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Pasta Chicken

How to make sweet tart crust from scratch

Published: Sep 02, 2012 | 18 Comments

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This is my go-to tart crust recipe. I’ve been making a lot of tarts lately (both sweet and savory), and wanted to share the basic recipe how to make a slightly sweet and very flaky tart crust from scratch that can serve as a base for various fruit tarts and tartlets.  Use 9.5 inch tart pan.

sweet tart crust

This tart dough recipe produces an amazingly flaky and light crust, so please follow it closely: I’ll be describing it in a lot of detail, but making a tart crust is super easy once you understand how it works.

This recipe uses 9.5 inch tart pan.

Tart crust ingredients

Precise measurements are important for making tart crust:

  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 10 tablespoons butter cold unsalted
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 1 tablespoon heavy cream
  • 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

How to make tart crust

1) Using food processor, pulse the flour, sugar, salt to combine thoroughly.

2)  Cut cold butter into small cubes.

chopped butter for tart crust

3) Add the butter into the food processor (which already has flour, sugar and salt combined from step 1)

chopped butter in food processor for tart crust

4) Pulse this mixtures in the food processor until the consistency becomes that of a coarse meal.

5) In a small cup, combine the egg yolk, heavy cream and vanilla and stir well together. Add the egg mixture to the food processor and pulse to combine.

Making tart crust dough in food processor

tart crust dough

6) Shape the dough into a disk on a foil. I usually do it with my hands and fingers pushing the dough away from its center into a round shape, pressing into the foil. Use a very small amount of flour to dust working surface to avoid dough clinging to the foil. I occasionally bring the tart pan over the tart dough to make sure the round I am making is larger in diameter than a well of my tart pan.

7) Grease the 9.5 inch tart pan. Then, I take the foil and and ease the round into a tart pan, patting it firmly into the bottom and up the sides. Carefully remove the foil:

How to make tart crust from scratch: sweet and flaky

8) If some pieces of crust fall off, just gently press them back. If your foil gets stuck to the dough, don’t remove it and refrigerate the tart shell. After your crust has been refrigerated for at least an hour, you will be able to remove foil easily.

9) Extend the dough slightly above the rim to compensate for any shrinkage during baking.

10) Place the tart pan with the dough in the refrigerator for at least an hour. Cover tart pan with plastic.

11) Preheat oven to 400 F. Line the cold tart shell with a sheet of aluminum oil, with edges hanging over the sides of the tart pan.

adding foil on top of tart crust

adding aluminum foil on top of sweet tart

12) Place pie weights into the shell. In my case, I used rice and quinoa.

adding weights on top of tart crust

13) Bake the tart shell for 15 minutes. Remove from oven, lift the foil with weights out of the pan.

14) Continue baking the tart shell without weights and aluminum foil for 15 minutes, until golden brown color. Let it cool.

Your tart crust is ready!

How to use tart shell

  • You can use this pre-baked tart shell as a base for various tart fillings where the tart crust is pre-baked in advance (as described above), and the filling is prepared separately, as well, and then just added into the pre-baked tart shell, such as in this Blueberry Tart recipe.
  • For other recipes, you will pre-bake this tart shell only for the first 15 minutes, and then you will add a filling and continue baking the tart shell with the filling already in it – as in this breakfast tart. Enjoy, experiment, and I’d love to hear how it turns out for you!
5 from 3 votes
how to make sweet tart crust
Print
How to Make Sweet Tart Crust
Prep Time
20 mins
Cook Time
30 mins
Total Time
50 mins
 

The basic recipe: how to make a slightly sweet and very flaky tart crust from scratch.  The recipe uses 9.5 inch tart pan.  This tart shell can serve as a base for various fruit tarts and tartlets.

Course: Dessert
Cuisine: French
Servings: 12 people
Calories: 170 kcal
Author: Julia
Ingredients
  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 10 tablespoons butter cold unsalted
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 1 tablespoon heavy cream
  • 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
  1. Using food processor, pulse the flour, sugar, salt to combine thoroughly.

  2. Cut cold butter into small cubes. Add the butter into the food processor (which already has flour, sugar and salt combined from step 1) and pulse until the consistency becomes that of a coarse meal.

  3. In a small cup, combine the egg yolk, heavy cream and vanilla and stir well together. Add the egg mixture to the food processor and pulse to combine.

  4. Shape the dough into a disk on a foil. I usually do it with my hands and fingers pushing the dough away from its center into a round shape, pressing into the foil. Use a very small amount of flour to dust working surface to avoid dough clinging to the foil. I occasionally bring the tart pan over the tart dough to make sure the round I am making is larger in diameter than a well of my tart pan.

  5. Grease the tart pan. Then, I take the foil and and ease the round into a tart pan, patting it firmly into the bottom and up the sides. Carefully remove the foil. If some pieces of crust fall off, just gently press them back. If your foil gets stuck to the dough, don’t remove it and refrigerate the tart shell as described in step 6. After your crust has been refrigerated for at least an hour, you will be able to remove foil easily.

