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Short Pastry Technique by Hand

There is nothing as light, flaky and wonderful as well made short pastry by hand. It's worth the effort and time, no machine made pasty comes close to it's buttery and slightly crispy texture!

Assembling the recipe:

Go to Short Pastry Recipes

Get all your ingredients together before beginning.
(see above photo)
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Rolling out the pastry
Baking your pie crust
Resting
About flour in Sweden
Notes on pie tins

This is a lot of reading but I have tried to put everything that I can think of into it to help you not be afraid of making pastry yourself. It is in reality one of the easiest recipes, but does require some practice.

Have all your ingredients ready - the butter, egg and milk need to be cold. So cut the butter up first then put it back in the fridge while you get the other ingredients together.

Sift the flour, sugar and salt and into a bowl.

Then take the cold butter that you have cut up and add it to the bowl.

With the tips of your fingers and avoiding the use of your palms, rub the flour into the butter until it becomes crumbly.

Work quickly to avoid the butter melting. Be light with your finger and toss the flour as you work to keep as much air in the flour as possible.

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When the butter is incorporated add the egg and milk and with a fork mix it in.

With your hand reach into the bowl and bring all the mixture together. You will have to use the heal of your hand to incorporate the butter and wet ingredients to create a mass. Be light with your fingers.

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Tip the contents of the bowl onto your work surface and bring the pastry together. Pushing it into a disk as shown.

You will probably need to use the heal of your hand to give a final push or two to really incorporate the butter. If you find that you have little bits of butter showing that is fine. Don't over work it at this point.

It will getting warm and a bit sticky by now. So lightly dust it and turn it over and dust the bottom as well.

Shape it into a ball and flatten into a disk, wrap lightly in cling film or place in a plastic bag and put it into the fridge to rest for at least one hour.

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Now you can butter and lightly flour your tart pan and set aside.

I only use good quality tart pans with removable bottoms. (see below)

Note: When rolling out the pastry use as little extra flour as possible as it will toughen the pastry dough. Only enough so that the pastry does not stick the rolling pin or the work surface.

Rolling out the pastry: On a cool work surface (wood will only make your life miserable at this moment) take the pastry and dust it lightly including your rolling pin and work surface.

It will be hard and you might have to put your shoulders into it but it will roll out. Your patients will be rewarded.

You can wait for a few minutes but as soon as the pastry begins to roll out more easily you will find that unless you are fast it will get too warm to easily handle as it gets thinner.

The technique for rolling is to roll it out a bit in one direction, then give it a quarter turn and roll again. Continue this method, roll then a quarter turn, until the pastry is the size and thickness you desire. This method helps insure that you get a circle instead of an oval or who knows what!

Start small and as the pastry gets warmer it will be more easy to roll. Flip the pastry over from time to time, this will also help with the rolling and avoids the pastry from cracking. At least I find it does.

Roll the pastry to a thickness of 2 millimeters or 1/8 of an inch. I admit that this can take a bit of practice and patience but after you have done this recipe 3 or 4 times it should become more natural to you.

Dust off any excess flour with a pastry brush and line your tart pan with the pastry.

Some people find it a bit easier to do this by rolling the pastry around the rolling pin then positioning the the rolling pin over the tart pan and letting the pastry fall back into the pan. Avoid any stretching of the pastry while you do this or you might find yourself baking an egg shaped tart.

Press the pastry into the corners of the tart pan, then press the overhanging edges back down into the tart pan to thicken the sides of the shell slightly, making a nice fit. This thickening up of the sides slightly will help later after the tart is baked when trying to slice and serve. It also helps to hold fillings better when it is to be baked filled with custard or fruits.

Tip: If the pastry splits or cracks while you are rolling it out or putting it into your tart pan don't worry. Wet your finger tips with a little water, dampen the pastry where its broken and make repairs by pressing the pastry back together or patching any holes with a little left over pastry.

Trim off the excess pastry by pushing down with your thumb in an outward direction, or cut off the over hanging edge with a paring knife as shown.

If your using this pastry on another type of baking pan (American pie pan) you may crimp the edges of it. In a tart pan like the one shown crimping isn't necessary.

You can see that the shell here has been docked as I was using it for a banana tart which required a fully cooked shell. Docking (small holes made with the tines of a fork), the crust is a way to help steam escape from under the crust as it bakes. This reduces the chances of it shrinking from the sides of the pan as the bottom can rise up in a dome shape from air trapped underneath it.

Do not dock your pastry if you are going to use it for tarts and quiches which will be filled with liquid ingredients.

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Your tart shell in now ready to put it into the fridge to rest for at least one hour, over night is better.

After an hours rest your uncooked pie shell is ready for the filling you have chosen or ready for baking blind.

