Sweet Pastry

Sweet pastry, or pâte sucrée* , is a 'rich' pastry, in that it uses sugar, eggs, and more butter than shortcrust (basic) pastry.  The only problem with something that has so much eggs and sugar in it is that at room temperature it goes very soft and is a nightmare to roll (even after leaving it in the fridge it softens up as soon as you start to work it).  Often have I ended up abandoning the first or even second attempt at rolling it out, scraping it off the surface and steeling my resolve for another attempt at getting it to co-operate with a rolling pin.  This is exactly what you want to avoid; the secret to good pastry is not to overwork it, lest the gluten develop causing it go chewy once cooked.  So this recipe, which involves cutting the dough up into discs and pressing it into the tin, requires no faffing about with a rolling pin and gives you a better finish.  Happy days!

The original recipe upon which this is based, from Jamie Oliver, made double quantities so you could freeze one for later.  Whilst this is a great idea, not everyone has two tart tins knocking about (some of us had to go out and buy one especially), so I've adjusted the quantities down to be enough for a single large tart.  Also I find adding the liquid all at once can be dangerous; the weather (yes, really), specifically the ambient temperature and humidity, will change how much liquid it can soak up, so go by eye.

A non-stick metal flan tin with a removable push-out base gives the best results - the best I've found is from Lakeland.  That said, ceramic flan dishes are easier to come by, a good deal cheaper and will do the job perfectly adequately.

* I include the French title  for you budding pastry chefs, since the English translation provides insufficient distinction from another kind of sweet pastry known as pâte sablée that is crumblier and uses ground almonds.

Ingredients

100g butter

80g icing sugar

pinch of salt

200g plain flour

2 medium egg yolks

1 tbsp milk or water

Method

Cream together the butter, sugar and salt.  Rub in the flour and egg yolks until it looks like coarse breadcrumbs.  Then add half the cold milk or water.  Pat and gently work together to form a ball of dough - add the rest of the liquid if you need to.  Lightly flour and push, pat and squeeze into shape (trying to do this with the minimum of movement to keep the pastry flaky and short).  Roll the pastry in a large, short fat sausage shape, wrap in cling-film and place in the fridge for at least an hour.

Once chilled and hard, slice off approx. 5mm thick slices.  Place them in and around the bottom and side of the tart tin - fit them together like a jigsaw and then push the pieces together, level out, then tidy up the sides by pushing with your thumb.  Prick well with a fork and then put it in the freezer for an hour (alternatively wrap the whole thing in cling-film and leave it in there for up to a month).

Take out of the freezer, put it on a baking tray (easier to get in and out of the oven) and put straight in the oven to bake blind for 15 minutes at 180C (160C if fan-assisted).  Baking blind (i.e. with no filling) is often done by putting a layer of grease-proof paper over the tart and filling it with dried beans to stop the pastry from rising up when cooking.  If you cook it straight from frozen, however, you can often get away without doing this.