How to make shortbread dough: 3 best recipes

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Shortcrust pastry is suitable for desserts and savory pies and is prepared with a minimum of ingredients. A life hacker will teach you how to do it in several ways. Bonus - interesting additions.

How to make chopped shortbread dough

This is an intermediate option between shortbread and puff pastry. It is crumbly, but strong, therefore it is suitable as a base for large pies and quiches.

In a recipe, you can add the word “cold” before every ingredient and item, and this should not be neglected. The water should be icy, the oil should be as hard as stone. Bowls, knives and even the board on which you will work with the dough is a good idea to hold in the freezer. Better to move the cutting table away from the battery or open a window.

The secret of shortcrust pastry is in butter. It is thanks to him that the baked goods are crumbly.

All these efforts are made to keep the butter from melting. Because otherwise you will end up with a completely different product.

Ingredients

• 200 g butter;
• 300 g flour;
• a pinch of salt;
• 50-100 ml of water.

Cooking in the classic way

Chop the cold butter into small cubes and place in the freezer for 15 minutes. At this time, sift the flour and salt, sprinkle it on the table or board. Place the butter cubes on top, sprinkle generously with flour and chop the dough with a knife or two.

It is important to touch the oil with your hands as little as possible: body heat will quickly melt it, the consistency will not be what you need.

When the butter and dough combine and turn into small grains, add water little by little, kneading the mass into a plastic ball. Put it in the freezer for 15 minutes. Then roll out the dough, put the filling, for example, and send to the oven.

Cooking in a lazy way

Technological progress does not stand still, why not use it in cooking. You will need the same ingredients and a food processor with blade knives. The butter does not have to be chopped into small cubes: the device will handle it on its own. Throw butter, flour into the bowl and beat. The main thing is not to overdo it, in the end you should get all the same grains.

Add the ice water gradually until the dough starts to form into a ball. Further instructions are the same as in the classic recipe.

Shortcrust pastry can be stored in the freezer for several weeks.

Additives

You can deviate from the basic recipe. Here are some ideas:

1. Place 50-100 g of sugar in the sweet pie dough.
2. Substitute 30 grams of flour for the same amount of cocoa for a chocolate dough.
3. Add up to half a cup of finely chopped nuts.
4. Flavor the mixture with citrus zest or vanilla.

How to make tender shortbread dough

This recipe will produce a more plastic dough that is easy to roll out. Baking from it crumbles less. By the way, in culinary disputes, some confectioners refuse to call minced dough shortbread. They believe that only with the help of such a recipe can you get the classic base for tarts and baskets.

The oil should not be cold, but chilled. It is impossible to explain how one state differs from another. Just remove the food from the freezer one hour before cooking.

Ingredients

• 100 g butter;
• 100 g of sugar (preferably powdered sugar);
• 250 g flour;
• 1 egg (or 2 yolks).

Preparation

It is better to mix the components with a culinary spatula or spoon, and connect your hands only at the last stage, when you need to collect the dough into a ball. Mash butter and sugar, add flour, then an egg.

If you have a food processor, delegate all of these responsibilities to it.

You can chill the dough and then cut it up. You can first give it the desired shape, and then send it to the freezer. It is important that it gets into the oven cold.

How to make curd shortcrust pastry

This dough is less capricious in work than its counterparts without cottage cheese, and less high-calorie, since a fermented milk product replaces half of the butter.

Ingredients

• 100 g of cottage cheese;
• 100 g butter;
• 180 g flour;
• ½ teaspoon of baking soda;
• ½ teaspoon of salt.

Preparation

Rub the cottage cheese through a sieve, grate the cold butter. Combine both ingredients with a fork, add flour, baking soda and salt. Knead the dough quickly until smooth, put in a bag and refrigerate for an hour.

What to do next

If there is a pie on the menu, roll out the dough to the size of the mold, pierce it several times with a fork so as not to swell, cover with parchment paper and fill it with a load. Special heat-resistant balls or beans, peas can act as a weighting agent. This structure is baked for about 15 minutes at 180 ° C. Then remove the load, lay out the pie filling and cook until tender.

It is better to choose the filling adjusted for the sugar content in the dough. Unsweetened minced is suitable for quiches with filling, pies with meat and vegetables. The dough with added sugar will be the basis for fruit and berry tarts.

The baskets are baked in the same way, only the cooking time must be reduced in proportion to the reduction in the size of the cakes. Cookies and other small items are enough to lightly blush in the oven, otherwise they will be too hard.