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baked pate sucree tart on cooling rack
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5 from 4 votes

Sweet Tart Crust

A delicious and easy sweet tart dough that is buttery, melt in your mouth good, but still has that crispy tart shell texture. 
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time20 minutes
chilling time1 hour 30 minutes
Total Time30 minutes
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American, French
Servings: 8
Calories: 226kcal

Ingredients

  • 1 egg yolk
  • 1 tbsp heavy cream
  • ½ tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 ¼ cups all purpose flour (6 ¼ oz)
  • cup powdered sugar
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 8 tbsp unsalted butter cold, cut into ½ inch cubes

Instructions

  • Whisk together egg yolk, cream, vanilla in a small bowl or measuring cup and set aside.
  • Place flour, powdered sugar, and salt in a food processor and pulse to combine.
  • Place the pieces of butter evenly around the food processor and pulse 15 one second pulses. You want the butter combined with no large pieces. 
  • Slowly add the egg mixture, with the processor running. Process until it comes together and forms a ball, about 10-12 seconds.
  • Form the dough into a small circle or rectangle depending on the tart pan you plan on using.
  • Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour.
  • When ready to use, follow instructions in desired recipe.

For making and blind baking tart shell:

  • Remove tart dough from fridge and let sit until it is workable (this will depend on how long it’s been refrigerated).
  • Roll out - if using a 9 in circle you’ll want to roll about a 13 in circle.
  • If the dough at any point is too soft to work with, rather than add more flour, place back in the fridge for 10-20 minutes until it is more workable.
  • Transfer the tough to the tart pan by rolling over a rolling pin to pick it up. Then unroll it over the tart pan.
  • Once placed over the pan, gently work the tough into the corners by lifting the dough with one hand, and pressing with the other. You want to press it until it is even all around. You can use extra bits of dough to reinforce parts that look sparse or thin, to make it even all around.
  • Run a rolling pin or metal spatula over the top to remove any excess dough. Score inside of tart with a fork.
  • Put the tart on a plate or small baking pan and freeze for 30 minutes.
  • While in freezer, preheat oven to 375.
  • Remove tart from freezer and place a large sheet of aluminum foil on the tart pan and fill with pie weights or beans. You want to make sure the foil is big enough to cover the edges so they don’t burn and you can easily remove the weights when the shell is still hot from the oven.
  • Bake for 30 minutes, rotating 90 degrees at 15 minutes.
  • Remove from oven and very carefully remove the weight by taking the edges of foil and wrapping inward. Then lift up.
  • Place back in the oven and baking 5 -10 more minutes, until golden brown.
  • Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack.
  • Once completely cooled, fill with with tart filling of choice.

For Mini Tart Shells:

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  • Roll out tart dough as instructed above.
  • Using a circle cookie cutter, cut out circles slightly larger than the size of the mini tart pans. Using the same method as above, press the dough into the tart pan using extra dough to reinforce sparse spots if necessary. Use a rolling pin or metal spatula to make tops even.
  • Score the bottoms with a fork.
  • Bake for 10-12 minutes.
  • Let cool completely before removing from mini tart pans.

Notes

  • With most baking recipes, especially french pastries, I recommend being exact with your measurements. That means either weighing the flour or if you don’t have a scale, spooning the flour into a measuring cup and swiping off the excess with a knife.  Dipping a measuring cup directly into a bag of flour is a surefire way to overfill and add extra flour to your recipe, therefore altering the final results.
  • If using salted butter, cut the salt in the recipe to 1/8 tsp.
  • If the tart dough gets too soft when you’re rolling it out, do not add more flour. Instead, put it back in the fridge for 10-20 minutes to re-chill rather than adding more flour.
  • When blind baking, very carefully remove the pies weight by taking the edges of foil and wrapping inward. Then lift up. This will ensure you don’t crack the crust and pie weights don’t get everywhere. 
  • After you’ve made the dough and let is rest, you can chill the unbaked dough in the fridge up to two days or freeze it for up to two months before you bake it. Just let the dough defrost in the fridge before baking.  

Nutrition

Serving: 8slices | Calories: 226kcal | Carbohydrates: 25g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 13g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Cholesterol: 57mg | Sodium: 76mg | Potassium: 20mg | Sugar: 9g | Vitamin A: 415IU | Calcium: 9mg | Iron: 1mg