Sweet Pastry Recipe

Here I go, my very first post !

Today I’d like to share with you a sweet pastry recipe. Sweet pastry was one of the first things i learnt whilst i was studying professional cookery so it would make sense this recipe would be the first thing I share with you. I love making sweet pastry because it’s the base of making any sweet tart for example – lemon meringue tart, chocolate ganache tarts and bakewell tarts etc.

So lets get to it !

Sweet pastry

250g unsalted butter

250g icing sugar

8 ( 160g) egg yolks

550g plain flour

TIP * Be sure to weigh out all the ingredients before you start !

Method

Step 1 : Put the butter and icing sugar in a bowl of a free standing mixer. Using the paddle attachment you want to “ cream” these ingredients which basically means you want to mix till the butter and sugar become smooth and creamy. Make sure you scrape down the sides so you get all the butter incorporated. You will want to have a medium to high speed on your mixer for this step.

Step 2: Once your butter and sugar is nice and creamy add your egg yolks one by one with the mixer still running. Let it mix for 1-2 minutes, the mixture should become nice and fluffy !

Step 3: This step can get a bit messy so I suggest using a clean tea towel if your mixer doesn’t have a splash guard . So now you are going to add all the flour into the mixture on a low speed setting mixing till it just comes together.

Step 4 : Now you are going to scrape the mixture on to a clean work surface dusted with some plain flour. ** This step is very important because if you add too much flour the pastry becomes too dry and is very crumbly and hard to work with ** You are now going to pat the pastry with your hand till it forms a nice ball ( sprinkling flour when needed).

Step 5 : Now that your pastry is in a nice ball divide the pastry in 2 batches. You are going to flatten out each batch of pastry on some cling film then wrap each of them in some cling film tightly not letting any air in. You can store one in the freezer to use on a later date and you can store one pastry in the fridge to use sooner, its really up to you.

Step 6 : Once you’ve left your pastry to rest in the fridge for about 30 minutes it’s ready to use ! On a clean work surface start to work your pastry till it is easier to work with. Dust your work surface with some flour and start to roll out the pastry with a rolling pin till it reaches the thickness of a 10 cent coin. When rolling make sure you keep dusting under your pastry and moving the pastry around to avoid getting stuck on the bench.

Step 7 : Transfer your pastry to a pastry case and press the pastry into the case making sure the pastry is nice and snug. Leave excess pastry hanging over the edges. Let the pastry rest in the fridge for another 20-30 minutes, this will avoid any shrinkage.

Step 8 : Once the pastry has rested you can now put the pastry in the oven to bake at 160 degrees celsius for 20 minutes or until golden.

And there we have it ! You should now have a lovely tart case and you can fill it with which ever filling you’d like ! My absolute favourite filling would have to be lemon curd ! As you can see from the pictures below you can make many many types of tarts !

I hope you enjoyed my first post ! If you do make this recipe let me know how you go !

Thanks again !

I’ll be posting again really soon so stay tuned !!