The cream shortcrust pastry without eggs is a variant of the classic shortcrust pastry designed for those who are intolerant or who don’t like the taste of eggs. It’s very easy to make and allows you to get delicious cookies and tarts.
Intolerances and allergies seem to be increasingly common, and it’s challenging to find reliable recipes online for baked goods. Today, I thought of gifting you an egg-free pastry perfect for making tasty breakfast or Christmas cookies.
As you can see from the picture, it’s lighter compared to the traditional shortcrust pastry but holds its shape perfectly during baking, is crumbly, and has a great taste. I had the cookies tasted at home, and no one noticed the difference.
To create this variant, I replaced the egg yolks with cream (I didn’t do it randomly but balanced the dough after taking some pastry classes) and flavored the dough with lemon and vanilla. The flavors can be replaced as desired; you can also add spices to create your version of Christmas pastry.
Try the other pastries too:
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Economical
- Rest time: 1 Hour
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: for 530 g of pastry
- Cooking methods: Electric oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
- Energy 456.81 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 53.12 (g) of which sugars 19.76 (g)
- Proteins 5.53 (g)
- Fat 25.59 (g) of which saturated 15.34 (g)of which unsaturated 8.32 (g)
- Fibers 1.06 (g)
- Sodium 78.53 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 100 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
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 5.3 oz butter
- 3/4 cup powdered sugar
- 2 tbsp heavy cream, 35% fat
- 1/4 tsp salt
- Half pod vanilla
- 1 tsp lemon zest (grated or other flavors to taste)
Tools
- 1 Stand mixer
- 1 Work surface
- 1 Scale
- Plastic wrap
Instructions
To make the shortcrust pastry, use a good cold butter but not from the fridge. Leave it at room temperature for 10 minutes; it should be around 57°F.
You can prepare the pastry either by hand or with a stand mixer. I prefer the stand mixer because it’s more convenient, but you can easily knead it by hand.
Important note – the pastry has been balanced based on the flour I usually use. Changing the type of flour changes liquid absorption, so you may need a little more or less cream. Consider that the dough should not be sticky. If it is, add a teaspoon of flour. Conversely, if the dough struggles to come together and crumbles, add a teaspoon of cream. You should obtain a dough identical to the classic shortcrust pastry.
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Put the flour in the stand mixer’s bowl, add the butter cut into small cubes, and work the two ingredients until you get a sort of sand (many separate crumbs).
Add the powdered sugar, salt, vanilla, and lemon zest. Mix everything, then add the cold cream and start kneading until you get a compact mixture.
Work the dough quickly on the work surface so as not to warm the butter too much. Form a block, wrap it in plastic wrap, and place it in the fridge to rest for 1 hour.
After resting, take the pastry and work it on the work surface for 1 minute. This operation will help achieve a homogeneous and plastic dough perfect for your recipes.
The cream shortcrust pastry without eggs is ready. Use it to make cookies and tarts.
For cookies
Roll out the pastry to a thickness of 1/5 inch, make the cookies with the cutters you have available, and let them rest in the fridge while the oven heats up.
Bake them in a preheated static oven at 338°F for 10/12 minutes
If you want to get soft cookies, just add 1 tsp of baking powder to the flour before kneading the pastry.
For tarts
For filled tarts, the cooking times vary depending on the filling and the thickness of the pastry.
For a blind-baked pastry shell, roll out the pastry to 1/8 inch, line the perforated baking tin, and bake at 338°F for 20/25 minutes.
Tips
Storage
The cream shortcrust pastry without eggs keeps well in the fridge, tightly covered, for 15 days if you’ve used fresh ingredients.
You can freeze it for 2 months.
