry and olive oil shortcrust pastry, but usually, since I was a teenager, I used sunflower oil when butter was missing at home to make delicious tarts. In recent years, I wanted to experiment with olive oil shortcrust pastry, and you won’t believe it, but I find it much better than the one with seed oils, as good as a good butter shortcrust pastry, even the texture is the same, and the taste is delicious, not as strong as many think. Of course, if you use a strong oil, it will likely have a strong flavor, but I always use a good extra virgin olive oil with a delicate taste for all my recipes and the same for desserts, and I must say I’ve never had negative experiences, quite the opposite, I’ve been surprised at how good my desserts turn out, so much so that my husband sometimes doesn’t notice the difference with butter shortcrust pastry, and mind you, he immediately notices the seed oil one as he doesn’t like it much, but he loves this one, so much that sometimes I find him slicing the tart on his own, something he never does, he always waits for me to urge him. For tart or pastiera, this shortcrust pastry is perfect, without yeast, suitable also for those with yeast allergies, and rest assured that there are no other chemicals that could cause issues, just good oil, eggs, flour, sugar, eggs, and a good aroma. I use citrus fruits, I pick them directly from the garden, and this time I used orange, but lemon or vanilla is also fine, always use natural vanilla, not vanillin.
Let’s see how to prepare it.
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Very economical
- Preparation time: 5 Minutes
- Portions: 1 tart of 10 inches
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients for Olive Oil Shortcrust Pastry Without Yeast Perfect for Easter Pastiera
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 7 tbsps olive oil
- 2 medium eggs
- grated peel of organic orange or lemon
Tools to Prepare Olive Oil Shortcrust Pastry Without Yeast
- 1 Bowl
- 1 Rolling pin
- 1 Baking pan
- 1 Spoon
- 1 Work surface
- 1 Pastry wheel
Steps to Prepare Olive Oil Shortcrust Pastry for Pastiera
In the bowl, put all the ingredients, flour, sugar, oil, grated orange peel, and 2 medium eggs at room temperature.
Start mixing with a spoon and then continue by hand until you get a nice homogeneous dough. Work it on a work surface for a moment to make it more elastic and prevent it from breaking while rolling it out.
Once the shortcrust pastry is ready, we can roll it out on a floured surface, flouring the pastry well too and rolling it out with a rolling pin. If we notice that the pastry breaks, it’s because we’ve worked it too little, then we work it a little more, but without overdoing it because shortcrust pastry should not be overworked.
The sheet should be about 1/5 inch or slightly more thick. This is enough to prepare a tart with a diameter of 10 inches, or you can make it 9 inches slightly thicker.
A small trick, there’s no need to butter and flour the mold, this applies to all shortcrust pastries and molds. Just pass a bit of flour on the base of the rolled-out shortcrust pastry, and with this base line the baking pan. You’ll see it will come off perfectly, without even wasting time buttering and flouring the mold.
Another tip, before filling your crust, pierce the shortcrust pastry with a fork all over the base to ensure it cooks evenly.
With the shortcrust pastry obtained and rolled into a thin sheet, we line the mold also on the edges with the same sheet, then trim the excess, compact it, and roll it into a rectangle from which we cut strips with a pastry wheel to decorate our tart or pastiera now that Easter is coming.
If you want, you can also use this shortcrust pastry to make cookies, it holds its shape perfectly, but I recommend using a bit of yeast so the cookies become fluffier.
If you can’t use the shortcrust pastry immediately, it can also be frozen.
For baking, use a static oven at 356°F. The times vary depending on the filling, for a tart, generally 30 minutes, for a pastiera even 60 at a temperature of 338°F
