Pâte Sucrée

This Pâte Sucrée recipe produces a crispy, buttery, sweet cookie-like crust.  This crust is perfect for pies and tarts with runny and creamy fillings, such as my Chocolate Pudding Pie, Meyer Lemon Meringue Tart, or Blueberry Crumb Tart, as shown below. 

This recipe produces enough crust for 3 – 9-inch pies or tarts.  You can halve this recipe and still have enough crust for a rectangular tart pan or 3 individual-sized tart pans.  

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1¾ cup powdered sugar
• 8 ounces (2 sticks) butter, cut into ½ inch pieces
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk, reserve the white
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cut butter into ½ inch pieces and freeze for about 15 minutes.  In the bowl of a food processor, add the flour, salt and powdered sugar.  Blend until evenly distributed.  

Add semi-frozen butter to the flour mixture and blend just until it resembled cornmeal.  Do not overmix. 

In a small bowl, beat egg, egg yolk and vanilla.  Add the egg mixture to the food processor and pulse just until dough begins to come together. 

Place the dough on a lightly floured cutting board and briefly knead.  You do not want to overwork the dough.  Divide into thirds, wrap in each third in plastic wrap and flatten into disks.  Refrigerate disks overnight or freeze for an hour or up to 3 weeks. 

If frozen, thaw dough in refrigerator.  Let dough set at room temperature for about 10 minutes until it is cold yet pliable.  Remove plastic wrap.  Place dough on a lightly floured cutting board with a floured rolling pin. 

Roll out the dough until it is large enough to cover the bottom plus the sides of your pie or tart pan, lightly throwing flour underneath the dough and on the rolling pin as needed.  Carefully place dough in the pie or tart pan.  Press into the rim of the pan and trim off any excess dough.  Freeze until crust is firm, about 15-20 minutes.  Line crust with foil and fill with uncooked rice or beans or pie weights.  Blind bake at 375⁰F for about 20 minutes.  Gently remove foil and patch any holes with dough scraps. 

In a small bowl, beat egg white and 1 tablespoon of water with a fork.  With a pastry brush, brush the egg white onto the crust.  Bake another 5-10 minutes until the crust is set and golden brown.  At this point, the crust is fully cooked and should be filled with pre-made fillings, such as pastry cream or puddings.