Image is for illustrative purposes only.
Shortcrust paste is the workhorse pastry of the cake kitchen: a sweet, buttery dough made with plenty of butter and just enough egg to bring it together. Caster sugar keeps it tender, a little lemon zest and vanilla lift the flavour, and a pinch of baking powder gives the baked shell a light, short bite rather than a hard one.
Rolled thin and baked blind, it makes crisp bases and tart shells to hold custard, ganache, mousse or fresh fruit, and it can also be cut into biscuit shapes or used as a firm base layer under a soft filling. The dough handles best cold, so chill it well before rolling and it will stay neat and keep its shape in the oven.
Ingredients
The weights in the recipe table below will yield the following 'weight per unit' and 'number of units'. If you would like to change the recipe to cater to a different 'weight per unit' and/or 'number of units',
you can use the Recipe Calculator Tool below the ingredients table.
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Weight Per Unit: 380
Number of Units: 4
Unit Size: 24 cm tart tin base, about 350 g of paste each
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WEIGHT
(grams)
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ALTERNATIVE METRIC
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INGREDIENT
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IMAGE
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CONDITION
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A
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225 |
7.9 ounces
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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.
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B
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450 |
15.8 ounces
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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
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cold, diced |
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C
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75 |
2.6 ounces
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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.
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room temperature |
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D
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750 |
26.4 ounces
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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.
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sifted |
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E
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4.5 |
0.2 ounce
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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.
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sifted |
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F
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4.5 |
0.2 ounce
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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.
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G
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7.5 |
0.3 ounce
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Lemon Zest
Lemon zest is the thin, brightly coloured outer layer of the lemon skin, removed with a fine grater or zester without taking the bitter white pith underneath. It holds the fruit's aromatic oils and gives a fresh citrus lift to batters and creams.
fresh
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finely grated |
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H
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5 |
0.2 ounce
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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.
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1520
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Recipe Calculator Tool
Using this tool, you can alter this recipe for your own requirements. Use the two fields below to generate new weights for the ingredients above.
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The new weights for your adjusted recipe will be displayed in the table above.
Method
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STEP
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ACTION
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DETAIL
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CONDITION
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1 |
Cream |
Beat B and A (butter and caster sugar) together on low to medium speed. |
Just creamy and combined, not aerated or fluffy |
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2 |
Add |
Add C, F, G and H (whole egg, salt, lemon zest and vanilla essence) and mix until smooth. |
Evenly blended, no streaks of egg |
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3 |
Mix |
Sift D and E (cake flour and baking powder) over the mixture and mix on the lowest speed only until the dough comes together. |
Stop as soon as no dry flour is visible; do not overwork |
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4 |
Rest |
Flatten the dough into a disc, wrap it and refrigerate. |
At least 1 hour, firm and cold right through |
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5 |
Roll |
Roll the paste out on a lightly floured bench to about 3 mm thick, line your tin or cut out your shapes, and trim the edges. |
Dough stays cool and does not crack or stick |
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6 |
Chill |
Rest the lined tin or cut shapes in the fridge before baking. |
20 to 30 minutes, so the pastry holds its shape |
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7 |
Pre-heat |
Pre-heat the oven to 180°C (355°F). |
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8 |
Bake |
For tart shells, line the pastry with baking paper and baking weights and bake for about 15 minutes, then remove the paper and weights and bake a further 5 to 10 minutes. Cut biscuits bake in about 10 to 12 minutes. |
Evenly light golden and dry to the touch |
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9 |
Cool |
Leave the pastry in the tin for 10 minutes, then cool completely on a rack before filling. |
Crisp and fully cold; fill only when cold so it stays short |
Important Notes
This half batch makes about 1.5 kg of paste, enough to line roughly four 24 cm tart tins at 3 mm thick, or one large slab base with some left over. The dough must be well chilled before rolling or it will be soft and sticky. Wrapped tightly, it keeps up to 5 days in the fridge or up to 2 months frozen; thaw overnight in the fridge before rolling. Off-cuts can be pressed together once and re-rolled, but working them too much makes the pastry tough. Baked shells keep crisp in an airtight container for a few days; if you are filling with a wet cream, brush the inside of the cold shell with a little melted chocolate to seal it.
Tools & Arrangements
Electric mixer with paddle attachment or a food processor, sieve, plastic wrap, rolling pin, tart tins or rings (24 cm) or biscuit cutters, baking paper, baking weights or dried beans, flat baking tray, cooling rack, digital scales.
