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Shortcrust Pastry Recipe - Cold Hands, No Shrinking, No Soggy Bottoms
Two parts plain flour to one part cold butter, rubbed in, bound with ice-cold water, chilled twice and blind baked on a hot tray. Crisp, short pastry that doesn't shrink, plus a sweet version and a gluten free swap.
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- Prep15 min
- Rest50 min
- Cook25 min
- Makes1 x 23cm
- Calories~180
Calories are approximate, per serving, worked out from the ingredients. Brands and portion sizes vary. That's the pastry only, for one of 8 slices of a 23cm tart - the filling's on you.
Shortcrust pastry is two parts plain flour to one part cold butter, rubbed together, bound with a few spoons of ice-cold water and rested in the fridge before you roll it. This is my shortcrust pastry recipe for one 23cm tart tin, savoury or sweet.
Three ingredients. Fifteen minutes of work. Half an hour pretending you're not checking the fridge.
Shop-bought is fine. Homemade is crisper, shorter and tastes of butter instead of cardboard.
The whole trick is cold. Cold butter, cold water, cold hands, cold fridge. Basically the opposite of how I run a kitchen.
Why is it called shortcrust pastry?
It's called shortcrust because the fat "shortens" the gluten in the flour, so the pastry snaps and crumbles instead of stretching.
English cooks were calling crumbly food "short" in the early 1400s, according to the Online Etymology Dictionary's history of the word.
The science is simple. Fat coats the flour, so it soaks up less water and the gluten strands stay short. The Institute of Food Science and Technology explains how fat shortens gluten if you want the long version.
The French call it pâte brisée, "broken pastry". Same thing, better accent.
Aaron insists he's a shortcrust man now. Firm, reliable, holds together under pressure. He had a flaky phase. He says it was puff pastry. We don't bring it up. I bring it up.
What you need
For one 23cm tart tin, savoury:
- 200g plain flour - plain, not self-raising (it puffs) and not strong bread flour (it's chewy)
- 100g cold unsalted butter, cut into 1cm cubes - straight from the fridge. Or 50g butter and 50g lard for an even shorter, flakier crust
- ¼ tsp fine salt
- 2-3 tbsp ice-cold water - a jug with ice cubes in, spooned out a little at a time
That's the lot. It's less a recipe, more a ratio with ambitions. Fancy going the whole hog? You can churn the butter yourself first. I did once. Then I needed a lie down.
For sweet shortcrust pastry
For sweet shortcrust pastry, use the same 200g flour and 100g butter, plus sugar and an egg yolk. Same pastry. Better manners.
- 30g icing sugar, sifted in with the flour - icing sugar, not caster, so the pastry stays fine and smooth
- 1 egg yolk plus 1-2 tbsp ice-cold water, instead of the 2-3 tbsp water
- A pinch of salt - yes, even in the sweet one. It makes the butter taste more buttery
The sugar makes it brown faster, so it bakes 20 degrees cooler. Details below.
Kit
- A 23cm loose-bottomed fluted tart tin, about 2.5cm deep. Metal, not ceramic - metal gets hot fast and crisps the base
- A rolling pin. Ours is a steel rolling pin with four thickness rings - pop the 1/8 inch rings on and it rolls the pastry to an even 3mm all over, so there's no thick bit that stays raw and no thin bit that burns
- Baking paper and baking beans - or dried rice or lentils, which you then can't eat. Keep them in a jar marked "pastry only". Aaron's is laminated.
- A heavy baking tray to heat up in the oven under the tin
How to make shortcrust pastry
Step 1 - Rub the butter into the flour
- Sift the flour and salt (and the icing sugar, for sweet) into a big bowl.
- Add the cold butter cubes and toss them in the flour.
- Rub the butter in with your fingertips only, lifting your hands up out of the bowl and letting it fall back in, until it looks like fine breadcrumbs with no big lumps of butter left.
Fingertips are the coldest bit of your hand. Palms melt butter. Going greasy? The bowl goes in the fridge for 10 minutes. So do you, if you're as warm-blooded as me.
