Pate Sablée

What’s a pate sablée? It’s a french pastry dough used to make tart shells and cookies. It’s rich and crumbly, buttery and sweet. You may know it as a sweet shortcrust pastry and use it for tarte aux fraises, lemon meringue pie… A pate sablée will turn any dessert into a fancy french pastry and will make everyone believe you are a pastry goddess! But don’t worry, it’s really not that hard to make! Keep reading to learn how to make this shortcrust pastry!

Ingredients you’ll need

Like most pastry dough, this recipe calls for flour, butter, sugar and a pinch of salt. The main difference is that, for this recipe, you’ll need to add an egg! Here are the ingredients list:

• Flour
• Sugar
• Butter
• Egg
• Salt

How to make a perfect Pate Sablée

There are two ways to make a Pate Sablée:

• You can mix the egg with the sugar and salt. Add in the flour and mix. And then add the butter.
• Or mix the flour, sugar and salt with the butter and then add the egg.

Different chefs will tell you different things and you are free to prefer a way over the other! My favourite way is the second one and that’s the one I am sharing today:

In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar and salt together.

Add the cubes of cold butter and rub the mixture between your hands until you have a sand like texture.

Add the egg and gently knead the dough for a minute.

Refrigerate the dough for 1h or over night.

Roll the cold dough into the size and shape you want. Fill up the tart pan or pastry ring depending on what you are making.

Refrigerate for 1h or more.

Bake at 350F (180C) for 10 to 30 minutes depending on the size of your dessert, until golden brown.

Let cool completely before adding any filling.