Call it what you will, Pâte Sucrée, Pâte Sablée, Short Dough, Sweet Dough, Tart Dough, this is a versatile dough perfect for lining the pan for your favorite tart or for making cookies. This is a basic recipe that’s great to have in your collection and it comes together in minutes.

A little less sweet than a sugar cookie dough and a little less rich than shortbread 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.

Short Dough couldn’t be easier to make. Cream the butter and sugar, add the egg and then the flour. The main difference from making a typical cookie dough is that you don’t want to whip too much air into the butter and sugar. If the dough gets too aerated the final tart crust might be more crumbly than crisp, and crisp is what you want for a good tart crust that will hold those softer fillings.

Once you add the flour, mix the dough just until it barely comes together. Finish combining the dough by hand and refrigerate at least 1-2 hours before rolling.

If you have left over scraps from rolling a tart crust gather them up, double wrap in plastic wrap and freeze to use later. Short dough is a great ingredient to keep in the freezer for last minute desserts. One of my favorite ways to use the scraps left from rolling a tart crust are these short dough sandwich cookies. They’re quick to make and look very elegant. This recipe make enough dough for two 10-12″ tarts. You can halve the recipe by using an egg yolk in place of 1/2 an egg.

I made them with raspberry jam, but they’re also great filled with apricot jam or ganache.

Pate Sucre - Short Dough

Yield: 2 tart crusts

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes

A classic cookie crust.

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Ingredients

• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (5 oz, 141g) granulated sugar
• 2 1/2 sticks (10 oz, 282g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• 1 egg
• 3 cups (15 oz, 425g) all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp salt

Instructions

1. Cream butter and sugar just until combined and slightly aerated. Add egg and vanilla, mix to combine and scrape down the bowl and beater.
2. Add flour and salt and mix until the dough just begins to come together. Remove from the mixer and knead into a ball. Flatten the ball to a disc, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 1-2 hours before using.

Notes

This recipe makes enough for two 12" fruit tart crusts. You can halve the recipe by using an egg yolk in place of 1/2 an egg.

This dough freezes very well. Double wrap in plastic and freeze for up to 3 months.

You might also like:

Apricot Tartlettes

Perfect Pie Dough

Linzer Cookies

Lemon Filled Shortbread

Pink Grapefruit Meringue Tart

Chocolate Caramel Crackle Tart