No time? Pulse it in a food processor in short bursts. Stop the second it's crumbs - it goes from perfect to paste in about three seconds. It's the same rub-in as the topping that's basically pastry that gave up.
Step 2 - Add the water and bring it together
- Sprinkle over 2 tablespoons of ice-cold water (or the yolk and 1 tablespoon of water, for sweet).
- Stir it with a table knife, not your hands, until it starts to clump.
- Squeeze a bit. Holds together? Stop. Crumbles? Add more water a teaspoon at a time.
- Tip it out and press it into a ball with two or three light kneads. No more.
Too much water is the number one reason pastry shrinks and goes tough. Play dough, not wet sock. Aaron got there at two and a half spoons. He wrote it down. On the laminated list.
Step 3 - Rest it in the fridge
- Flatten the ball into a disc about 2cm deep - it rolls rounder and chills faster.
- Wrap it and chill it for at least 30 minutes. Overnight is fine. Two days is the limit.
- If it's been in longer than an hour, leave it out for 5-10 minutes before rolling, or it'll crack.
Resting lets the gluten relax and the butter firm up again. Skip it and the pastry fights back in the oven and shrinks down the sides of the tin. Like a toddler at bedtime. Erin, specifically.
Chill it twice. Once as a disc, and again for 20 minutes once it's in the tin. That second chill is what stops it shrinking. Every source I read agrees, which never happens. Aaron chills it a third time. Nobody knows why. Least of all Aaron.
Step 4 - Roll it out and line the tin
- Lightly flour the worktop and the pin. Roll the pastry to 3mm thick, about 5cm wider than the tin all round - the 1/8 inch rings do the measuring.
- Roll away from you only, give it a quarter turn, roll again. That keeps it round and stops it sticking.
- Roll it loosely round the pin, lift it over the tin and unroll it. Ease it into the corners - never stretch it.
- Press it into the flutes with a little ball of pastry offcut, leave the edge hanging over the rim, and prick the base all over with a fork.
- Chill the lined tin for 20 minutes. Heat the oven with the heavy baking tray inside.
Leave the overhang on. Any shrinking happens to the bit you were binning anyway. That's not a hack. That's being smug in advance.
Step 5 - How to blind bake shortcrust pastry
- Heat the oven to 200C (180C fan, gas 6), or 180C (160C fan, gas 4) for sweet. Different oven? Here are the fan and gas numbers for every oven.
- Line the pastry with a scrunched-up sheet of baking paper and fill it right to the top with baking beans, pushed into the edges.
- Put the tin on the hot tray and bake for 15-20 minutes, until the sides are set and no longer grey.
- Lift out the paper and beans and bake for another 5-10 minutes, until the base looks dry and sandy and pale golden.
- For a wet filling (quiche, custard), brush the hot case with a little beaten egg white and give it 3-4 minutes more. It seals the base like varnish.
- Trim the overhang flush with a sharp knife while it's warm.
"Blind baking" just means baking the case empty first, so the base is cooked before the filling goes in. It's not blind. It's very much looking at you. Mostly for a soggy bottom.
Filling going back in the oven for a while? Bake the case less - 10-12 minutes with beans, 4-5 without. It gets a second go. Like Ayden at word association.
How much shortcrust pastry do you need?
For a 23cm tart tin you need 200g flour and 100g butter; for a 20cm tin, 150g and 75g; for a 25-26cm tin, 250g and 125g. The ratio never changes: twice as much flour as fat.
A double-crust pie (lid and base) in a 23cm dish needs about double - 400g flour and 200g butter. Always make a bit extra. Pastry offcuts are what children are for.
Here's the whole recipe on one chart - tins, quantities, temperatures and times. Save it, print it or stick it on the fridge.
Gluten free shortcrust pastry
Gluten free shortcrust pastry uses gluten free plain flour, xanthan gum to hold it together, and egg instead of most of the water.
Coeliac UK's gluten free pastry recipe uses 300g gluten free plain flour, 1½ tsp xanthan gum, 145g very cold butter and 2 large eggs - with 1 tsp salt for savoury or 3 tbsp caster sugar for sweet.
