Sweet Shortcrust Pastry (Pâte Sablée)
Buttery, lightly sweet, sandy and crumbly. This French sweet shortcrust pastry tastes like a delicate shortbread biscuit and melts in your mouth instead of shattering. This is the base for almost every classic French tart.
Ingredients
- 250 gr plain flour sifted
- 150 gr unsalted butter room temperature
- 80 gr icing sugar sifted
- 50 gr egg room temperature
- 1 pinch salt
Equipment
Instructions
1. Make the sablage
- Put the sifted flour, sugar and salt into a bowl with the cold cubed butter. Rub the butter into the flour with your fingertips, lifting and letting it fall, until the mixture looks like fine sand or breadcrumbs. Work quickly to keep the butter cold.
2. Add the egg and bring together
- Make a well in the centre of the sandy mixture. Add the egg and mix briefly with a fork or your fingertips until the dough just comes together into a ball. Do not overwork it, stop the moment no dry flour is visible.
3. Fraisage
- Tip the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Using the palm of your hand, push the dough away from you in one or two short, firm strokes (the fraisage).
4. Shape and chill
- Press the dough into a flat disc, wrap in cling film, and chill for at least 1 hour.
4. Roll and line
- On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 3mm thickness. Work quickly, if the dough becomes soft or sticky, return it to the fridge for 20 minutes . Line your 24cm tart ring or 8cm tartlet rings. Trim the excess flush with the rim. Prick the base all over with a fork. Chill for 20 minutes.
5. Blind bake
- Preheat the oven to 165°C fan / 185°C conventional. Place the frozen tart on a perforated baking sheet. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes for a full tart, or 15 minutes for tartlets, until deep golden and completely dry to the touch. Cool in the ring before unmoulding.
Notes
- Yield: One 24cm tart or 8 individual tartlets (8cm)
- Cold butter for the sablage: Unlike the crémage method, sablage uses cold butter. The cold butter coats the flour particles in fat before the liquid goes in, which is what gives the pastry its characteristic crumbly, sandy texture. Don't let it soften.
- Reduce the sugar for sweet fillings: 90g gives a properly sweet crust. If your filling is already sweet, drop to 60 to 70g. For a light filling, use the full amount.
- Keep everything cold: Cold butter, cold hands, cold dough. If it turns greasy, chill it before carrying on.
- Chill twice: Once as a disc, once after lining the tin. The second chill stops the sides slumping in the oven.
- Patch, don't panic: This is a fragile, high-butter dough. Cracks when lining are normal, just press a scrap of dough over them.
- Make ahead: Keeps 3 days wrapped in the fridge, or 2 months frozen. Thaw overnight in the fridge before rolling.