Recipe No 562

Pâte brisée

This versatile pastry is traditionally used in pies and quiches. It can be used as a substitute to the deliciously simple short crust pastry.
Difficulty
very easy
Yield
6–8 serves • 500 g
Metric Imperial

Processes

  • Pastry flour (2 cups)
    250 g
  • Butter, cubed and chilled
    205 g
  • Salt (1 tsp)
    3 g
  1. 01
    Combine in the bowl of a stand mixer.
  2. 02
    Place to the fridge along with the paddle attachment and chill, about .
  3. 03
    Mix on low to get coarse crumb texture, about .

  • Iced water
    55 g
  1. 04
    Add to bowl and mix until dough is fully combined and smooth, about .
  2. 05
    Remove dough from bowl and place on a square of baking paper. Form into smooth ball then flatten to a disc 1½" / 3.8 cm or less in height.
  3. 06
    Wrap with plastic and refrigerate for at least . (If using, place your marble pastry board and rolling pin in the freezer or fridge, too.)

  • Flour, plain
    as needed
  1. 07
    Lightly flour a work surface and roll out dough to 3 mm / ⅛".
  2. 08
    Mould dough into deep 8" / 20.3 cm diameter springform pan or 2 shallow pie shells.
  3. 09
    Refrigerate uncovered for at least . (If holding longer in the fridge, cover with cling film after .)
  4. 10
    Line with scrunched-up baking paper and fill with weights and blind bake at 200°C / 390°F for .
  5. 11
    Remove weights and bake another .

Notes

Refrigerating the dough in step 06 helps to prevent it from shrinking and pulling away from the pan when baked. If you don’t care about that, this step is optional.

After molding the dough in step 09, you can hold this in the fridge overnight. Cover with plastic wrap after .

_Important_ If you are attempting this in warm weather (summertime in Australia, for instance), you’ll need to take extra precautions. Really. When rolling out the dough, it is easy for it to warm up from the heat of the bench and the ambient air temperature. This will make the dough very soft and extremely difficult to work with. There are a couple of things you can do to prevent this. One of the best is to use a marble pastry board; get one that will fit in your fridge or freezer. Put this in the freezer at the same time as the dough goes in the fridge. You can also use a marble rolling pin, also placed in the freezer. Regardless of the type of rolling pin you use, put it in the freezer. Don’t have a marble pastry board and don’t want to buy one? Try a cookie sheet or similar. It will have a much lesser thermal mass and so it will equilibrate with room temperature quicker than marble, but if you work quickly it will suffice. We use an All-Clad cookie sheet from the freezer and placed on a damp kitchen towel from the fridge.