How to make Tart Dough (Short Dough)
Some people use ‘Pate Sucree,’ also known as sugar dough for tart shell.
Some people use short dough for their tart shell.
This recipe is a short dough recipe that you can easily make.
INGREDIENTS & EQUIPMENTS
Equipments
4-inch individual tart pans
Stand mixer
Rolling pin
Ingredients for Tart Dough – Makes 6 4-inch shell
8 Tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg yolk
1 1/2 cups cake flour, sifted,
HOW TO MAKE
Making the Tart Dough
1. In a stand mixer (A hand mixer will work fine as well.) attach the paddle attachment, and add the butter, sugar, and vanilla extract.
2. Mix them on medium speed until you reach the cream stage. Scrape down the bowl with a rubber spatula while mixing. Always!
3. Add the egg yolk and blend until smooth about 1 or 2 minutes.
4. Add the cake flour all at once, and mix on low speed until just blended.
Chilling the Dough
5. The dough will be very crumbly as you see on the photo. Just gently press the dough into a disk with your hand. Be careful not to knead the dough as it can become tough.
6. Wrap the dough tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 20 to 30 minutes.
If you’re making a fruit tart, this will the perfect time for you to make your pastry cream.
7. Since I am making 6 small tart shells, divide dough into 6 equal disks.
* Some of you mentioned that the dough falls apart when you try to roll right after you take out of refrigerator. Try this way to prevent that – Gently knead the tart dough (spread the dough with your hand) until it’s soft enough to roll. This should work.
8. Flour the work surface, scatter a little flour over the top of the dough, and roll it out
into even rounds about 2 inches larger in diameter than your tart pan.
Transferring & Forming
9. To transfer the dough to the tart pan, fold it loosely around the rolling pin, and gently lift and position it over the pan. (No need to grease the pan – tart shells will come out
easily.
10. Gently press down to the inner edge and trip the dough by using your fingertips to press the dough against the sides and bottom of the pan. Put them back in a refrigerator for another 10 to 15 minutes before blind baking. Turn the oven to 360 F.
Blind Baking
11. Poke holes in the bottom and sides of the dough by using a fork. This will help the dough from puffing up as it bakes.
12. Line with parchment paper or aluminum foil in circle shape.
13. Add enough pie weights (Like most of people, I do not have this special tools, so I used dry beans. Dry beans or rice works just as well.)
14. About 8 – 10 minutes until the dough is just set and the edges look dry. (I think I over baked a little bit, but it was totally fine – I love crispy tart shell!)
Cooling
15. Remove the pan from the oven and remove dry beans.
16. Remove parchment papers.
17. Just push up the bottom of tart pan and you can get the shell out easily.
18. Cool them on the wire rack.
ALEXA’S TIPS
1. Do not skip the step of chilling the tart dough or you may have a difficult time rolling it out.
2. To patch a hole while you are transferring the dough, gently fill the hole with a small piece from the outer edge and a little bit of water.
3. I personally don’t prefer to freeze doughs or cakes. However, you can freeze tart dough up to 2 months for your convenience. Just defrost it in a refrigerator over night before you form and bake it.
I have made tart as written in the recipe but the tarts crusts dried, would you please let me know why this happened.
Thank you
Mariam
Hello Mariam,
There could be many different reasons that baking problems occur. I am not sure when your tart crusts dried, so I will guess in a couple of different ways.
If tart dough was not wrapped tightly, it can be dried while it’s chilling. If wrong type of ingredients (not enough fat or liquid, wrong type of flour) were used for making tart dough, it can be dried. If tart dough was mixed to long or rolled too think, or tart shell was over baked, tart shell can be dried out or shrink. The key point of making a good tart dough is not mixing too long.
Weather or altitude where you live could be a reason, too. This requires us (bakers) to adjust baking time, temperature, and/or sometimes ingredients as well. For example, I used to live on a high altitude / desert weather area and I had to add a little more liquid to original recipes when I make dough.
Hope this could give you some ideas to find the reason and let me know if you have further questions.
okay so my sister and i made the tart shells. and it stiffened and was hard to roll after the fridge.
Maya,
I’m sorry it didn’t quite work out. It will fall apart when you roll right after the refrigerating step – it often happens to me, too. The way that I found was gently warming it up by kneading dough until it’s soft enough to roll – it won’t fell apart. Remember to re-refrigerate after you form into the tart shells before baking. Try it and let me know – I love this recipe and this is what I have used since I discovered.
Hi Alexa,
My mini tart pans don’t have the disk at the bottom that lets you pop the shell out.
What would you recommend inorder to get them out with out breaking them?
Kelsey, I think I know what you are talking about – really small tart pans. And, yes, they are hard to get them out.
I recommend you to grease it really really well with butter. Also cut parchment paper and place it on the bottom of shell (small circle or square) before you form it. Bottom part is really hard to get it once it’s baked. When they are baked, cool them long enough, then lift the tart shell up with a tip of small knife. I hope this helped!
I have found your step-by-step instructions invaluable! Found your site via google when searching for mini tarts. I had to make them for the first time so really did appreciate all your tips. Thank you.
Heather, I am glad this could help you. Also, I have found the dough might get dry and crumbled when you took out to roll after chilling step – it will depends on the weather condition of your location. Just gently spread out with your hand, roll out, and cut or form. The dough will get warm and sticky – so make sure you flour or powder sugar your counter top well. Remember to put them back (formed tart dough) in a refrigerator for another 10 to 15 minutes before blind baking. Happy baking!
Is the dough big enough for a bigger tart pan? i wanna make a big fruit tart, so…