Tart Dough (pâte sucrée)
Tart Dough, Pâte Sucrée, Sweet Dough. Call it what you will, this is a versatile dough is perfect for your favorite tart or miniature tarts. This is essential recipe comes together in minutes.
Pâte sucrée is a super versatile tart dough
This dough bakes up with a nice crisp bite and is strong enough to hold soft fillings like pastry cream or fresh fruit without getting soggy. This is the dough you want to use to make a tart shell for a classic Fruit Tart with Custard filling.
Sweet Tart Dough couldn’t be easier to make. Cream the butter and sugar, add the egg and then the flour and you’re done.
Ingredients
How to make Tart Dough (pâte sucrée)
- Cream the butter and sugar until creamy, but not aerated.
- Add the egg and vanilla.
- Add the flour and salt.
- Mix until it comes together in a crumbly mixture.
- Dump the crumbly mixture onto a surface.
- Use your hand to squeeze together the clumps.
- Knead the dough then form it into a disc. You can use it right away or refrigerate until you’re ready to roll the dough.
How to roll a tart shell
- Press down on the dough with the rolling pin to loosen it up. Roll the dough until it is about 1/8″ thick and it at least 4″ larger than the size of the pan.
- Roll the dough onto the rolling pin and lift it onto the pan. Unroll the dough over the pan. Then use your hand to tuck the dough into the sides and bottom of the pan.
- Roll the pin over the edge of the pan to cut away the excess dough.
- Remove the excess dough. The dough scraps can be saved up and used again.
- Use a fork to dock the bottom of the tart. If your recipe calls for an unbaked tart shell refrigerate the shell until you’re ready to finish your recipe.
- If your recipe uses a baked tart shell bake the dough at 375°F for about 10-15 minutes until golden brown, or follow the instructions for pre-baking in your recipe.
How to store Tart Dough
The unbaked dough can be wrapped and stored in the refrigerator for 3-4 days. The dough can be frozen for up to 3 months.
A baked tart shell can be stored (unfilled) at room temperature for 2-3 days.
FAQS
In fact, the difference between tart crust and pie crust is the pan that it is baked in. But in practice (in the US), the difference between the two is more than that. A pie crust is usually made with a flaky, savory dough and a tart crust is usually made with a sweet short dough.
All purpose flour is a good medium protein flour for making tart dough.
It depends on the recipe. For a tart with an unbaked filling (like a Rhubarb Meringue Tart) the tart shell should be pre-baked. For a tart with a baked filling (like a Pear Fangipane Tart) there is no need to prebake the tart shell.
A sweet short dough (pâte sucrée) is most often used for dessert tarts.
This recipe is the base for many, many gorgeous tarts:
- French Apple Tart
- Chocolate Cherry Cheesecake Tart
- Pear Custard Tart
- Raspberry Rose Tarts
- Apple Frangipane Tart
- Pink Grapefruit Tart
- Blueberry Cheesecake Tart
- Chocolate Caramel Crackle Tart
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Tart Dough (pâte sucrée) Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 oz unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 4 oz granulated sugar (½ cup)
- 1 large egg
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 6 ¼ oz all purpose flour (1 ¼ cups, see note)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Cream 4 oz unsalted butter and 4 oz granulated sugar until combined and slightly aerated. Add 1 large egg and ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract, mix to combine and scrape down the bowl and beater.
- Add 6 ¼ oz all purpose flour and ¼ teaspoon salt. Mix until the dough just comes together. Remove from the mixer and knead into a ball. Flatten the ball to a disc. Use right away or wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 1-2 hours. The dough can be frozen for up to 3 months.
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Nice recipe to have on hand. One thing though – your instructions are a little light on assembly instructions. I gather you baked the tops and bottoms separately, then dusted the tops, plopped them down on the bottoms, then piped the jam into the center?
The focus of the recipe was the dough itself so I didn’t go into great detail regarding the cookies. Cookies are just one of the items that can be made with this dough. If you look through the photos you can see that the tops and bottoms of the cookies were cut and baked separately and put together exactly as you described. I have a separate recipe for Linzer cookies that uses a really nice dough and that recipe goes into more detail regarding the assembly. Thanks for the comment!
I was looking for a good pâte sablée recipe for a fruit tart I am making tomorrow. This is perfect, I’m sure it’ll taste amazing, thank you!
What temp do I set my oven?
Hi Taylor,
If you’re making cookies I would set the oven to 325°F with convection setting or 350°F without convection setting. The tops brown quickly so you might have to take them out of the oven before the bottoms.