Tart Crust

Tuesday, July 14, 2020

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When I'm looking to cook something new I always look to see who does it the best. When it comes to making a crust for a pie or a tart, well the French win hands down. The French are passionate about their pastries and their crusts. From the flour to the butter they have a love, and snub, for their ingredients that rivals any known culture. This is a French style pie crust known as pâte brisée recipe. It is the perfect crust for a sweet tart or a savory quiche. The crust will be flakey and buttery. There are a couple of secrets to making this recipe, so read the recipe a couple of times and make sure to plan accordingly when making it for a tart or quiche. First use bread flour. Pastry chefs like to use bread flour or all-purpose flour because yields for consistant results. Bread flour used to be hard to find, in the local grocery stores, but know it's pretty common. As with any dough recipe, always make a little more dough. It's a lot easier to take away plus most times you will a little more plug any wholes that happen when your crust in the pan. Lastly, you want to keep things cold. You will see there is a lot time spent chilling things down, working the ingredients and then cooling it down it again. This helps, because of the amount of butter, to handle the dough and to help it keep its shape. You will also see the use of pie weights. Feel free to purchase some though for years I simply reused a bag of dried pinto beans until I justified buy my own pie weights.

Ingredients

2 cups bread flour

1 cup unsalted butter, chilled

1 tsp. Kosher salt

¼ cup water, chilled

Instructions

Cube the butter in ¼ cubes.

In a mixing bowl, place the paddle, flour, salt and cubed salt and chilled in the freezer for 15 - 20 minutes.

Remove the mixing bowl in the freezer and blend the ingredients on low until the butter has incorporated into the flour to make crumbs. Think the consistance of sand.

Add the chilled water and continue to mix until the dough has formed a smooth ball. You will think this is not enough water. Be patient, the ball will form.

Once the ball has form, remove the dough from the mixing bowl and form into a disc about a 1" thick.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chilled for at least 4 hours.

Remove the disc from the refrigerator, unwrap and roll out into a ⅛" circle.

Fold the dough onto itself and then place inside your tart pan.

Unfold the dough in the tart pan and form the wall. Once the dough has been 90% form, use a floured glass and press the wall in the pan to form a smooth inside and to make sure the dough has pressed into the edges of the pan.

Refrigerate the crust uncovered for at least one hour.

This is point at which you have a pie crust. If you need to blind bake for a quiche or something with a liquidy filling continue to the next step.

Preheat oven to 400°. Place pie weights on dough. I line the pan with alumnimum foil or parchment paper and then fill with dry beans. Bake for 20 minutes; Remove pie weights and then cook for another 5 minutes.