Shortcrust pastry for biscuits and tarts: recipe and variations

Here is the recipe for shortcrust pastry: one of the classic pastry preparations for preparing biscuits, tarts and desserts of all kinds!

The shortcrust pastry recipe is very delicious and so simple that it can even be prepared with the help of children. The base can be enriched according to your taste and can be used not only for tarts but also biscuits and various types of sweets.

The ingredients of the basic shortcrust pastry are: flour, butter, sugar and eggs . You can prepare classic biscuits or enrich the dough with cocoa powder or chocolate chips, lemon or orange peel, and powdered spices such as cinnamon or ginger.

The recipe for shortcrust pastry is very ancient and seems to have already been known around the year 1000 , when sugar cane imported from the Middle East began to be used. At the beginning it was used to prepare sweet and sour dishes but then it became one of the most used in desserts. Its crumbly consistency makes shortcrust pastry a perfect base for the preparation of tarts and biscuits! Here is the recipe, cooking times and all the variations!

• Basic recipe
• Cooking
• Shortcrust pastry for biscuits
• Shortcrust pastry for tart
• Cream tart
• Types of shortcrust pastry
  • without butter
  • without eggs
  • gluten free
  • vegan
  • whipped pastry
  • with cocoa
  • light
  • salty

Preparing the shortcrust pastry recipe

To prepare the basic shortcrust pastry recipe you will need:

• 300 g of 00 flour
• 150 g of cold butter
• 110 g of sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 vanilla pod (or 1 organic lemon)
• 1 pinch of salt

1. To prepare the shortcrust pastry, combine the flour , sugar and a pinch of salt in a bowl which will enhance the sweetness and chosen aroma . You can use the seeds of a vanilla bean or the zest of a grated organic lemon.
2. Then add the cold butter cut into cubes and knead with your fingertips until you obtain a dough similar to wet sand.
3. Now incorporate the whole egg and the yolk and finish kneading quickly. The dough should not get too hot.
4. Once you have obtained a homogeneous dough, wrap it in cling film and let it rest in the refrigerator for at least an hour before using it.

The pastry prepared following this recipe can be frozen raw and used if necessary. Having said that, we have seen the basic recipe for the pastry, but we can give free rein to our imagination !

Cooking shortcrust pastry (and recipes)

Now that we have prepared a textbook shortcrust pastry, we also leave you with some ideas for making biscuits or a tart (with cream or jam). First of all, if you want to know the cooking times , calculate:

• 10/15 minutes in the oven at 180°C for biscuits .
• For all tarts with jam, bake the shell and filling for about 30 minutes at 180°C in a fan oven.
• 15/20 minutes at 180°C in a static oven for the shell of a cream tart (in this case, in fact, only the pastry needs to be cooked, without the filling).

How to make shortbread biscuits

1. Take your dough out of the fridge and place it on the table.
2. Instead of sprinkling the work surface with flour (which would then be absorbed by the dough), place it between two discs of baking paper and roll it out with the help of a rolling pin.
3. The perfect thickness is around 3 millimetres : not too thin to be transparent, but not too thick to take too long to cook.
4. With your biscuit cutter, cut out as many shapes as you can, kneading everything as you go. However, you must pay attention to one thing: the more times you knead it, the hotter it will become and therefore the more difficult it will be to work with.
5. Place all the biscuits on a lined baking tray and cook for about 10 minutes at 180°C . Keep an eye on them because every oven is different and make sure they don't burn.

Take the shortbread biscuits out of the oven and enjoy them cold, making them as you prefer.

How to use shortcrust pastry for jam tart?

1. We now come to the preparation of the tart with a shortcrust pastry base: roll out your pastry and place it delicately inside a cake tin (lined with baking paper or buttered and floured).
2. Trim the edges so that they do not protrude from the mold and prick the base with the tines of a fork.
3. Complete with the jam and, if you have some dough left over, make some strips to put on top of the filling.
4. Bake for about 30 minutes at 180°C .

Enjoy your meal!

How to make a cream tart

As already mentioned, the situation is different for cream tarts.

1. Separately, prepare some custard .
2. In the meantime, proceed with cooking the pasta : roll out the pastry inside a tart mold (buttered and floured) and prick it with the tines of a fork .
3. Cover with a sheet of baking paper and place weights on top so that it does not swell or deform during cooking. You can use dried beans or alternatively you can find ceramic spheres on the market made specifically for this purpose.
4. Cook for 15/20 minutes at 180°C in a static oven.
5. Remove from the oven, let cool and fill with the cream.

