Properly prepared shortcrust pastry is very tender and crumbly, literally melting in your mouth. At first glance at the shortcrust pastry recipe, you might think that there are no difficulties and secrets in its preparation, however, this is not so. Shortcrust pastry has its own secrets, which it is in no hurry to disclose with a superficial acquaintance, therefore, at first, products from it may turn out to be not entirely successful - tough and rude.
To avoid such troubles, it is necessary to take into account the following factors when preparing a shortcrust pastry:
- The friability and plasticity of the shortcrust pastry gives a large amount of butter contained in it. If there is less oil than necessary, the dough will turn out to be dense and solid.
- In order to make the dough very friable and tender, it is recommended to use only egg yolks for it (baking powder, in this case you can not add).
- If the preparation of shortcrust pastry takes place in a hot room, then before cooking, it is advisable to cool it.
- The table on which the shortcrust dough is rolled out, you need to sprinkle with plenty of flour and pour the flour several times when rolling.
- The dough layer should have the same thickness, otherwise, during baking, thin spots will burn up, and thick ones will remain damp.
- Shortbread dough is baked at a temperature of 240 - 260 ° C. The most delicious aromatic products are obtained, after baking a golden color, not only outside but also inside.
Here's what a traditional shortcrust pastry recipe looks like:
Take butter 250 gr.; 3 cups flour; half a glass of sugar (or even better icing sugar); 2 yolks; vanilla sugar.
Grind the butter with sugar, vanilla sugar and a pinch of salt until the mass becomes homogeneous, without lumps. Add the yolks, then pour the flour in portions and knead the resulting dough well. Place the dough for half an hour in the refrigerator to make it easier to roll out.
Give a piece of dough a rectangular shape (similar to a brick) and roll it out on a flat, dusted table. Next, to form products according to the selected recipe - these can be tartlets, tartlets, cake cakes or a variety of shortcrust pastry.
Lay the products from shortcrust pastry on a dry, fat-free baking sheet and bake at the temperature indicated above until cooked.
Perhaps one of the most common baking options from shortcrust pastry is a cookie, often served with tea or coffee. Here, for example, is how this is an original shortbread cookie with berries.
For the recipe you will need: flour 250 gr.; 125 gr. butter; 60 gr Sahara; egg; a pinch of salt; strawberries or cherries.
Beat the egg with sugar, add soft butter, a pinch of salt, flour. Knead the dough and divide it into 5 parts. Roll out the dough thinly enough, to a thickness of 1 centimeter. With special recesses for the dough, cut out circles, hearts or other forms and put on them two or three berries of strawberries or cherries. Cover the berries with a thin layer of dough and combine it with the dough base.
Bake cookies at 210 ° C for about half an hour.
The shortcrust pastry recipe is also used for another cookie, which, with its excellent taste, is so easy to prepare that even a child can bake it.
For the recipe you will need: 125 gr. butter; icing sugar 125 gr.; egg; flour 250 gr.; lemon zest; nuts.
Mix the butter with icing sugar and beat thoroughly together, add the egg yolk, flour and lemon zest grated on a fine grater. Knead the dough, roll it into a layer, from which cut out cookies in the form of bagels with a thimble and a glass. Dip it with one side in whipped protein and immediately in coarsely crushed nuts (walnuts, peanuts, almonds).
Bake cookies in a mildly heated oven until cooked.
And, in conclusion, one more tip: if the shortcrust pastry recipe is intended for products with various flavorful fillings (for example, cakes, pastries, pies), then the dough itself does not need to be aromatized. But it’s recommended to add vanilla sugar or orange (lemon) zest , cinnamon or well-ground nutmeg to the cookie dough. You can replace a glass of flour in the recipe with powdered roasted nuts or add a little cocoa powder to the dough.