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.
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.
3) Add the butter into the food processor (which already has flour, sugar and salt combined from step 1)
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.
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:
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.
12) Place pie weights into the shell. In my case, I used rice and quinoa.
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!
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.
- 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
Using food processor, pulse the flour, sugar, salt to combine thoroughly.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Bake the tart shell for 15 minutes. Remove from oven, lift the foil with weights out of the pan.
Continue baking the tart shell without weights and aluminum foil for 15 minutes, until golden brown color. Let it cool.
The recipe uses 9.5 inch tart pan.
I’ve used this recipe about a dozen times and it turns out perfect every time! Thank you so much for this wonderful recipe.
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
Yes, I used all-purpose flour.
Hi, is the flour SR, or Plain???
Thanks
Julie
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
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/
Will this recipe make enough dough to fit a 10.5″ tart pan?
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.
Hi Julia can u give me the savory tart recipe for making quiche. I would love hearing from you. Thanks a lot.
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/
Is there a substitute for heavy cream in this recipient? Would regular milk, almond milk or coconut milk work?
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.
Some tart pans have a removable bottom so you lift the bottom up and the sides come away from it.