Pâte Sucrée is a French sweet, short pastry crust. It is most often used to make tarts. The list of ingredients includes flour, salt, sugar, egg, butter and water. Pâte sucrée is similar to pâte brisée, though it has more calories due to the addition of sugar, and is slightly less fragile.
If you don’t need the remaining unbaked crust, you can wrap it in plastic wrap and freeze it for up to three weeks.
3 Kinds of Pastry Crusts:
Pâte brisée is the most basic dough of all and contains only basic, common ingredients such as butter, flour, salt and cold water. Pâte sucrée is basically the same as pâte brisée, except that confectioner’s sugar is added to the flour before rubbing in the cold butter. Pâte sablée is the richest dough of the three and includes a sandy texture. This crust is most resemblant of shortbread in taste and texture.
Pastry Crust Tips:
- The rule of thumb when making a pastry dough is “quick and cold.”Whether using your hands or a machine, work swiftly so the butter stays cold and the dough is not overworked.
- While the sweet doughs work well for “blind baking”, the savory doughs produce more of a challenge. If using either of these consider baking with a filling.
- We suggest using cake flour for the sweet doughs sucrée and sablée, but all-purpose works well for the savory brisée dough in tarts or quiches.
- When you are planning on blind baking these empty and filling them later with custards or fruits, etc., brush the inside of the dough with egg white before you bake it. This will “seal” the shell, which will keep the shell from getting soggy and soft as quickly.