Tart Crust Recipe - Pate sablee

How to make homemade Tart crust recipe, the classic French pate sablee ready in just 10 minutes with this delicious, and crumbly recipe. The perfect shortcrust pastry for all your fruit tarts and frangipane tart recipes.

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French pate sablee

This sweet tart crust recipe is a classic and traditional French tart dough named (pate sablée) widely used in France and around the world to make fruit tart or frangipane tart recipes.

Among all tart crust recipes, this French pate sablee is certainly the most flavorful. We love its thick and sandy texture and its irresistible taste of nutty butter.

In pastry we mainly use 3 types of tart dough, the shortcrust pastry, the sweet shortcrust pastry (pate sucree) and this sweet tart crust (pate sable) and they all have their different texture that we like to use in different tart recipes.

Although they are all made of the same basic ingredients, flour, powdered sugar, unsalted butter and an egg, the pate sucree and paste sable are very similar in their composition because they have an extra ingredient added, almond flour which give them a more delicious flavor.

>> See all tart and crust dough recipes

What is the difference between pâte sablée and pâte sucrée

Pate scree and pate sablee are richer than the other tart dough recipes because they contain more butter in their composition with the addition of almond meal.

But what separates these two tarts is simply the method of preparation, one uses the creaming method which consists of creaming the butter with the sugar and then adding the dry ingredients, while the other uses the sanding method which consists of sanding the dry ingredients with cold butter then adding the egg.

The difference in these two different methods of preparation is the final texture of the tart dough after baking, the pate sucree is crunchier and more solid while the pate sablee is more crumbly with a more sandy and melting texture.

This sweet tart dough is most commonly used to make fruit tart, such as lemon meringue pie, lemon meringue tart, lemon tart or frangipane tart. It's perfect for blind baking filled with pastry cream and fresh fruit like strawberries, raspberries etc.

Ingredients et substitutions

Here are the ingredients needed and possible substitutions to make this homemade sweet tart shell recipe, scroll down to see the quantities in the recipe card.

• Flour: We use white wheat flour type T55, which corresponds to all-purpose flour in the United States, which you can replace with another flour such as Saran flour, rye flour, wholemeal flour etc.
• Sugar: preferably powdered sugar, which can be replaced by granulated sugar or brown sugar.
• Almond meal: finely ground, blanched almond flour or wholemeal almond flour (ground almond), which can be substituted with hazelnut or pistachio flour.
• Salt: A pinch of salt is essential to bring out all the flavors of the dough.
• Butter: Use very cold, unsalted butter, take it out of the fridge at the last moment.
• Egg: A large egg that you can replace with the same amount of egg yolk or just water for an egg-free version.

Option

• Cocoa: Replace ¼ of the flour with unsweetened cocoa powder to make a chocolate tart crust version.
• Flavor: flavor the pastry dough with vanilla extract or vanilla bean seeds, lemon juice, almond extract, etc.

⚠️ You will find the quantities and complete instructions in the recipe card at the end of the page.

How to make the Sweet Tart Crust

Equipment: To make this tart shell recipe I never use a food processor, or other equipment like a stand mixer, I prefer to prepare it by hand directly, but you can use a food processor to make the mixtures.

1 - Mix dry ingredients

1. Place the dry ingredients, all-purpose flour, almond flour, powdered sugar, and salt in a large bowl.
2. Mix with a tablespoon to obtain a dry and homogeneous dry mixture.

Tip: You can also sift all the dry ingredients together to make a homogeneous mixture.

2 - Sand the mixture

1. Add cold unsalted butter cubes to dry ingredients mixture.
2. Using your fingertips, crush the butter into the dry ingredients until you have a sandy mixture with no lumps.

Tip: You can also use a food processor to blend the dry ingredients and cold butter into this sandy powder.

3 - Add egg

1. Make a hollow in the center and add the egg.
2. Gently mix all the ingredients together to moisten the dry ingredients with the egg until the pastry dough comes together to form a ball.
3. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes.

Tips: Be careful not to over-knead the dough to give it too much strength and make it difficult to roll out. You can immediately roll out the dough between 2 sheets of parchment paper and place it in the freezer for 10 minutes before you put it in your tart pan.

4 - Line a tart ring

1. Roll out the chilled dough on a lightly floured work surface with a rolling pin to a thickness of 3-4 mm (or between 2 sheets of parchment paper).
2. Completely cover the tart ring or the tart pan previously greased with butter.
3. Cut off the excess dough that falls over the edges and use your thumb to lightly press down on the edges to get a smooth border.
4. Cut the excess dough on the edges again with a knife.
5. Place the tart shell in the refrigerator until ready to fill or until ready to bake.

Blind bake: For blind baking, first place the tart shell in the freezer for at least 1 hour or overnight in the fridge and then bake them in the oven immediately. You can also fill it with white beans, pie weights or ceramic balls.

5 - Baking

1. Preheat the oven to 347°F / 175°C fan oven.
2. Place the tart shell on a perforated baking sheet covered with a baking sheet or a silicone Silpat.
3. Bake the tart shell for about 25-40 minutes depending on the diameter of the tart or tarts until the pastry dough is golden brown.
4. Allow the tart shell to cool completely in the pan before carefully removing it from the pan.
5. Allow your tart shells to cool completely before filling them with your cream and fresh fruit.

Tip: Be careful not to overcook the tart shell or it will become too crunchy and lose its crumbly texture.

Tips and Tricks

• Use cold butter: You will be able to sand the dry ingredients more easily if the butter is cold and your dough will be easier to handle.
• Do not overwork the dough: Avoid over-kneading the dough so that it does not have a too elastic texture and is difficult to roll out.
• Let the dough chill: Leave the sweet tart crust dough chill overnight in the fridge before baking it to avoid it collapsing during baking. If you are in a rush, you can place it in the freezer for an hour before baking.
• Be careful with the baking: keep an eye on the baking, a tart shell that is overcooked will be too dry and too crunchy, it will have lost its melting texture, and it should be just golden.

Storage and freezing

At room temperature: Baked shortcrust pastry can be stored at room temperature, under a tea towel or in an airtight container away from humidity for about 1 week.

In the fridge: Filled with fruit, it can be stored in the fridge for up to 3-4 days under plastic wrap or in a storage box. The raw pastry dough can also be stored in the refrigerator covered with plastic wrap for 4-5 days.

In the freezer: You can store raw or baked tart dough in the freezer wrapped in plastic wrap or in a storage box for up to 3 months.

Thawing: Let your shortcrust pastry thaw in the refrigerator overnight.

More dough

• Homemade puff pastry
• Rough puff pastry
• Inverted puff pastry

Recipe with this tart dough

• Strawberry tart with pastry cream
• Salted caramel chocolate tart
• Rhubarb and almond tart
• Frangipane pear Tart
• Chocolate tartlets

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