How to make French tart pastry (Pâte Sablée), easy step by step guide on making this sweet, buttery crisp tart shell. A classic famous sweet pastry dough recipe.
What a truly wonderful pastry recipe this is! Here, we have a classic French pastry recipe, which is meltingly crisp and buttery sweet, also known as pâte sablée.
You may think from its fancy name it must be a hard recipe, but it is actually one of the easiest pastry recipes there is. It's often used for desserts such as French Fruit Tart, and the beauty of it is that you can make this a few days ahead and it will keep crisp and in perfect condition, so long as you store it in an air tight container or the freezer.
What is Sweet French Pastry or pâte sablée
From the French pâte meaning dough and sabler, meaning “to sand,” pâte sablée has a buttery-sweet melt-in-the-mouth texture. This delicious sweet pastry dough is a common in French pastries, and can also be referred to as 'sand' pastry.
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Pâte sablée dough is made by creaming butter, powdered sugar, and egg together before combining the dry ingredients. It's one of the easiest pastry recipes I use, and most definitely one you should keep!
The pastry texture is smooth and buttery. Because we roll it so thinly, it is quite a delicate tart shell, so you do need to take extra care when storing it. (I make a couple in one go and store them in plastic cake boxes).
For this recipe, I have used perforated tart baking pans. If you enjoy pastry recipes, it's worth investing in one or two of these pans. Simply because they are a game-changer! Because of the perforations, you get a better heat distribution on the underside, so the base is always crisp and cooked through, plus there's no need to blind bake, particularly if you're cooking something with liquid in like an egg custard tart or a quiche.
I bought 2 large ones and a smaller one from Amazon, so you can see here what perforated baking pans look like if you want to get some too. Oh, and there's no need to grease them either!
We have a few other great pastry tutorials, one for Shortcrust Pastry and another for Flaky Pastry, so if you're looking to improve your pastry skills, be sure to give them a go too!
Ingredients
For the vanilla sablé tart shell:
Total Time To Make: 10 minutes plus 40 minutes chilling plus 25 minutes baking
80 grams (1⁄2 cup + 2 tablespoons) confectioners’ sugar
130 grams (9 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg
1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
190 grams (1 1⁄2 cups) all-purpose flour
50 grams (1⁄3 cup + 1 tablespoons) cornstarch
1⁄2 teaspoon salt
Equipment
10 inch perforated tart pan (with a loose bottom)
Parchment paper
As with a lot of classic baking recipes, we always advise you use a set of digital weighing scales to measure out your ingredients to make sure you are precise.
Instructions
Make the sweet pastry
- In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the confectioners’ sugar and butter for 30 seconds on low speed.
2. Add the egg, and mix on medium speed until evenly combined.
3. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cornstarch, and salt. Add to the mixer on low speed, and combine until there are no more dry patches.
4. Finish mixing the dough by hand to ensure it is not over-mixed.
The dough should be smooth and have the consistency of cookie dough.
5. Transfer the dough to a sheet of parchment paper on your work surface and sandwich it with another sheet of parchment paper, flattening it into a 1-inch thick disk.
6. Transfer the dough disk to a baking sheet and refrigerate until firm, around 20 minutes.
7. Generously dust flour on the work surface and rub onto a rolling pin. Remove the dough from the paper and and transfer it to your work surface. Roll the dough out into a circle about 1⁄8 inch (3mm) thick.
To check you have rolled the dough large enough for your tart tin, pop it over the top of the dough to see the size
8. Using your rolling pin, carefully transfer the rolled out dough to your tart tin, being careful not to break it. Drape it over the sides and then lift the pastry gently into the tin.
9. Carefully go around the inside edging of the tin, gently pushing the dough inside. If you do happen to break or tear the pastry, use a little overhang and patch it up, making sure you don't have any cracks at all. Finally trim off any excess dough from the edge. Place in the fridge for 20 minutes to firm up.
You really need to make sure you allow the pastry to chill first so it doesn’t shrink during baking.
10. While the tart shell is chilling, preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) for conventional or 325°F (160°C) for convection.
11. Bake the tart on the center rack for 20 - 25 minutes, until it’s a light golden brown.
This tart dough won’t rise very much, so you don’t need to blind-bake the tart shell in advance.
12. When ready, remove the tart shell by placing a cup or glass underneath and carefully sliding the outside tart ring in a downwards position. if you think some of the pastry is stuck to the sides, gently loosen using a small knife.
13. Transfer to a cooling rack and remove the base of the tart tin. Allow the tart case to completely cool at room temperature.
We'd love to hear from you and what you thought of our recipe. Did you make any changes or add some other ingredients? Let us know in the comments below. Thanks for reading and happy cooking!
See how thin and crisp the base of the tart shell is. It's very delicate so be careful if you're going to look at the underside!
Recipe Card
How To Make French Pastry (Pâte Sablée)
How to make French tart pastry(Pâte Sablée), easy step by step guide on making this sweet, buttery crisp tart shell. A classic famous sweet pastry dough recipe
Ingredients
- 80 grams or 1⁄2 cup + 2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
- 130 grams or 9 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
- 190 grams or 1 1⁄2 cups all-purpose flour
- 50 grams or 1⁄3 cup + 1 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the confectioners’ sugar and butter for 30 seconds on low speed.
- Add the egg, and mix on medium speed until evenly combined.
- In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cornstarch, and salt. Add to the mixer on low speed, and combine until there are no more dry patches.
- Finish mixing the dough by hand to ensure it is not over-mixed.
- Transfer the dough to a sheet of parchment paper on your work surface and sandwich it with another sheet of parchment paper, flattening it into a 1-inch thick disk.
- Transfer the dough disk to a baking sheet and refrigerate until firm, around 20 minutes.
- Generously dust flour on the work surface and rub onto a rolling pin. Remove the dough from the paper and transfer it to your work surface. Roll the dough out into a circle about 1⁄8 inch (3mm) thick.
- Using your rolling pin, carefully transfer the rolled-out dough to your tart tin, being careful not to break it. Drape it over the sides and then lift the pastry gently into the tin.
- Carefully go around the inside edging of the tin, gently pushing the dough inside. If you do happen to break or tear the pastry, use a little overhang and patch it up, making sure you don't have any cracks at all. Finally, trim off any excess dough from the edge. Place in the fridge for 20 minutes to firm up.
- While the tart shell is chilling, preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) for conventional or 325°F (160°C) for convection.
- Bake the tart on the center rack for 20 - 25 minutes, until it’s a light golden brown.
- When ready, remove the tart shell by placing a cup or glass underneath and carefully sliding the outside tart ring in a downwards position. if you think some of the pastry is stuck to the sides, gently loosen using a small knife.
- Transfer to a cooling rack and remove the base of the tart tin. Allow the tart case to completely cool at room temperature.
Notes
You don't need to bake blind this tart shell as the dough won't rise very much if at all during baking.
Recommended Products
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.
-
KitchenAid KSM150PSER Artisan Tilt-Head Stand Mixer with Pouring Shield, 5-Quart, Empire Red -
Wilton Excelle Elite 3-Tier Cooling Rack for Cookies, Cakes and More
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Non-stick Quiche Pan, 8 Inch Perforated Pizza Flan Pan with Removable Loose Bottom, Carbon Steel Round Tart Pan, Fluted Perforated Pie Tray Bakeware Pan for Pizza, Cakes, Cheese, Desserts
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 8 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 221Total Fat: 14gSaturated Fat: 8gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 5gCholesterol: 58mgSodium: 143mgCarbohydrates: 21gFiber: 1gSugar: 2gProtein: 3g
Nutrition information isn’t always accurate
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