Perfect Shortcrust Pastry (Pâte Brisée) with videos!

Pie-making season is here, and we're ready with homemade shortcrust pastry (pate brisée in French), a simple pie crust suitable for different fillings from mushroom quiche to tomato galette.

This is the basic recipe, the only one you'll ever need. It's very neutral, meaning it can go for savory and sweet pies. I like to use it for sweet fillings, where a sweeter dough might add too much sweetness.

What is shortcrust pastry?

It's a basic pie dough with few ingredients that can be used for sweet and savory dishes, from ham cheese quiche to bourbon pecan pie.

Shortcrust means the fat content (butter in this recipe) is high, and the baked result will be flaky and crusty. In French, it would be pate brisée.

Different from sweet shortcrust pastry that's used exclusively for sweet dishes.

How to make pie crust

The step-by-step recipe here is made by hand.

I strongly believe that learning this way is how we learn the most. If you know how to make pie crust by hand, making it with a mixer is a piece of cake. But if needed, you can always make it with a bowl and a spoon.

You can use a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, but be careful not to overwork it once you add the flour.

If you mix it too much, the gluten develops, which is not good. The dough will not stretch as it should, and the result will not be tender and flaky.

• Have all ingredients measured and ready. Make sure you add the ice to the water and that the butter is as cold as possible.
• Mix flour with salt and add the cubed butter (image below, left).
• Mix with your hands, taking the time to break the butter cubes and mix them with the dry ingredients. This will take a few extra minutes if you use almost frozen butter. The mixture will be uneven, with different sizes of butter pieces, but as a guide, they should not be larger than red beans (image below, right).

• Add ice water, a few tablespoons, and mix with a fork and then with your hands. Add some more water and stir again.
• The amount should be enough for a cohesive dough that comes together when pressed in your palm. The image below on the left needs more water, and the one on the right is fine. You should not have a crumbly dough.

• Give it a few turns in the bowl, and turn the mixture onto a clean surface.
• Bring it together, giving it a few turns, until you have a dough ball. You must try to touch it as little as possible but have a dough that comes together and can be rolled. Don't knead it as you would bread.
• Flatten into a disc (image below).

• When you have a smooth flat round of dough, wrap it in plastic, making sure no spots are left open (image below). This is important so the dough stays soft. If air enters into contact with an unwrapped part of the dough, it will form a dry crust. If this happens, cut off that dry spot before rolling.

Step-by-step VIDEO

Resting time

The dough needs to rest in the refrigerator for 1 hour or in the freezer for 20 minutes.

After the resting period, you're ready to roll!

Or, you can freeze this shortcrust pastry for up to a month. Wrap it well, label it with the date and freeze it.

IMPORTANT: this is an essential step if you want the pie dough to roll easily and be tender and crisp after it's baked. The resting time allows it to relax, making it easier to roll without stretching.

Defrosting frozen dough

For best results, defrost or thaw it in the refrigerator. It will take hours.

I do it from one day to the other. Simply place the wrapped packet with the frozen dough in the fridge.

You can defrost it at room temperature if you're in a hurry. Let it reach a point where it's still very cold but can be rolled.

Be careful it doesn’t get too soft because it won’t give you the tender and flaky desired result. You should roll it out while still very cold.

Rolling the crust

This is the second part of this recipe. You have your shortcrust pastry and want to bake a pie or tart.

Lining the pan

This basic pastry or pâte brisée is suitable for any pie pan but works best in metal pans with removable bottoms. With taller or shorter sides depending on what recipe you're making.

WATCH THE VIDEO TUTORIAL >>> Rolling and lining pie dough.

• Work quickly: once you have the rolled pie dough to fit your pan, fold it in half, lift it with both hands, and place it in the middle of the pan.
• Unfold the dough to cover the whole pan, and let it ease into the pan, don't stretch it to fit. This is important, so the dough shrinks as little as possible during baking. Help by adhering it to the sides with your hands, but never stretching it. Remember that.
• Excess pastry: the final lined pan will have some excess pastry around.

Blind baking

Blind baking is pre-baking the dough with weight on top. It is called blind because the raw pie dough is completely covered with paper (aluminum foil or parchment paper).

Why is this step recommended?

• To prevent a soggy crust: some fillings tend to seep into the unbaked dough while baking, so this step ensures that the dough develops a dry layer before the tart is filled and is not soggy after it is baked.
• To keep the shape: if left to chance without refrigerating, pricking, and blind baking, the pie dough will puff and shrink as it bakes. We don't want that. We want it to keep its shape and have enough space for the filling.

How to blind bake a crust

Preheat the oven to 350°F and remove the lined pan from the refrigerator or freezer (always my first choice).

• Cut a piece of aluminum or parchment paper larger than the tart pan. Cover the cold dough with it, adjusting it so that it takes the shape of the dough. You can also use parchment paper, but it's usually coarser and more challenging to make it take the shape of the pan and cover the dough well.
• Add weight. I use ceramic pie weights that you can buy online, but raw grains and legumes, such as beans, lentils, rice, or even flour, can be used. Simply fill the aluminum paper with flour or rice or whatever you're using until you have added a layer of weight that will be enough to keep the paper down during baking.
• Bake for 15 minutes. It might be a few minutes, more or less, depending on the type of pie crust, but the idea is to let the dough bake and dry out enough so that we can lift the aluminum paper without having bits of raw dough attached to it. The paper should lift easily, and the dough below should be half-baked and slightly wet.
• Bake it for 5 more minutes. Just until it loses its shine and is dry. Don't let it bake completely unless you're using a no-bake filling.