How to make Sweet Short Crust Pastry

How to make Sweet Short Crust Pastry. A practically foolproof pastry recipe that you can completely make in a food processor, if you like. Perfect for tarts, turnovers and pies.

How to make Sweet Short Crust Pastry.

I am lucky. Somewhere in my early development as a baker, I quickly got a feel for making excellent pastry. I have been successfully able to make practically any kind of pastry for a long time.

There are several that I use routinely. An all-butter flakey pastry is one that I use for most pies, including the pie shells for our incredibly popular Old Fashioned Coconut Cream Pie.

That one is probably my most requested pie. I’ve been making it for 40 plus years!

Add butter to flour.

Butter should be completely combined with the flour.

The crumble should have a sandy appearance.

The crumbs should stick together when pressed in your hand

Another favourite pastry is one that I often use for savoury pies, or most notably in another of our top ten recipes, Classic Canadian Butter Tarts.

That pastry is a perfect cross between the flavour of a butter pastry with the incredible flakiness of an old fashioned shortening or lard pastry. A perfect pastry marriage if there ever was one.

Add the egg yolks and water

Pulse process until a smooth dough ball is formed.

Wrap portions of dough in plastic wrap and rest in the fridge.

Place dough on well floured board.

Still other times, I use a sweet butter pastry, mostly for smaller hand held pastry treats like these amazing Blueberry Turnovers.

In this house there is a pastry for every occasion.

Roll out to desired size.

Sweet Short Crust pastry as a pie or tart shell

British Inspired

As regular readers will know, I am a big fan of British baking and of the fantastic baking shows that come out of the UK. From the Great British Bake Off to any of the many programmes Mary Berry has presented, they’re something I can binge watch for hours.

You don’t need to watch very many of these shows to quickly realize that short crust pastry is far more popular over there than here in North America.

3 and a half inch cookie cutters are the perfect size to make mini tart shells

Sweet Shortcrust pastry tart shells ready for the oven.

Sweet Shortcrust Pastry shells just out of the oven

There are probably a number of reasons for that. First the dough is easier to make. As in this recipe, the entire dough can be accomplished quickly and easily in a food processor.

The texture is not intended to be flakey but more like that of a good shortbread cookie. It has a firm but crumbly texture and buttery taste that so many enjoy in those shortbread cookies.

Dulce de Leche Caramel Tarts using Sweet Short Crust Pastry

Get the recipe for Dulce de Leche Caramel Tarts here.

Blueberry, Bakeapple and Partridgeberry Jam Tarts

This sweet short crust pastry is excellent for any sort of filled tarts. Use any jam you like and top with a little dollop of thick cream, clotted cream or even just vanilla whipped cream.

I love making them with an assortment of Newfoundland berry jams. They never last long, I can tell you!

Not a difficult dough to handle.

Not the least of the reasons is that it is also a very forgiving dough. Rips in the pastry when putting it in a pie plate for example, or even inadvertent holes, can be easily patched by pressing the seams together or even patching with a little extra dough.

Who doesn’t love a recipe where little mistakes are easily covered. They don’t affect the taste anyway, so why sweat it?

Two Caramel Dulche de leche caramel tarts using 2 different pastry recipes.

Sweet Shortcrust Pastry and all butter pastry tarts.

However, this pastry is a bit more delicate than a sturdier all butter pastry. I have however, had no issues using it as a pie shell or in these incredible Dulce de Leche tarts. The difference in texture is very easy to see in the photo of the tarts when cut in half.

Plenty of uses for Sweet Short Crust pastry

The flavour of this dough is still incredibly buttery and can replace almost any pastry in a dessert application. 

It’s a great pastry for making the shells for things like Lemon Meringue Pie in particular. Or any cream pie for that matter, like our Chocolate Silk Pie.

In fact, I have had a lemon pie in the UK with a sweet short crust pastry and it was absolutely delicious! 

So, if pastry is your nemesis, go ahead and try this one. A success here may encourage you to practice your other pastry skills. After all, nothing motivates like a baking success.

If you are a big pie lover like me, be sure to check our collection of Rock Recipes Best Pies.

Like this Sweet Short Crust Pastry recipe?

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Yield: 24 mini tart shells or 2 pie shells

How to make Sweet Short Crust Pastry

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Additional Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes

How to make Sweet Short Crust Pastry. A practically foolproof pastry recipe that you can completely make in a food processor, if you like. Perfect for tarts, turnovers and pies.

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Ingredients

• 2 1/3 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup + 2 tbsp cold butter (salted)
• 1/3 cup + 1 tsp icing sugar (powdered sugar)
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 tbsp cold water
• (Metric measurements in notes.)

Instructions

1. This recipe can be made using a traditional pastry cutter to cut the butter through the flour and then just add the egg and water and bring it together into a soft dough.
2. In the food processor method, just cut the cold butter into cubes and add to the flour and icing sugar in the food processor.
3. Pulse process together until the butter is fully incorporated and the mix has a wet sand look.
4. Add the egg yolks and col water, then pulse process again until a soft dough forms.
5. Divide the dough into 2 balls, flatten into rounds,  and wrap in plastic wrap.
6. Let the dough rest in the fridge for at least a half hour before using it in the recipe you are making.

Notes

• This recipe makes 2 rounds of dough, sufficient for about 24 mini tarts or 2 pie shells. You can always use half and freeze the other round to use later.
• Nutrition is calculated based upon 24 tart shells.
• I converted this recipe from British measurements to North American measures a long time ago. If you prefer to bake by weight, here are the original measurements.

350 grams plain flour

200 grams cold butter (salted)

50 grams icing sugar (powdered sugar)

2 egg yolks

2 tbsp cold water

Nutrition Information

Yield

24

Serving Size

1
Amount Per Serving Calories 114Total Fat 7gSaturated Fat 4gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 2gCholesterol 33mgSodium 54mgCarbohydrates 11gFiber 0gSugar 2gProtein 2g

The nutritional information provided is automatically calculated by third party software and is meant as a guideline only. Exact accuracy is not guaranteed. For recipes where all ingredients may not be used entirely, such as those with coatings on meats, or with sauces or dressings for example, calorie & nutritional values per serving will likely be somewhat lower than indicated.

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