Recipe: Edd Kimber’s Pâte Sucrée
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You can have the patisserie skill in the world but if you have a bad dough, none of that matters. With this pate sucree recipe, Edd Kimber shows you the step by step secrets to nailing a classic dough.
He explains: “This is one of my all-time favourite doughs to work with. It has just the right level of sweetness, a great texture and tastes fantastic. Even baked into simple rounds and served as a biscuit it would taste great. It has a high ratio of fat to flour, so it needs to be kept cold when rolling out to avoid it becoming sticky. If you follow the instructions on lining tart tins, you won’t have any problems.”
Here Edd explains how to properly line a tin:
- Remove the pastry from the fridge and, if it is too firm, leave it to soften at room temperature for 15 minutes or until pliable enough to roll. Dust a work surface and the top of the dough with a little flour. Using a rolling pin, gently roll out the dough, turning the dough regularly. This helps to prevent the dough from sticking to the surface and it also helps to ensure a round shape and an even, flat surface.
- For most tarts you will need to roll out the dough to about 2mm thick. With experience, you can do this by eye, but if you want to know for sure, you can use two pieces of wood of the desired thickness to act as guides. Put the guides alongside the pastry as you roll, resting your rolling pin over the guides. This will prevent the dough from becoming too thin.
- If at this point your dough has warmed up and is too soft to handle, transfer it to a parchment-lined baking tray and chill it for 5–10 minutes until cold enough to handle, but not so cold that it is no longer flexible.
- Individual tarts: Take the roll of dough from the fridge and cut it into discs (six for a half recipe, 12 if making the whole batch). Rolling these individual rounds of dough is easier than cutting out discs from a large piece, because it prevents the dough from warming up and it is simpler to get thin pastry this way.
- To line a tart tin or ring, put the tin onto a parchment-lined baking tray beside your rolled-out pastry. Carefully roll the pastry onto your rolling pin, then lift it up and move your baking tray underneath. Carefully unroll the pastry into your mould.
- Lift up the overhang and gently press the dough into the corners of your tin or ring. By lifting the dough, you will prevent it from stretching or tearing. Once you have fully lined the ring, use the rolling pin to roll over the edge of the tart ring, to cut off the excess pastry. Gently press the dough against the sides of the tart ring to give you a smooth, thin pastry shell.
- Line the pastry with a crumpled layer of baking parchment, or a double layer of clingfilm. Fill the tart with baking beans or rice and fold the excess clingfilm back over the beans or rice. Bake the tart blind according to the recipe.
Patisserie Made Simple by Edd Kimber is published by Kyle Books (£16.99). Photography by Laura Edwards.
Edd Kimber’s Pâte Sucrée Recipe:
Cut the vanilla pod, if using, in half and scrape out the seeds. Put the seeds or vanilla bean paste in the bowl of a food processor. Add the flour, almonds, icing sugar and salt, and pulse to combine. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolks and pulse until fully combined. (Alternatively, put the flour, almonds, icing sugar, salt and vanilla in a large bowl and mix to combine. Add the butter and rub together using your fingertips, or use a pastry cutter, until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolks and mix together until the dough just starts to come together.) If the pastry isn’t coming together into a uniform mass, add 1 tablespoon of ice-cold water and pulse, or mix, until the dough starts to come together. Be careful not to over-process the dough, or the finished pastry will be tough and chewy.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and gently knead into a smooth, uniform dough. Divide into two pieces, pressing into a flat round if making large tarts and into thick logs if making individual tarts. Wrap the pastry in clingfilm and put it in the fridge for at least 1 hour before using.
As with most pastry, this can be chilled and kept for up to one week before using, or it can be frozen for up to two months.
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