How Long Do You Cook Shortcrust Pastry For

Shortcrust Pastry – Easy & Quick Recipe

Shortcrust pastry used to SCARE me. I saw it as this shrinking, complicated fragile nemesis only to be conquered by professional chefs. In reality it's so incredibly easy! It is really even easier to make than any cake.

It's super quick and in a few moments you have a crisp, golden, buttery piece of heaven! Not to mention all the possibilities for fillings and flavours!

Egg or No Egg:

I've tried a few different recipes over the years; some with egg, some without, some with only egg yolks. I prefer not to involve eggs because they can diminish the buttery flavour of pastry and make the pastry less short.

I think eggs work extremely well in cheesecake pastry because you need that extra structure to carry the weight of the heavy cheesecake. I only use eggs inside pastry for practical purposes and when absolutely necessary.

Blind Baking:

I used to dismiss recipes as soon as I read the words "blind bake". BUT it's not a big deal at all! It's so easy and straight forward.

Important notes on blind baking that make it a breeze:

Use heavy weight foil. It yields the best results and can handle the weight of baking beans etc. Remember to place the dull side of the foil on the pastry as it has non-stick properties. Always cut a generous piece of foil so there's enough to wrap around the upper edges of the tin – otherwise the exposed pastry will cook faster than all the rest under the foil.
Use lentils or rice for "baking beans". Lentils are smaller, so they get into those edges a lot better than large baking beans can.
When you've finished blind baking the shortcrust pastry, remove the lentils/rice by scooping them out into a bowl. If you try to lift everything out in one go, the foil will tear.
Once you've removed your blind baking geat, brush the inside of your pastry thinly with egg white. Return to the oven and bake till golden. The egg white seals your pastry so that a wet filling won't make the pastry soggy.

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Shortcrust Pastry Recipe Introduction:

This is my go-to recipe for shortcrust pastry. There's no "rest for 2 hours or overnight" thing going on. You merely chill it for 10 minutes, roll it out (no resting in between), freeze it for 5 minutes, smooth it out, freeze it for 10 minutes and then bake it!

I've also included step by step photos of the method I use to painlessly transfer the pastry to a tin.

You'll need a 9″ loose bottom cake tin. I like to use a cake tin because I like a straight, smooth finish on my tarts, but you are welcome to use a fluted tart tin as well.

I love using Salted Butter in pastry. Most people prefer to use unsalted butter so that you can control the amount of salt that goes into your bakes. This makes a lot of sense and I actually agree, but with pastry, salted butter is just incredible.

If you insist on using unsalted butter, then add 1/2 tsp salt to the recipe.

You can find the instructions for MINI TART SHELLS after the main recipe!

Shortcrust Pastry

Total time

1 hour 20 mins

Author: Philosophy of Yum

170 g Cake Flour
40 g Icing Sugar
110 g Salted Butter, ice cold
1 Tbsp Ice Cold water

3.5.3229

Mini Tart Shells

You can also use this recipe to make 10 perfect little tart shells in a regular muffin tin!

Spray a standard size, non-stick muffin tin's holes thoroughly.
Divide the pastry evenly between 10 holes. About 34 g of pastry each.
Press it out evenly in each hole. Chill in the freezer for 5 minutes.
Carefully smooth out the top and inner edges with a teaspoon. Freeze for 10 minutes till the pastry is hard.
Line each pastry shell with heavy weight foil and fill the cavity in the foil with rice. Make sure your pastry is rock solid before you do this!
Bake one notch below the middle of your oven for 8 minutes. Rotate the pan 180 degrees and bake for another 8 minutes.
Remove from the oven. Remove blind baking gear. Lightly brush the inside of each tart shell with egg white to create a seal. Return to oven for another 8 minutes, rotating halfway through.
When they reach an even golden brown colour, they are done! Allow to cool completely before removing from the muffin tin.

Thanks for reading! I'm quite confident that this shortcrust pastry recipe will become your go-to recipe as well.

I've used it in my Perfect Lemon Meringue Pie recipe as well as in my Milk Tart recipe.

Chat soon!

Aurelia 🙂