Go Back
–+ servings
Ingredients for making a shortbread tart crust.

Shortcrust Pastry Tart Crust

Heather Smoke
An easy recipe for homemade shortcrust pastry, perfect to use as a tart crust for filling with custard or fruit pie fillings.

All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.

5 from 1 vote
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Freeze Time 30 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine American, British, French
Servings1 crust

Equipment

Ingredients
 

  • 1 ¾ cup all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
  • ½ cup powdered sugar, or granulated sugar
  • 1 tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
  • 10 tbsp cold unsalted butter
  • 1 large egg, with the yolk and white separated

Instructions
 

Make the Dough

  • In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar and salt.
  • Add the cold butter and cut it in with a pastry cutter until crumbly and well combined.
  • Add the egg yolk, stir it in, then get your hands into the dough and rub the yolk and butter into the dough crumbs until moistened. If you can squeeze the dough together in your hand and the crumbs hold together, then it's ready to press into the pan.
  • Note: The dough is very easy to make using a food processor as well. Instead of pressing crumbs into the pan, you can continue to work the dough until it comes together into a ball, and roll it out onto a floured surface. The rolled dough is fragile, so you'll need to transfer it to your pan carefully. Patch up any cracks with extra dough. If the dough seems too dry to come together into a ball, add a few teaspoons of ice water to moisten it just enough to bring the dough together.
  • Pile the crumbs into your tart pan, then spread them out and evenly and firmly press them against the bottom and up the sides of the pan.
  • Freeze the crust for 30 minutes.

Bake

  • Preheat the oven to 375 F.
  • Fit a piece of parchment paper into the frozen crust, and fill the paper with dried beans or pie weights.
  • Bake the crust on the center oven rack for 20 minutes.
  • Remove from the oven, and carefully remove the beans and the parchment paper. Lightly brush the crust with the egg white.
  • Return the crust to the oven and bake for an additional 10-12 minutes, until golden brown and baked through.
  • Let cool, then fill with your favorite tart fillings.
Keyword Pastry, Pie, Shortbread, Shortcrust, Tart
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
https://curlygirlkitchen.com/