Roll it between two sheets of floured baking paper, flip it into the tin and peel the paper off. Never stretch it - there's no gluten to give it any stretch, so it just tears. Patch any cracks with a damp finger.
If you're cooking for someone with coeliac disease, use clean bowls, a clean board and a clean pin. A dusting of ordinary flour is enough to cause a problem.
What to make with shortcrust pastry
Shortcrust is the all-rounder: quiches, savoury pies, jam tarts, fruit pies, custard tarts and pasties all start with it.
- Savoury: quiche, cheese and onion pie, steak pie, Cornish-style pasties
- Sweet: jam tarts, treacle tart, Bakewell tart, egg custard tart, lemon tart
- Christmas: mince pies - a full post's on its way. Erin has requested a tiara-shaped lid.
- The offcuts: re-roll once, cut into shapes, sprinkle with sugar and bake for 10 minutes - the biscuits that roll out on the same pin get a cousin
Jam tarts need 12 circles from one batch. We get 11. One always goes missing. Tyson is not saying anything.
If it goes wrong
It shrank down the sides of the tin? Too much water, too much handling, it was stretched into the tin, or it didn't rest.
Fix: Less water, two kneads at most, no stretching, chill it twice and leave an overhang to trim after baking. Shrinkage happens to the bit you were binning anyway. Take the win.
Tough and chewy, not crisp? It was overworked, or there was too much water - both build gluten.
Fix: Fingertips, not palms, a knife to bring it together, and stop kneading the moment it's smooth. Pastry's like Aaron. The more you work him, the more he resists.
It cracks when you roll it? It's too cold from the fridge, or a bit too dry.
Fix: Give it 5-10 minutes at room temperature first. Already in the tin? Press a scrap of raw pastry over the crack, or patch it with an offcut and bake on. Nobody sees the bottom of a quiche. Except Erin. She always checks.
Soggy bottom? It wasn't blind baked long enough, the tin was ceramic, or a wet filling soaked in.
Fix: Bake on a preheated heavy tray, bake until the base is sandy and dry, and seal it with egg white for 3-4 minutes. No one wants a soggy bottom. Least of all the pastry.
Too crumbly to roll? Not quite enough water, so it won't hold together.
Fix: Back in the bowl, sprinkle over a teaspoon of cold water, bring it together with the knife and chill it again. It's not broken. It's just being short with you.
Greasy, heavy or full of holes? The butter was too warm and melted before the oven, or there were big lumps left in.
Fix: Butter straight from the fridge, rub it in to fine crumbs, and chill the bowl for 10 minutes if your kitchen's warm. My kitchen's always warm. I put the whole bowl in the fridge. And sometimes my head.
Shortcrust pastry questions people actually ask
What does adding an egg to shortcrust pastry do?
An egg yolk makes shortcrust richer, crisper and easier to roll without cracking, and it gives a deeper golden colour. It's the usual addition for sweet pastry. It's the posh one. It knows it.
Do you use plain flour for shortcrust pastry?
Yes - plain flour. Self-raising makes it puff and go cakey, and strong bread flour has too much gluten, so it turns chewy. Bread flour is for bread. It knows what it did.
Butter or lard?
All butter tastes best; half butter, half lard gives a shorter, flakier texture. The fats together still weigh half the flour. Vegetarian? All butter. Dairy-free? A hard vegan block.
Can you freeze shortcrust pastry?
Yes - wrapped well, raw shortcrust freezes for 1-2 months. Defrost it in the fridge overnight, then let it sit for a few minutes before rolling. In the fridge, it keeps for 2 days. Then it goes grey and sulks.
Can you eat raw pastry?
No. The Food Standards Agency's raw flour advice is that flour is a raw ingredient and should be cooked before you eat it - so no sneaky nibbles of dough. I've told the children. I've told Tyson. Only one of those groups listened.
Can you make it in a food processor?
Yes - pulse the flour, salt and cold butter to crumbs, add the water and pulse just until it clumps, then tip it out and bring it together by hand. Never let it form a ball in the machine - by then it's overworked. Same rule as me in the gym.
Now go and cook something. Then make short work of it.
