Shortcrust Pastry Shell - Step By Step

Shortcrust pastry can be used for savoury pies, tarts, quiches and flans. Classic examples include shepherds pie, quiche Lorraine, char-grilled vegetable tart or cheese and asparagus flan for vegetarians. Shortcrust pastry does not puff up as it contains no leavening agent.
In the following recipe and step by step pictures I demonstrate how to make a shortcrust pastry shell from scratch using just five common ingredients.


Ingredients
500g Flour
200g Butter
1 Egg
50ml Water
salt





Method
Part 1
Sieve the flour and a pinch of salt into a basin.
Add the butter to the flour and with clean hands, rub the butter into the flour.

When all of the lumps are gone, the mixture should look grainy in texture.

Add the egg and a dash of water and mix them in. Most shortcrust recipes do not contain egg but I find it makes it stronger without being tougher.

If the mixture is not wet enough, add a little more water until it forms a ball of dough. Use as little water as possible. Do not knead it.
Overworking the dough elongates the gluten strands, creating a product that is chewy, as opposed to 'short' and crumbly.

Flatten the dough into a disc and rest it in the refrigerator for at least half an hour, but preferably an hour or more.
This allows the starch cells to swell, preventing shrinkage when baking.
At this point the dough can be stored in the refrigerator for several days.

Part 2
Dust the work space with flour and place the dough in the centre.
Using a rolling pin or a bottle, roll the dough from the centre outwards until it is an eight millimeter thick sheet.
Grease and flour a flan ring, or a pie dish. First rub a small amount of butter, margarine or oil around the inside, then put a table spoon of flour in and shake it about, then shake out the excess flour.

Gently lift the sheet of pastry onto the rolling pin and drape it centrally over the flan tin.
Pat the pastry down on the base and sides and then trim off the excess pastry.

Prick the base with a fork to prevent air bubbles forming underneath.
Bake at 180°c for approximately 10 minutes.
Remove from the oven when the pie shell is firm, but without browning.
The pie shell may be used immediately or stored in a cool dark place, but do not refrigerate it.

Making Short Crust Pastry

TECHNIQUES FOR SHORTCRUST PASTRY

 How to get the best results when working with shortcrust pastry

1.	For best results when rolling out shortcrust pastry use a large, clean dry area of the work surface and lightly dust it with plain flour.	2.	Place pastry dough on surface and lightly dust it and the rolling pin with flour.
3.	Roll pastry firmly, always rolling away from you, give the dough two to three rolls.	4.	Then turn the dough a quarter turn.
5.	Dust again if necessary and continue rolling out, frequently turning the pastry so it is not always rolled in the same direction as this causes shrinkage.	6.	When the pastry has increased in size, pick it up to turn by rolling it round the rolling pin.
7.	Lift the pin with the pastry around it carefully and turn it to lay out and continue rolling. Again this is done to prevent the pastry from stretching as you lift it which in turn would result in shrinkage in baking. Shortcrust pastry should be rolled out to approximately 3mm to 5mm depth.

 Lining flan tins

1.	Roll out the pastry as described in the 'Best results for rolling out Shortcrust Pastry pages. Measure tin over rolled out pastry to ensure you will have enough to line the insides of the tin with a little excess to make it easier to work.	2.	Lift up pastry around rolling pin as described in 'Rolling out shortcrust pastry pages' , and gently unroll over flan tin, starting with the edge nearest to you.
3.	Gently ease the pastry into the tin, pressing it down the sides onto the base.	4.	Once you have pushed it in all the way round, go around again to press well down on to base , so that there is almost a 'pleat' of pastry at base of sides, and press into the flutes.
5.	Fold back excess pastry so that it hangs over the sides of the tin.	6.	To cut off the excess pastry roll the pin firmly over the top of the tin in both directions.
7.	Gently pull away excess pastry	8.	Now gently pull up the sides of the pastry from the small excess you left at base so that the pastry stands slightly proud of the top. This will ensure a good depth to the sides of the flan if the pastry shrinks slightly in cooking.

 Baking blind

Once a flan tin or ring has been lined you may wish to bake it unfilled (baking blind), to then fill later with a cold filling or one which requires a lower cooking temperature. It is always best, if time allows, to chill the unbaked flan in the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes before baking blind.

1.	Take a large piece of silicone baking or greaseproof paper and pleat it so that you can fit it into the flan tin easily.	2.	Press paper gently into flan case and allow excess to stand up around edges.
3.	Cover base with baking beans or similar. It is possible to buy ceramic baking beans which are re-usable, otherwise use uncooked rice, split peas or similar to weight down the base.	4.	Bake the flan according to recipe instructions, generally the flan is baked for 12 - 15 minutes then the paper and beans removed and the flan returned to oven to finish baking to a golden brown.

Short Crust Pstry for Cookies and Cakes

This German sweet shortcrust pastry recipe can be used for fruit tarts, cheese cakes, Christmas cookies and many more German dessert recipes.

The secret for a successful shortcrust pastry (Muerbeteig) is to use cold ingredients and cool hands. Don't knead the dough too long, it might get crumbly. 



The traditional Muerbeteig is based on the 1, 2, 3 principle. That means you use 1 part sugar, 2 parts butter, 3 parts flour. Whether an egg belongs to the recipe, or not, is often discussed.
The dough with an egg is not so crumbly and slightly easier to handle. that's why I always use the version with an egg :).

Based on the 1,2,3 principle you can easily adjust the amount of sugar, butter and flour, depending on the size of the tin, and how thick you like the pastry.
Tip: Prepare twice as much dough, and put one (raw) portion into the freezer to make a quick fruit tart for unexpected guests.

Ingredients for a 26cm (10 in) tin:

• 50g (3/8 cup) sugar
• 100g (1/2 cup) cold butter
• 150g (3/4 cup) flour (Type 405)
• 1 egg
• 1 pinch salt

Additionally, you can flavour with lemon essence or vanilla sugar

Directions:

Sift the flour on a large board or clean table, make a hollow like in the picture above.

Add the sugar and the egg into the hollow,
cut the cold butter into pieces and put it on the rim.

Mix the egg and sugar with your fingertips, then quickly rub butter into the flour and blend all ingredients together. Don't knead too long.

Form a ball with the dough, wrap in cling film and let it rest in the fridge for at least half an hour.
Quickly knead the dough again, roll it out on a floured table.

Grease a flat baking tin, sprinkle with breadcrumbs, put the dough into the tin, prick some holes into the dough to avoid bubbles.

Bake at 200°C / 400°F for about 10 to 15 minutes.

Let the cake rest for 5 minutes and remove it from the tin while still warm. Let it cool on a wire before you top it with fruits.

Shortcrust dough ready to place into a tart tin

Variations:

This sweet shortcrust pastry recipe can be used for fruit tarts (like this fresh strawberry tart), cheesecake, plum cake or as a firm base for filled sponge gateaus.

Try it for Christmas cookies, sprinkled with sugar, chocolate chips or almond slivers. The cookies will have a crunchy consistence and a fine butter taste.