The standalone shortcrust used in the cherry pie, but worth its own post, this is the pastry you reach for again and again. Pâte brisée is the plain, barely-sweet cousin of pâte sucrée: less sugar, sturdier, equally happy as a tart shell, a quiche base, or the top and bottom of a fruit pie. The one trick is to stop rubbing the butter in early, while flakes of it are still visible, those flakes steam apart in the oven and give the crust its flake. This card makes enough for one double-crust 23cm pie, or two single shells; halve it when you only need one.
Yield and time
- Makes: two discs, enough for one double-crust 23cm pie, or two single 23cm shells
- Hands-on: 15 minutes
- Total: about 2 hours 30 minutes, including the fridge rest (or make it the day before)
Ingredients
- 350g plain flour, plus extra for rolling
- 225g cold unsalted butter, cubed into 1cm pieces
- 1½ teaspoons fine salt
- 2 teaspoons caster sugar (optional, leave it out for savoury pies and quiches)
- 90-120ml ice-cold water
- 1 teaspoon cider vinegar or lemon juice
You’ll need cling film, a bench scraper, and a fridge with a couple of hours to spare. A food processor is optional, by hand gives you better control over the butter, but the processor is faster if the kitchen is warm. Either way the butter must stay cold.
The method
Tip the 350g flour, 1½ teaspoons salt, and the 2 teaspoons sugar (if using) into a wide bowl. Add the 225g cold cubed butter and toss the pieces so every face is coated in flour.
Rub the butter into the flour with your fingertips, lifting and dropping as you go to keep it cool, but stop early. You want a coarse, uneven mix with plenty of butter still in flattened, almond-sized flakes, not fine breadcrumbs. The visible butter is the flake; rub it away and you get a dense, cracker-like crust. (In a processor: pulse in short bursts and stop while pieces of butter the size of peas are still showing, it’s easy to go too far in a machine.)
Stir the 1 teaspoon vinegar into 90ml of the ice water. Drizzle it over the flour a little at a time, cutting it through with a bench scraper or a butter knife, until the dough just holds together when you squeeze a handful. Add the last splash of water only if it won’t come together without it, err on the side of slightly too dry. The vinegar relaxes the gluten a touch, so the dough rolls without springing back and bakes tender rather than tough.
Tip the shaggy dough onto the bench and gather it, don’t knead. Divide it into two, press each half into a flat disc, and wrap. For a double-crust pie, make one disc a touch larger than the other (the larger one is the base). Into the fridge for at least 2 hours, ideally overnight. A proper cold rest is what keeps the crust from shrinking in the tin.
Rolling
Roll a chilled disc on a lightly floured bench to about 4mm thick, giving it a quarter-turn between passes so it doesn’t stick and stays roughly round. If it cracks at the edges it’s too cold, let it sit a couple of minutes and try again. If it gets slack and greasy, it’s too warm, slide it onto a tray and back into the fridge for ten minutes. Cold, firm, and pliable is the window you want.
Roll up over the pin and unroll into the dish, easing it into the corners without stretching, stretched pastry shrinks back as it bakes. For a lid or lattice, roll the second disc the same thickness; for a lattice, cut it into strips with a knife or a wheel.
Baking
For a double-crust pie, the filling and the lid go on raw and bake together, start the pie on a preheated tray at a high heat (around 200°C fan) so the bottom sets before the filling soaks in, then drop the temperature to finish. With a very wet filling, a juicy fruit pie especially, par-bake the base blind first so the bottom is set and sealed before the filling goes in; the cherry pie walks through that method in full.
For a single blind-baked shell: line the rolled shell with parchment and baking beans, bake at 180°C fan for 15 minutes, pull the parchment, brush the inside with a little egg white, and return it for another 8 minutes until the base is golden and dry. Cool completely before filling.
Storage
Each wrapped disc keeps in the fridge for three days and freezes for three months, defrost overnight in the fridge before rolling. Don’t refreeze after rolling out.
Where the pastry goes
- The cherry pie, both discs, as base and lid
- Quiche and savoury tarts, leave the sugar out
- Custard tart, treacle tart, and other set-custard tarts baked in a blind shell
- A bottom crust under any double-crust fruit pie, apple, rhubarb, blackberry
- Galettes: one disc rolled free-form, fruit piled in the middle, the edges folded over