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.  

Meyer Lemon Meringue Tart

The billowy, sweet Vanilla Bean Meringue offsets the rich, tartness of the lemon custard in this Meyer lemon meringue tart.

I adapted this recipe from Bouchon's Tarte au Citron.   Instead of using Bouchon’s Pine Nut Crust, I made the tart shell with a Pâte Sucrée and shaped it to fit a rectangular tart pan.  The Meyer lemon filling is made using the sabayon method, where the egg mixture is whisked and slowly heated over simmering water until it has thickened and increased in volume.  I piped meringue on top and used a torch to get the nice brown color. 

Vanilla Bean Meringue

If you have some extra egg whites lying around, a good way to use them is in this vanilla bean meringue.  Light, fluffy, sweet meringue makes a nice contrast to rich or tart fillings in pies and tarts, such as the filling in my Meyer Lemon Meringue Tart. 

Pie Crusts: How to Choose

When making a pie or tart, you have to consider what kind of crust will best complement the filling.  Are you making a fruit pie, such as an apple pie or pear pie?  Or are you making a custard-filled pie, such as a banana cream pie or chocolate pudding pie?  Or even something savory such as a chicken pot pie or quiche?

The three most common French pastry crusts are pâte brisée, Pâte Sucrée, and pâte sablée.  The two crusts I normally use are pâte brisée and pâte sucrée.  Pâte brisée, the old French term for broken paste, is a rich, flaky pastry dough.  Pâte brisée is the most versatile of the crusts and can be used in sweet or savory recipes.  I typically use pâte brisée for apple pies, pear pies, and quiches.  Pâte Sucrée, the old French term for sugar paste, is a sweet, vanilla sugar cookie-like crust.  I like to use pâte sucrée when I make tarts and custard filled pies.  Pâte sablée is a sweet almond shortbread crust and complements pear tarts as well as fruit tarts filled with pastry cream. 

Pear Pie

Instead of making your basic apple pie, why not try something new like this pear pie?

In this pie, the delicate flavor of Bosc pears is enhanced with vanilla and covered with a crisp cinnamon streusel topping. 

Chocolate Pudding Pie

A classic favorite – Chocolate Pudding Pie

Fresh whipped cream speckled with vanilla bean seeds contrasts nicely with the velvety, rich chocolate pudding in this chocolate pudding pie.  For this pie, you can vary the crust, using anything from a cookie crust (made with chocolate or vanilla wafers) to a normal pie crust.  For my version of this classic pie, I used a Pâte Sucrée, which is like a vanilla sugar cookie crust.