Pâte Sucrée (Sweet French Pastry Crust)

Pâte sucrée is a sweet French pastry crust. There are three common types of French pastry crusts - pâte sucrée (sweet), pâte brisée (broken) and pâte sablée (sand). Pâte sucrée is commonly used for sweet tarts with cream fillings, pâte brisée for more savoury tarts (like apple pie, or even meat/vegetable pies, if the sugar is omitted), and pâte sablée is more crumbly, although it is often used interchangeably with pâte sucrée.

Adapted from Like a Strawberry Milk, Serious Eats and Bon Appétit. Three different versions are included here.

Ingredients

Pierre Hermé's Pâte Sucrée

1. 300 g unsalted butter, cold
2. 190g icing sugar
3. 60g ground almonds
4. 1 tsp sea salt
5. Seeds from 1 vanilla bean
6. 100g eggs
7. 500g plain flour

Nut-Free Pâte Sucrée

1. 280g unsalted butter, cold
2. 180g icing sugar
3. 1 tsp salt
4. Seeds from 1 vanilla bean
5. 100g eggs
6. 40g egg yolks
7. 545g plain flour

My Version of Pâte Sucrée

1. 250g unsalted butter, cold 
2. 150g icing sugar
3. 70g ground almond
4. 1 tsp salt
5. 2 tsp vanilla extract
6. 100g eggs
7. 500g plain flour

Instructions

1. In a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter, icing sugar, ground almonds (if using), salt and vanilla until smooth,
2. Add in eggs (and egg yolks, for the nut-free recipe) one at a time, mixing well after each addition for about 1 min. 
3. Mix in flour on low-speed until just combined.
4. Divide dough into three lumps, roughly 350g each. Flatten each between two sheets of baking paper. Roll (always from centre-up), giving the dough a quarter turn every time, into a large disk, around 3-4mm thick. Place dough onto a baking tray and set aside. Chill in the fridge for at least 2h, or keep in fridge for up to a week/in freezer for up to 2 months.
5. Cut out strips to the size of the sides of your tart ring and a round base to the size of the base of the tart ring, and line the tart ring, by lining the sides, then pushing in the base and using fingers to smooth out. Chill/freeze for 1-2h. 
6. Blind-bake your tart case by layering two pieces of clingfilm on top of one another/opening up a cupcake case to the size your tart ring, and placing over the tart case. Fill up the tart case with weights (eg rice).
7. Bake at 150-160C for about 35 min. Cool completely in tart ring before removing.
8. Trim any bits of uneven dough at the top gently with a peeler. 
9. Use tart pastry as needed.