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This is a basic sweet shortcrust dough made the classic way, by creaming butter and caster sugar, working in whole egg and then bringing it together with cake flour. A touch of baking powder keeps it tender rather than hard, and vanilla and lemon flavouring give it a soft bakery scent.

Raw and chilled, it rolls out cleanly and holds a sharp edge; baked, it is crisp, short and golden with a fine, sandy crumb that does not go soggy under a filling. Use it for tart and flan bases, cheesecake bases, fruit tarts, jam slices and any cake that needs a firm biscuit foundation. The dough can be made well ahead and kept cold or frozen until you need it.

Ingredients

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Weight Per Unit: 418
Number of Units: 5
Unit Size: 24 cm tart tin, base and sides, about 400 g of dough each
WEIGHT
(grams) 		ALTERNATIVE METRIC INGREDIENT IMAGE CONDITION
A 640 22.5 ounces Butter Butter is a solid dairy product made by churning fresh or fermented cream or milk, to separate the butterfat from the buttermilk. It is generally used as a spread on plain or toasted bread products and a condiment on cooked vegetables, as well as in cooking, such as baking, sauce making, and pan frying. Butter consists of butterfat, milk proteins and water.
unsalted 		room temperature
B 320 11.3 ounces Sugar Sugar is the generalized name for sweet, short-chain, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. They are carbohydrates, composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. There are various types of sugar derived from different sources. Simple sugars are called monosaccharides and include glucose (also known as dextrose), fructose and galactose. The table or granulated sugar most customarily used as food is sucrose, a disaccharide. (In the body, sucrose hydrolyses into fructose and glucose.) Other disaccharides include maltose and lactose. Longer chains of sugars are called oligosaccharides. Chemically-different substances may also have a sweet taste, but are not classified as sugars. Some are used as lower-calorie food substitutes for sugar described as artificial sweeteners.
C 110 2.2 Whole Eggs Whole Egg Eggs are one of the most common ingredients in a typical cake. Egg yolks and whole eggs store significant amounts of protein and choline, and are widely used in baking. Usually an eggs role in a cake is to add moisture and richness, act as a raising agent as well as a glue to bind the ingredients together. room temperature
D 7 0.2 ounce Salt Common salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in its natural form as a crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quantities in seawater, where it is the main mineral constituent; the open ocean has about 35 grams (1.2 oz) of solids per litre, a salinity of 3.5%. Salt is essential for animal life, and saltiness is one of the basic human tastes. Salt is one of the oldest and most ubiquitous of food seasonings, and salting is an important method of food preservation.
E 6 0.2 ounce Baking Powder Baking powder is a dry chemical leavening agent, a mixture of a carbonate or bicarbonate and a weak acid, and is used for increasing the volume and lightening the texture of baked goods. Baking powder works by releasing carbon dioxide gas into a batter or dough through an acid-base reaction, causing bubbles in the wet mixture to expand and thus leavening the mixture. It is used instead of yeast for end-products where fermentation flavors would be undesirable or where the batter lacks the elastic structure to hold gas bubbles for more than a few minutes, or for convenience. Because carbon dioxide is released at a faster rate through the acid-base reaction than through fermentation, breads made by chemical leavening are called quick breads. sifted
F 1000 2.2 pounds Cake Flour Cake flour is a finely milled white flour made from soft wheat. It has very low protein content, between 8% and 10%, making it suitable for soft-textured cakes and cookies. The higher protein content of other flours would make the cakes tough. Highly sifted cake flours may require different volume amounts in recipes than all-purpose flour. Using the scoop and level method, well-sifted flour usually produces 125 g per cup. However, most American recipes are written with 140 g of flour per cup, so weighing and experimentation can be helpful in baking unfamiliar recipes. Small weight differences can greatly affect the texture. American Cake flour is bleached; in countries where bleached flour is prohibited, plain flour can be treated in a domestic microwave to improve the texture of the end product. sifted
G 4 0.8 teaspoon Vanilla Essence Vanilla Extract is made with 100% pure vanilla beans. With a sweet, syrupy consistency, this Vanilla is ideal for use in icings, drinks and whipped cream as well as classic baking recipes. Vanilla Essence is commercially manufactured by chemicals and is more of a watery consistency as opposed to vanilla extract which is thicker and a lot fuller and richer in flavour. You can replace one with the other but use 50% more of essence. For example, for 1 teaspoon of extract, use 1.5 teaspoons of essence.
H 4 0.8 teaspoon Lemon Flavouring Lemon flavouring is a concentrated lemon essence or compound used in small amounts to give baked goods a clear citrus aroma. A little goes a long way; finely grated fresh lemon zest can be used instead, allowing about a teaspoon of zest for each teaspoon of flavouring.
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Method

STEP ACTION DETAIL CONDITION
1 Prepare Have A (butter) soft but still cool, and C (whole egg) at room temperature. Sift E and F (baking powder and cake flour) together. Butter soft enough to cream, not oily or melted
2 Cream Beat A and B (butter and caster sugar) together with a paddle or wooden spoon, only until they come together smoothly. Creamy but not aerated; too much air makes the pastry puff and shrink
3 Add Add C, D, G and H (whole egg, salt, vanilla essence and lemon flavouring) and mix through. Evenly combined, may look slightly split
4 Mix Add the sifted E and F (baking powder and cake flour) all at once and mix on low speed, or by hand, just until the dough comes together. No dry flour left; stop as soon as it forms a mass, do not knead
5 Rest Flatten the dough into a disc or slab, wrap in plastic and chill. At least 1 hour in the fridge, until firm enough to roll
6 Roll Roll the chilled dough out on a lightly floured bench to about 3 to 4 mm thick, line your tin and trim the edges. Chill the lined tin again before baking. Dough cold and firm; rested pastry shrinks less in the oven
7 Bake For a blind-baked shell, line the pastry with baking paper and baking weights and bake at 180°C (355°F) for about 15 minutes, then remove the paper and weights and bake a further 5 to 10 minutes. Evenly light golden and dry to the touch in the centre
8 Cool Cool the shell completely in the tin before filling. Crisp and firm; fill only when cold so the base stays short

Important Notes

This batch makes about 2 kg of raw dough, enough to line roughly five 24 cm tart tins at about 400 g each, or to press out as a base for cheesecakes and slices. The dough must be rested cold before rolling, and rested again in the tin before baking, or it will shrink down the sides. Wrapped well, it keeps up to 5 days in the fridge and up to 3 months in the freezer; thaw it overnight in the fridge before rolling. Work the dough as little as possible once the flour goes in, and keep everything cool on a warm day.

Tools & Arrangements

Electric mixer with paddle attachment or a large bowl and wooden spoon, sieve, plastic wrap, rolling pin, tart or flan tins, baking paper and baking weights or dried beans, cooling rack

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