Pâte Sablée
The sandy, biscuit-like sweet tart dough
The sandiest of the sweet doughs — sablée means sandy — made by rubbing the butter fully into the flour so no gluten develops at all. It bakes short and crumbly like shortbread, and it does not shrink.
Different from Sweet Shortcrust Pastry, which creams the butter and sugar first and comes out firmer and more workable.
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup ground almonds (optional, for richness)
- 10 ounces (2 1/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cubed
- 2 large egg yolks
- 2 tablespoons cold heavy cream
Instructions
- Combine the flour, powdered sugar, salt and ground almonds in a food processor. Pulse to mix.
- Add the cold butter and pulse until the mixture looks like coarse sand with no visible pieces of butter left. This is the opposite of flaky pastry, where you want the butter to stay in flakes.
- Whisk the yolks and cream together and add, pulsing just until the dough begins to clump. Do not let it form a ball in the machine.
- Tip onto a work surface, bring together with the heel of your hand in two or three smears, and divide in two. Flatten into discs, wrap and chill for at least 1 hour.
- Roll between two sheets of parchment — this dough tears easily and does not like extra flour. Line the tin and chill again for 30 minutes.
- Blind bake at 350°F with parchment and beans for 15 minutes, then uncovered for 10 minutes more, until pale gold.
Notes
- Patch cracks with raw dough; it is too short to roll out again neatly and nobody will know.
- Freezes 3 months raw, as a disc or already in the tin.