Pie season is coming up quick, so here in the Chefsteps kitchen we spent a couple days playing around with sweet pie crust recipes to accompany a few new pies we want to make.
Traditionally Pâte Sucrée is used for tarts and pies that have a less-than-sweet filling,
like lemon curd, dark chocolate ganache, or a tart berry compote.
We baked all of the following recipes at 325˚f for 12 minutes covered, and 8 minutes uncovered (Covering helps keep the shape of the crust during the initial baking). This bake time will change depending on size of crust and desired outcome, but for smaller tart shells this is a good starting point.
These four basic recipes take slightly different approaches, but are all the same in procedure:
1. Mix room temperature butter and sugar in a stand mixer until light and fluffy
2. Slowly add room temperature eggs to butter and mix to emulsify
3. Add dry ingredients to egg and butter and mix until just combined
4. Chill dough for at least 2 hours, overnight preferably.
Here are the recipes and our thoughts on each of them:
1. Recipe from Chef Ellie Pegler, Marea NYC
Pastry flour 400g
Granulated sugar 152g
Butter, soft 148g
Yolks 132g
Salt 2g
Notes: Good basic recipe, however Ben feels that it tastes too eggy. This dough is most similar to a shortbread.
V.2 Recipe from Ben Johnson
Pastry Flour 400g
Powder Sugar 180g
Corn Starch 16g
Butter, soft 240g
Eggs, mixed 56g
Salt 3g
Notes: Our favorite and most attractive crust so far. Smoothest texture and bakes clean (minimal flaking around edges). Good flavor and salt level. Crust has a crispy crumble and breaks apart neatly in your mouth when eaten.
V.3 Recipe from Le Cordon Bleu cookbook
Pastry Flour 400g
Powder Sugar 100g
Butter, soft 250g
Eggs, mixed 100g
Salt 2g
Notes: A good basic recipe to build on. Standard flavor and light crumble.
More flaky than our favorite, but is still a good versatile recipe.
V.4 Recipe from Bouchon Bakery Cookbook, Thomas Keller
Pastry Flour 375g
Powder Sugar 140g
Almond Flour 47g
Butter, Soft 225g
Eggs, mixed 56g
Notes: Another solid basic recipe, but the team agrees that it needs salt. Also, almond flour might be an unnecessary addition here. It is noticeable but it does not clearly improve the texture or flavor by far. Crust has a supple crispiness to it that breaks apart smoothly when eaten.
Overall:
We found these recipes to be very similar with only subtle differences in texture and flavor. Personal preference is the only real dictator of what we dub "better" or "worse" when it comes to these crusts.
Try these recipes for yourself and let us know your thoughts.
Pie season is coming! Be prepared...
Below are pictures of our favorite dough, Ben Johnson's recipe.
Laying the dough into the metal tart shell
Here is a close up of the smooth consistency of the dough
that we found favorable
Cutting excess dough away from the tart
The finished product
Smooth crust, crispy crumb. Goodness all around.
Ben's tiny pumpkin pie experiment.
