This foolproof recipe allows you to make flaky shortcrust pastry in seconds by using a food processor. Sweet, savory, and whole-wheat variations included!
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For years, I was wary of making pie crusts from scratch. Everything about the process annoyed me: my attempted crusts would be too dry or too wet, they would crack badly when I rolled them out or upon baking, or they would turn out dry or tasteless—never flaky and delightfully buttery—no matter the amount of butter I used.
Part of it was inexperience: I’d never properly learned to make shortcrust pastry, so I didn’t know what to look for. No matter how many recipes I tested, (which all repeated the same advice over and over again—don’t cut out the butter too small, don’t overwork the dough, let it rest), it seemed like I couldn’t master the task. I would’ve gladly resorted to buying pre-made pie dough, except I couldn’t find 100% butter pastry where I live. So, for the longest time, I didn’t make pies at all. A tragedy, right?
A few years ago, I decided I’d tackle the task once and for all. If I’d mastered finicky things such as macarons and éclairs, surely I could make simple, humble pie dough, right? I went back to my reference books and truly applied myself to the task. I took notes of what worked best for me and tweaked my recipe until I got it down to a science. Now, I can make it with my eyes closed, and the recipe never fails. Ever.
But let’s start at the base: what is shortcrust pastry, exactly? You can use different types of dough to make pies, but shortcrust pastry, also called short pastry or pâte brisée, is probably the most versatile. You can use shortcrust pastry to make both savory and sweet pies and tarts: it’s a supple dough you can roll out to line pie plates and flute to create pretty edges, fold up and over fillings to create free-form galettes, or cut out to weave lattice patterns.
Basic pie dough uses flour, butter, and water at an approximate 3:2:1 ratio. Shortcrust pastry also includes an egg, which makes the dough more supple and easier to roll out. Most recipes will instruct you to keep large pieces of butter in the dough (pea-sized, or even larger), which produces the flakiest pastry. In my experience, this produces a dough that’s more fragile, stickier, and harder to work with. I prefer blending the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs, which creates a sturdier dough that’s still super flaky but holds any and all kinds of fillings well, including juicy fruity ones.
A food processor allows you to control the shortcrust-making process, giving you a consistent result, every time. It also considerably shortcuts your way to homemade pie dough. My recipe produces perfect shortcrust pastry in less than a minute. Really! I’ve carefully timed how long you should run the food processor at each step, providing the exact time in seconds. This recipe will never fail you: I now routinely make this shortcrust pastry with my son, allowing him to count the seconds in between the steps, and it works, every time.
Learning how to make shortcrust pastry in the food processor is also a great way to familiarize yourself with the looks and texture of “proper” pastry. Making shortcrust pastry by hand introduces so many uncertainties: the result will vary according to the temperature of your hands, that of your working surface, the tool you’re using, and so on. Because a food processor allows you to produce consistent results, you’ll see and feel the pastry as it should be. In time, you’ll be able to go back to the hand method if you want to, and enjoy that relaxing feeling you get when you make things from scratch.
My shortcrust pastry recipe includes options to make whole-wheat crusts—great for savory galettes and quiches—and sweet crusts, for desserts. It has now been my go-to crust for years, and it never fails me. If you’ve been shying away from making pie crusts from scratch, or unsatisfied with the recipe(s) you currently use, I hope you’ll give my shortcrust pastry a try. It will surely make you more confident in the pies you make—and happier with the results!
This recipe was previously published in my cookbook French Appetizers, in which you’ll find many delicious ways to make the most of this shortcrust pastry. Learn more about French Appetizers, or buy your copy now!
Tell me how you liked it! Leave a comment or take a picture and tag it with @foodnouveau on Instagram.
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Author: Marie Asselin
good information, turned out so good.thanks
Thank you Kaye! Happy the pastry turned out great for you.
So good! Recipe made 400 g pastry for moi, I have frozen half. I rolled out very thinly four oblong shapes sized to fit the four pockets of my ancient jaffle maker, 50 g each, filled with leftover lamb casserole, took 20 mins to cook. Edges browned nicely, but even the central areas were properly cooked although pale. Texture to die for, melt in mouth. Thank you for the research and testing, this is a total winner and I learned a lot about pastry making!)
I’m so excited you used the pastry in a jaffle maker! How fun! The pastries filled with lamb casserole must have been so tasty. Thanks for the inspiration! 😍
Want to try this recipe soon, just have a question… when you say process for ? Number of seconds… what number ( level) do you use? My Braun has levels 1 – 15.
TIA
Hey Marlene! My food processor has just an “on/off” feature, no power levels, so I’d assume it uses maximum power at all times. You want everything to mix together very quickly so using maximum power makes sense. Try it at level 15 on your Braun, I’m pretty sure it’ll be perfect! (Let me know how it goes!)
This is now my go to recipe for making pastry dough. I have always shied away from pastry as it would be too sticky or to dry and rolling it out after refrigerating was always a disaster, having to try and fix cracks and get it to sit in the dish without splitting aargh, always used ready made until I spotted this recipe. It is absolutely perfect EVERY time – thanks so much for sharing :)
It’s such a joy to read this message Debbie! I was in the same situation as you were, soooo frustrated with my shortcrust-making skills. This is exactly why I developed this recipe! How cool is it to be able to take for granted that your pie crusts will always come up perfectly?? 🤩
Thank you for sharing, like Denise Rosey, I too have forever laboured making handmade pastry with inconsistent results.
I made the whole wheat version using the food processor method for a savory pie and it turned out just excellent.
Thank you again.
Thanks so much for taking the time to write this comment Rita. It made me so happy to read it! I have a feeling you’ll be baking many more sweet and savory pies over this holiday season 😉
Thank you so very much for explaining how to make pastry. I had been unsuccessful for 50 years ha. I just made the most delicious mince pies . I can’t wait to teach my grandchildren.
This message warms my heart Jan! I’m so happy that my recipe helped you out of that shortcrust pastry-making rut. Here’s to many delightful pies to come!
Perfect shortcrust pastry at last! For years, decades actually, I’ve laboured diligently making homemade shortcrust pastry but too often it was too flaky & impossible to keep intact or it was hard as flint. Fed up with unpredictable results, I settled on buying the best ready rolled sc available. Nice but very expensive. Your recipe is simple, easy to follow & produces a truly wonderful pastry. Thank you.
Denise, comments like yours are why I keep doing what I do! Thank you for taking the time to write! 🤗 This shortcrust was life-changing for me and I’m happy and excited to learn it was for you, too. I’d be curious to know what pies and tarts you make with it, feel free to report back!
Question. On the whole-wheat variation, is it 2/3 all-time purpose flour and 1/3 whole-wheat, or vice versa? This is not clear. Please reply. Thank you.
Hi Grace! You got it right, it’s 2/3 all-purpose and 1/3 whole wheat. I’m sorry if this wasn’t clear enough in the recipe. I’ll edit to make sure it is!
This foolproof recipe was awesome! It made it so easy and turned out perfect. This recipe is a keeper! Have a great day.
Thanks Heidy! Happy you loved it as much as I do!
So flaky and delicious. What I like the most is how easy and fast it was to make it.
Before I came up with this foolproof version of shortcrust pastry, making pastry from scratch had always been a project for me! This means I *never* made it from scratch. This pastry changed everything! Happy it’s being useful and helpful to you too.