Baking the tart case blind (empty). Many recipes call for a fully cooked shell (as for strawberry tart) or a partially baked tart shell (as for some quiches). Place a piece of baking parchment or aluminum foil (slightly larger than the tart pan) in the bottom of the uncooked tart shell and pour in a couple of cups of dried uncooked white beans (kidney or navy will do, rice also works). Distribute them evenly over the bottom and into the corners of the unbaked pie shell. These will stop the pie crust from shrinking and will also stop air from lifting up the bottom of the shell during the baking process. We want a thin and completely flat crust when we are done.

I have been using the same old bag of beans for the past 10 years

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This is a fully cooked tart shell suitable for an open Strawberry Tart.

For a partially cooked shell which you usually need for quiche and some savory pies bake at 200C degrees, or (400F degrees) for 10 to 12 minutes minutes. Take care that the sides do not brown too much as they the shell will be cooked again after you add the desired filling.

For a fully cooked shell which you would make for a classic strawberry or banana tart, bake for 20 to 25 minutes at 200C degrees, or (400F degrees).

Remove from the oven and leave to cool on a cooling rack for 20 minutes before removing the beans.

Note: Baking times vary from oven to oven especially if you have a convection oven, begin checking from the earliest times given here.

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Helpful Hints I Hope? This can be a rather difficult recipe for some people. If you follow some simple rules and understand what you are trying to accomplish you shouldn't have too much trouble with it.

It is so easy that if I could have 10 minutes with you to show you exactly what I mean you would have this recipe so stuck in your head for the rest of your life. It's one of those silly things that as soon as you see it - you understand it and know it intuitively!

I only use good quality tart pans with removable bottoms and believe me they do make a big difference.
For an assortment of Tart Pan images click here!

This recipe is very good for quiche and some savory tarts. Be sure to leave out the sugar.

Have everything ready and measured before you begin.

Air! Air is important and it is necessary to sift your flour before you begin. It is also important that when you are incorporating the butter that you use a light hand and toss the flour a bit as you work.

When you add the liquid, use a fork to toss all the ingredients together instead of your hands which tend to make a pasty mush.

You really only want to have just enough liquid in the mix to bring it all together. I think that this is where most people have problems. A little too much egg or milk in this recipe will just be too much liquid so measure your ingredients well.

The final incorporation of the butter as you pull the pasty together is another important step. You only want to get it out of the bowl and push it together with your hands. Then use the heal of your hand to push outward pressing the butter through the flour. Gather it up again and push through it one more time.

If you find flex of butter in the pasty don't worry about it. They will become better incorporated as you roll the pasty out. The flex also help to create small air pockets helping to make the pastry more flaky, so they aren't a bad thing.

Your tart pan should be buttered and lightly floured before you begin rolling out the pastry.

Keep the pastry as cold as you can while your rolling it out, a really warm room and work surface is your enemy during the rolling out process.

A good work surface for this is almost any surface that is not porous. Definitely not wood but marble/polished stone, stainless or plastics such as melamine or formica are all great.

All pie crusts that contain sugar are a little more difficult to roll out than those without, they like to crack and stick to your work surface and rolling pin. Keep your work surface and rolling pin lightly dusted with flour as you go.

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Resting: The longer the pastry rests the better and I almost always make this the night before. One hour resting time is really good enough but I prefer to give it as much time as I can. After the pastry is rolled and put in your tart pan, rest it in the fridge for another hour before baking. Resting the pastry lets the glutin in it relax and avoids the pastry from wanting to shrink too much while it is being baked.

This is a professional recipe and the butter content is really high in comparison to the amount of flour. This will make rolling it out more difficult than some other recipes I have tried. You need to work quickly with it. It should not take more than 5 minutes for the rolling out.

The pastry should be 2 to 3 millimeters or 1/ 8th to 1/4 of an inch which for most American and British pie recipes would seem to be a little too thin. But that is what I am always going for when I make fruit tarts.

Due to the high fat content I also find that placing the tart pan on a sheet of aluminum foil saves a lot of cleaning up later of burned butter that sometimes leeks from the tart shell bottom.

So I suggest that you open a window cool off the kitchen and just practice, make one a week until you have it right. After all pie is pie and who doesn't love pie? An open Apple Tart is particularly yummy and all in all pretty cheap to make.

Flour in Sweden
I find that for the best results that you use Vetemjöl Special which is cake flour. It produces a much finer (short) texture that is firm enough but extremely light. You will get a pastry that is lighter and better tasting than any product you can buy in the store and I promise, made well there is absolutely no comparison in quality. Plain flour works well also but it produces a more robust pastry that is a bit more durable but lacks that particular light flaky quality. If your going through all the trouble of baking your own pies from scratch its worth using the best flour you can.

A note about tart pans. Once you have bought them (and they don't cost very much), they will last forever, so they are one of the best investments you can make for your kitchen. I have 2 of each 20, 23 & 30 cm (8, 9, & 12 inch). I couldn't live without them. You can also buy quiche pans with removable bottoms in the same sizes, the difference is that they are a little deeper because they need to hold more filling.

If you would like more information about tart and baking pans go to our Baking Equipment page.

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