Pâte Brisée (Shortcrust Pastry)
This dough can be used in sweet and savory applications and is the most basic of all french pastry recipes. It is a bit more sturdy and resembles what they call a shortcrust pastry in the UK. The butter is worked into the dough just a bit more, and a final blending of the fat into the flour is performed at the end using a french technique known as fraisage.
- Prep Time: 00:10
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 2 Pie Crusts
- Category: Pie Crust
- Method: By Hand
Ingredients
- 3 cups (360 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 cup (224 grams) cold salted butter, diced into ½” pieces
- ½ cup (120 grams) ice water, more if needed
Instructions
- Add the flour to a large bowl.
- Toss in the cold butter pieces and coat with flour. Using your fingertips, start working the butter into the flour. Continue until the butter is broken down into small pieces, no bigger than the size of a pea.
- Drip the ice water around the edge of the bowl, and use a rubber spatula to evenly distribute the water into the flour. If there is enough water the dough should easily squeeze together with your hands. If needed, you can drip in more water into any dry spots (especially check the bottom of the pile), just enough to bring the dough together.
- Empty the dough mixture onto a large work surface to prepare to fraisage the dough for the final blend of butter and flour. Spread the mixture out roughly into a horizontal line in front of you. Taking the heel of your hand, rapidly press the dough onto the board and streak it forward about 3-5 inches into a thin line. Repeat this process until most of your dough has been worked.Using a bench scraper, scrape up the dough in chunks and stack it into two piles.
- Form each dough pile together.
- Place each in a piece of plastic wrap and wrap tightly. Using a rolling pin, roll the wrapped dough out until it stretches to the corner of the plastic wrap.
- Refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or up to two days.
Notes
If you don't have salted butter (even though I really recommend it here) you can add in 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt to the flour.
This recipe makes enough for two pie crusts. It can easily be halved, if necessary.
Find it online: https://everydaypie.com/pate-brisee-shortcrust-pastry/