Tart Crust

Name: Tart Crust
Total time: 15 min
Yield: 2 10-inch tarts
Cuisine: french
Ingredients: 3 cups/425 grams all-purpose flour; 1 tablespoon/20 grams white sugar; 1 teaspoon/4 grams kosher salt; 1 cup/226 grams unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes and chilled; 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (130 grams) ice water

By Tejal Rao

Total Time: 15 minutes
Rating: 4(209)
Comments: Read comments

This recipe for the buttery dough, known in French as pâte brisée, comes via the pastry chef Natasha Pickowicz. It makes enough for two 10-inch tarts; divide the dough into two equal-size balls, flatten into discs, wrap well in plastic wrap and keep in the freezer to defrost whenever you need it. It can be used for sweet or savory recipes, like this potato-and-radicchio tart.

Featured in: Build a Beautiful Savory Tart Out of Your Leftovers

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Ingredients

Yield:2 10-inch tarts

3cups/425 grams all-purpose flour
1tablespoon/20 grams white sugar
1teaspoon/4 grams kosher salt
1cup/226 grams unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch cubes and chilled
½cup plus 2 tablespoons (130 grams) ice water

Ingredient Substitution Guide

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Preparation

Step 1
Put the flour, sugar and salt into the bowl of a food processor, and pulse once or twice to mix. Add the butter, and pulse twice more, so it’s still in very large pieces. Steadily pour the ice water into the machine while pulsing it as quickly as you can, until the butter is still visible in large smears and the dough is pushing up the sides of the bowl and looks like damp bread crumbs (you may not need to add all the water).
Step 2
Scrape the dough crumbs into a bowl, cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. (The dough will continue to hydrate, but if it still feels powdery and dry, wet your fingertips and flick a little cold water onto the crumbs.) After 1 hour, divide the dough into two even balls, gently squashing each into a disc, and wrap each in plastic wrap. Put one in the fridge, to roll out for the potato-and-radicchio tart, and put the other in the freezer so that you have dough ready to go for another tart.

Ratings

4 out of 5

209 user ratings

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Comments

Monique7 years ago

I don’t have a food processor but have a kitchen aid mixer and a blender. Could I use any of these instead of the food processor? Thank you!

B Forrester7 years ago

Hi Monique, No you can use a food processor/pastry knife or even just knives but you cannot use a kitchen aid or blender - making pastry/pie dough is all about cutting cold butter into flour quickly without releasing glutens in your flour which make for a very tough crust. You should be able to pick up a pastry knife very inexpensively - I prefer the wooden handle with the stainless steel wires - works great, though I have a large food processor and most often make my pie crusts that way.

B Forrester7 years ago

One more quick thought, pie dough does not keep in the freezer "until whenever" as stated above, if frozen it must be double wrapped tightly and I find it only lasts up to 3 months without turning an unappealing gray color.

Margaret R11 months ago

I bought a pastry attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer and used it today for this recipe. Worked a treat! Always used my food processor before but it’s 40 years old. The motor is good but the bowl is cracked and falling apart.

High in CO1 year ago

This pastry was very dry and hard. Over cooking? Improperly measured?

Mark Seattle2 years ago

I don’t have a food processor and use a pastry cutter. I ended up using nearly 1 cup of water. Please include tips for those of us cooking by hand. The process is different as are the textures of the dough.

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