Best Baked Sweet Tart Shell Recipes

PâTE SUCRéE - FRENCH SWEET TART CRUST (PASTRY DOUGH)

Steps:

• Mix Dy Ingredients: Whisk together flour, icing sugar, salt and almond meal in a bowl.
• Add butter: Use your fingertips to rub the butter into the dry ingredients until it resembles breadcrumbs. (Note 4).
• Add egg: Mix with a rubber spatula until it becomes too hard to stir anymore, then use your hands to bring it together into a dough.
• Bring dough together: Turn dough out onto a work surface, then knead to bring together into a smooth ball. Flatten into a 2cm / 0.8" thick disc. Wrap with cling wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
• Unwrap chilled dough. Place on a lightly floured work surface.
• Roll out into a 32cm / 13" round (3mm / 1/8" thick).
• Line tart tin: Roll pastry lightly on to a rolling pin (ie. so it wraps around itself). Then unroll it gently over the tart tin.
• Fit pastry: Adjust the pastry to fit into the tart tin, fitting into the corner, taking care not to stretch it (causes shrinkage during bake).
• Trim excess dough: Roll the rolling pin over tart tin to trim excess dough. Pictured tart tin is 24 x 3 cm / 9.5 x 1.2" - you can use any up to this size.
• Prick the base of the pastry 30 times with a fork. Not all the way through - just make a light prick on the surface.
• Chill pastry in tart tin for 30 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 200°C / 390°F (180°C fan).
• Baking beads: Cover pastry with 2 sheets of baking paper (parchment paper), in a "X" arrangement. Fill with baking beads (or 2 cups dry raw rice or beans).
• Baking times for a Par Baked Tart to be used for tarts that are baked for > 30 minutes once the filling is added into the cooked tart shell.
• Bake 15 minutes the remove from oven. Use excess paper to remove baking beads.
• Bake uncovered 5 minutes: Return tart crust to oven for 5 minutes. Pastry should be light golden, crispy on surface, but slighty undercooked inside (will finish cooking once filled and baked again).
• Use these baking times if the tart shell is to be used for raw fillings (ie tart not baked once crust is filled) OR fillings that are baked for < 25 minutes.
• Bake 15 minutes the remove from oven. Use excess paper to remove baking beads.
• Bake uncovered 10 minutes: This will fully cook the pastry through and give it nice colour which we need as the pastry won't cook through in less than 25 minutes once filled.
• Cool: Remove then cool in tart tin before filling (this ensures crust stays crispy once filled), then baking again if filling needs to be cooked (like this Pistachio Frangipane Pear Tart).
• Make ahead up to 3 days, suitable for baking once filled.

BAKED SWEET TART SHELL

Steps:

• Pulse together flour, sugar, salt, and butter in a food processor until most of mixture resembles coarse meal with small (roughly pea-size) butter lumps. Add yolks and vanilla and pulse just until incorporated and mixture begins to clump.
• Turn out mixture onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 6 portions. With heel of your hand, smear each portion once or twice in a forward motion. Gather dough together into a ball with scraper and transfer to tart pan. Pat out ball with floured fingertips onto bottom and up side of tart pan in an even 1/4-inch layer. (If mixture sticks to your fingers, spread a sheet of plastic wrap over it and pat through plastic wrap.) Prick bottom of shell all over with a fork, then chill until firm, at least 30 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 375°F.
• Line shell with foil and fill with pie weights. Bake in middle of oven on or over a large sheet of foil (to catch any drips of butter) until sides are set and edges are light golden, about 20 minutes. Carefully remove foil and weights and bake shell until bottom is golden and sides are golden brown, 14 to 16 minutes more. Cool shell completely in pan on a rack before filling.

SWEET TART CRUST

Steps:

• Put the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor, and pulse to blend. Scatter in the butter, and pulse about a dozen times, until the butter is cut in - you'll have pieces the size of oatmeal flakes and others the size of peas. Stir the yolk to break it up and add it in 3 additions, pulsing after each. Pulse until the dough has curds and clumps; it should hold together when you pinch it. Turn it out onto a counter, knead it into a compact ball and flatten it into a disk.
• Roll the dough into an 11-inch circle between layers of parchment (or wax) paper. If it's cold enough, fit it into a 9-to-9½-inch tart pan with a removable bottom, trimming the top even with the pan's edges; if it's not, chill it until you can work with it. Refrigerate the crust (in the pan) for at least 1 hour (or cover and freeze for up to 2 months).
• Heat the oven to 400. Place the pan on a baking sheet, and cover with a piece of buttered foil or parchment, pressing it lightly to cover the crust's bottom and sides; fill with rice.
• Bake for 20 minutes. Carefully remove the foil and rice. If you're going to bake the tart again with a filling, bake it uncovered for 5 minutes more. If you'll be using a no-bake filling, bake the uncovered crust for an additional 8 to 10 minutes. Cool for at least 30 minutes before filling.