How to make shortcrust pastry

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup softened butter (120 gr)
• 2/3 cup icing sugar (80 gr)
• 0.9 oz ground almonds (25 gr)
• 2 tsp vanilla sugar
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1 egg
• 1.5 cups flour (200 gr)

Materials

• Rolling pin

Preparation

• In a bowl, combine the softened butter, icing sugar, vanilla sugar, salt, and ground almonds. Mix until you have a smooth, uniform cream.
• Then, add the whole egg and mix well. The mixture should be slightly lumpy.
  
• Add the flour, and mix using your hands to form a smooth dough. Be cautious not to knead more than necessary; just ensure you have a homogeneous dough.
• Wrap the flattened dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour. (Do not form the dough into a ball, as it will take much longer to chill.)
  
• Quickly work the dough until it is pliable again, then place it on a floured work surface and roll it out.
  Tip: Roll the dough out a little, then turn it one-eighth of a turn (45°) and roll it out a little more. Repeat until it is the desired size. This technique should help you roll it into a perfect circle.
• Roll your pastry around the rolling pin, then unroll it over your greased pie pan. Press the dough firmly against the edges.
  
• Use your rolling pin to trim the excess dough neatly, then refrigerate the pie pan for 30 minutes.
• Remove the pan from the fridge and prick the base with a fork. If your filling needs to be baked, pour it into the pastry shell. If you only need to bake the pastry shell (as for a strawberry tart), bake it for 20 minutes at 350°F (180°C).
  
• And there you have it, your shortcrust pastry is ready!

Observations

Icing sugar: It helps prevent the grainy texture that granulated sugar can give the dough, though you can certainly replace it with granulated sugar.
Resting times: They are very important for maintaining the texture of the dough, whose main ingredient is butter and which therefore reacts to temperature. If you work the dough too much, it may warm up and become sticky.
Ground almonds: They help the pastry hold its shape during baking. You can replace them with ground hazelnuts if you prefer.
Butter: Use good-quality butter with an 80% fat content. Its temperature is important: it should be soft, almost spreadable. Take it out of the fridge a few hours before preparing the dough, or cut it into very small pieces and leave it somewhere warm for a few minutes to soften.
Kneading: Take care: this dough does not need much kneading—in fact, the opposite is true! Simply combine the ingredients until the dough is uniform, and do not work it more than necessary, or it may become brittle or crumbly.
Finishing the edges: If the edges of your tart are not neat after baking, you can use a grater to trim and even them out.
Vanilla flavoring: It is, of course, not essential.

Questions

Photos of members who cooked this recipe