Pâte Brisée (Short crust Pastry)

This write up is for everyone to have as a direct & quick reference on how to make a Short Crust Pastry instead of having to search throughout my blog for it.

Have Fun & Happy Baking!🙂

Pâte Brisée (Short Crust Pastry)
  • 250 g plain Flour
  • 125 g chilled Butter (cut into cubes)
  • 1 egg
  • 5 g salt
  • a bit of water (approx 5 ml or less)
Directions

Pie Crust

Using food processor

  1. Place flour, salt and butter in food processor bowl. Using the pulse action, press button for 30 seconds or until mixture is fine and crumbly.
  2. Add egg and water; process a further 20 seconds until mixture forms a dough.
  3. Wrap the dough in a plastic wrapper and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
  4. Roll out a clean piece of cloth on the table; sprinkle some flour on it.
  5. Flatten the dough slightly with your hands and dust the dough lightly with flour before rolling the dough out with a rolling pin. Start rolling at the centre of the dough and work outwards. Roll the dough into a circle and slightly larger than the size of your pie dish.
  6. Delicately drap the pastry around the rolling pin, then gently unroll it onto the pie dish.
  7. Without stretching the dough, press the pastry firmly into the pan and trim any excess dough from the edge.
  8. Prick all over the pastry bottom with a fork and bake the pastry according to your recipe.
  9. However if you are baking the crust before putting the fillings like crème pâtissère, put a smaller pie dish on top of it and bake it at 200°C (400°F – gas mark 6) for about 20 minutes or until it is golden brown. However if you don’t have a smaller pie dish, cover the top with either baking paper weigh the pastry down with either beans or uncooked rice.
  10. Remove pie crust from the oven and allow it to cool totally.

Using hands

  1. Put in the flour, salt and diced up butter together in a large bowl.
  2. Using your fingers, rub the butter into the flour until it is crumbly (like sand). To make sure that all butter are rubbed in and there is no big lumps left, scoop some mixture into your hands and rub it in a rubbing motion.
  3. Make a small well in the middle, crack in the egg and pour in the water. Mix the dough mixture with your hands until it forms a ball of dough. The dough should hold together and comes off the bowl easily. Do not work the dough too much.
  4. Wrap the ball of dough with a plastic wrapper and refrigerated it for 30 minutes.
  5. Follow step 4 of above instructions.

Pate Brisee

Notes

If due to unforeseen circumstances you can’t roll out your dough and bake it that day, wrap the raw short crust pasty in a cling film and put it in the refrigerator – it can stay there for 2 or 3 days. It can also be kept frozen for up to 3 months. When required, simply defrost it slowly in the refrigerator.