  6. Extend the dough slightly above the rim to compensate for any shrinkage during baking. Place the tart pan with the dough in the refrigerator for at least an hour. Cover tart pan with plastic.

  7. Preheat oven to 400 F. Line the cold tart shell with a sheet of aluminum oil, with edges hanging over the sides of the tart pan. Place pie weights into the shell. In my case, I used rice and quinoa.

  8. Bake the tart shell for 15 minutes. Remove from oven, lift the foil with weights out of the pan.

  9. Continue baking the tart shell without weights and aluminum foil for 15 minutes, until golden brown color. Let it cool.

Recipe Notes

The recipe uses 9.5 inch tart pan.

Nutrition Facts
How to Make Sweet Tart Crust
Amount Per Serving
Calories 170 Calories from Fat 90
% Daily Value*
Fat 10g15%
Saturated Fat 6g38%
Cholesterol 59mg20%
Sodium 109mg5%
Potassium 19mg1%
Carbohydrates 16g5%
Sugar 4g4%
Protein 2g4%
Vitamin A 355IU7%
Calcium 9mg1%
Iron 0.8mg4%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Filed Under: Baking, Dessert, Recipe, Sweet Tarts Published: Sep 02, 2012 18 Comments

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Comments

  1. S

    Dec 10, 2020 at 5:30 pm

    Used this recipe for a Thanksgiving pecan tart. It was super tasty. Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe.

    Reply
    • Julia

      Dec 11, 2020 at 1:25 am

      You’re very welcome. Glad you found the recipe useful.

      Reply
  2. J.R. Rodman

    Jun 30, 2019 at 2:26 pm

    Making this now, and glad I looked specifically for the info on prebaking and the blackberry-almond tart. In the tart crust section it states to bake the crust blind for only the first 15 minutes if baking again with filling. But the blackberry tart comment section goes on to advise baking for the entire 30 minutes (15 with weights and another 15 without weights, then coll, fill and bake again for an additional 30-40 minutes.

    Reply
    • Julia

      Jul 22, 2019 at 2:56 pm

      If you are making blackberry almond tart I would prebake the tart shell for the entire 30 minutes, then bake it again (with the blackberry filling) for another 30 minutes.

      Reply
  3. Amy

    Mar 29, 2019 at 5:25 pm

    I’ve used this recipe about a dozen times and it turns out perfect every time! Thank you so much for this wonderful recipe.

    Reply
    • Julia

      Jun 03, 2019 at 6:17 pm

      I am so glad you found this recipe useful! Thank you so much for stopping by and sharing your comment!

      Reply
  4. Patty Sylvester

    Dec 08, 2018 at 5:57 pm

    Hi, Do you use Self Rising Flour or All Purpose? I’m assuming All Purpose, but then that is what usually gets me into trouble. LOL
    Thanks

    Reply
    • Julia

      Dec 08, 2018 at 11:01 pm

      Yes, I used all-purpose flour.

      Reply
  5. Julie

    Oct 28, 2018 at 10:46 pm

    Hi, is the flour SR, or Plain???

    Thanks
    Julie

    Reply
  6. Marwa

    May 05, 2018 at 1:10 pm

    So, I cooked the dough for 15 min n removed the foul and wants to continue cooking it, should I do with the filling or not? I mean if the filling needs to be cooked a bit

    Reply
    • Julia

      May 05, 2018 at 1:59 pm

      You bake the tart shell with the weights in it for 15 minutes, then you remove the tart pan from the oven, remove the foil with the weights from the tart shell, and bake the tart shell without the foil and the weights for 15 more minutes. Total baking time is 30 minutes. Only then do you add the filling that you want and bake more. Here is one of the recipes with the filling that I used with this tart shell: https://juliasalbum.com/blackberry-tart-recipe/

      Reply
  7. Mindy

    Feb 28, 2018 at 8:02 am

    Will this recipe make enough dough to fit a 10.5″ tart pan?

    Reply
    • Julia

      Mar 01, 2018 at 5:27 pm

      I used a 9.5 inch tart pan, so the amount of dough in this recipe might not be enough to fit a 10.5 inch tart pan.

      Reply
  8. Nada

    Jan 30, 2018 at 7:44 am

    Hi Julia can u give me the savory tart recipe for making quiche. I would love hearing from you. Thanks a lot.

    Reply
    • Julia

      Feb 25, 2018 at 1:36 pm

      Yes, I have the recipe for savory tart on my site. Here it is: https://juliasalbum.com/how-to-make-savory-tart-crust-from-scratch-tart-dough-recipe/

      Reply
  9. Corena Leone

    May 22, 2017 at 5:14 pm

    Is there a substitute for heavy cream in this recipient? Would regular milk, almond milk or coconut milk work?

    Reply
  10. Rae

    Feb 13, 2016 at 3:24 pm

    Dumb question: In all the pictures I see, the tart is not in the pan. Any instructions on how to get it out without breaking it? I assume you have to remove it from the pan before filling it.

    Reply
    • Amanda Contento

      Feb 27, 2017 at 12:15 am

      Some tart pans have a removable bottom so you lift the bottom up and the sides come away from it.

      Reply

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