Shortcrust pastry: variations

So far we have seen the classic shortcrust pastry recipe but you will surely know that this is not the only version you can prepare! There is shortcrust pastry without butter, egg-free, gluten-free, whipped…

Obviously we can make many desserts with shortcrust pastry but let's first see how many other variations we can make of this basic recipe: without butter, without eggs, with cocoa… there's one for all tastes!

Shortcrust pastry without butter

The butter-free version , for example, is prepared with oil . You need:

• 80 g peanut oil
• 250 g of 00 flour
• 100 g of sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 sachet of vanillin

Very simply, to prepare, combine all the liquids with the sugar and then add the flour. After resting for an hour in the fridge, the shortcrust pastry with oil cooks in a ventilated oven for 35-40 minutes at 170°C .

Egg-free shortcrust pastry

In the case of the egg-free version , however, this ingredient is simply replaced by water (or milk). In detail, the ingredients are:

• 300 g of 00 flour
• 150 g of butter
• 100 g of water
• 100 g of sugar
• the zest of a lemon
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

As usual, beat the eggs and butter and then add the other ingredients. Don't worry if it's a little pale, it's because there are no eggs! After resting for an hour in the fridge, it cooks at 180°C for around 20/25 minutes.

Gluten-free shortcrust pastry

To make the gluten-free pastry, simply replace the 00 flour with a mix of 200 g of rice flour and 150 g of corn flour . For the rest, just check that the ingredients do not contain the wording "may contain traces of gluten".

Rice flour is more impalpable than durum wheat flour, so don't be surprised if the quantity is larger. The preparation does not change: add sugar and butter, then the eggs, flour and any flavourings.

Vegan shortcrust pastry

In the vegan shortcrust pastry recipe there are neither eggs nor butter, which are replaced by oil and water. Here are the ingredients:

• 250 g of 00 flour
• 150 g of granulated sugar
• 150 g of corn oil
• 1/2 glass of water
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder for desserts
• 1 untreated lemon (zest)
• 1 pinch of fine salt

Mix sugar and water before adding the flour, yeast, salt and untreated lemon zest. Also add the corn oil and mix all the ingredients. After half an hour in the fridge, roll out the vegan shortcrust pastry and cook in a hot oven at 180°C for 20 minutes.

Whipped shortcrust pastry for biscuits

A little different, however, is the whipped pastry recipe . As the name suggests, this version is softer, which is why it is only recommended for making biscuits: a tart would melt .

• 220 g of flour
• 150 g of softened butter
• 1 egg
• 80 g of icing sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 sachet of vanillin
• chocolate sprinkles or cherries to decorate

How is it prepared? Whip the soft butter with the icing sugar and then add the egg. Complete with flour, baking powder and vanilla. Then make some biscuits with the help of a piping bag. Bake the whipped shortcrust pastry biscuits in a preheated oven at 200°C for 10 minutes .

Cocoa shortcrust pastry

We now come to the most delicious recipe of all, the cocoa one . You will need:

• 300 g of 00 flour
• 150 g of cold butter
• 120 g of icing sugar
• 30 g of bitter cocoa
• 3 egg yolks at room temperature
• 1 pinch of baking powder for desserts
• 1 sachet of vanillin

Work the butter into the 00 flour to obtain a grainy mixture. Then add the icing sugar, baking powder and vanilla. Now add the bitter cocoa and the three egg yolks. Leave to rest for about half an hour and then cook at 180°C in a static oven for 15/20 minutes.

Light shortcrust pastry

And who pays attention to the line? Don't worry: we have the light shortcrust pastry recipe for you! Among the ingredients we kept a little bit of oil (otherwise it wouldn't stay together) but we replaced the sugar with stevia:

• 300 g of wholemeal flour
• 2 eggs
• 50g stevia powder
• 80 g of seed oil
• 1 teaspoon of yeast

Add eggs and stevia. Then, add the oil , mixing quickly , preferably with a wooden spoon. Complete with the flour and finish kneading by hand . After a couple of hours in the fridge , roll out and calculate about 10/15 minutes of cooking at 180°C.

Savory shortcrust pastry

And finally, we leave you with an unusual recipe: the savory one . Be careful, however, not to confuse it with shortcrust pastry, which does not contain eggs. Here are the ingredients and preparation:

• 300 g of 0 flour
• 125 g of very cold butter
• 2 egg yolks at room temperature
• a level teaspoon of fine salt

Mix the butter into the flour until you obtain a floury mixture. Add the salt and the two egg yolks. Leave in the refrigerator for about half an hour, then roll out a thin sheet of dough and cook for 20/25 minutes at 180°C .

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Let's discover all the types of shortcrust pastry to try