How to make pâte sablée (sweet shortcrust pastry)

Learn how to make the best pâte sablée for your favorite pies and tarts with this detailed, step-by-step guide. With all the helpful tips and tricks, this recipe is the only one you'll ever need to bake delicious tarts at home.

Jump to:

• What is pâte sablée?
• Difference between pâte sablée and pâte sucrée
• Why this recipe works
• Ingredient notes
• How to make pâte sablée (step-by-step)
• How to blind-bake a crust
• Yield
• 💡Tips and tricks
• Storing
• Filling variations
• FAQs
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Reviews

What is pâte sablée?

Coming from the French word 'sable', which stands for sand, pâte sablée translates to sandy dough, where pâte means dough. I've seen in a few places that people write pâtes sablée, which is wrong because pâtes in French means pasta, though both words are pronounced the same. Gotta love French! 🙂

As opposed to the well-known and loved flaky pie crust (pâte brisée in French), pâte sablée is a sweet, crumbly, buttery dough that can be used as shortbread cookie dough. Delicious, right?

Difference between pâte sablée and pâte sucrée

According to Ferrandi Paris school of Culinary Arts, both are sweetened shortcrust pastries but differ in the preparation technique and ingredient ratio.

While Pâte Sablée is made by rubbing the cold butter and flour, Pâte Sucrée is made by creaming the softened butter with sugar before adding the flour and other ingredients.

Furthermore, Pâte Sablée has more butter and less sugar which gives it a crumbly, buttery taste, while Pâte Sucrée has less butter and more sugar.

Why this recipe works

• Metric measurements. A kitchen scale is your best friend and measuring the ingredients by weight is a great start to a successful recipe recreation.
• Step-by-step images. Seeing visual cues is incredibly helpful when making a new recipe and here you have everything you need to help you make pâte sablée.
• Can be made by hand or a food processor. I love using my food processor for making pâte sablée but don't worry if you don't have one. A bowl, fork and your hands is all you need to make this recipe work!

Ingredient notes

• Flour: I use all-purpose flour that has around 9,5% protein.

• Butter: It's best to use unsalted European-style butter with at least 82% fat. That's always my choice in baking, it gives the best flavor, tenderness and flakiness.

• Lemon zest: This is optional, but I love adding a little bit of lemon zest to my pâte sablée for flavor.

• Vanilla: Instead of lemon, you can use a little bit of vanilla extract or vanilla sugar to boost the flavor of the tart shell.

• Sugar: powdered sugar works best in this recipe but you can use caster or granulated sugar in a pinch.

• Fine sea salt: salt is an essential ingredient in all recipes because it accentuates the flavors, not necessarily making anything savory or salty. Don't skip it.

• Egg: It's a binding element that provides structure and richness to the dough.

Ground almonds are often added to pate sablee to achieve finer texture and bring more flavor (if they're toasted). However, I wanted to make the most straightforward recipe, so I decided not to use them.

How to make pâte sablée (step-by-step)

Note: You have the fully written recipe with measurements and detailed instructions at the end of the post. However, I advise you to read all the helpful tips and FAQs.

1. Start by dicing the butter. Put it in a bowl and place in the fridge or a freezer to be completely cold before using.
2. Sift the flour, powdered sugar and salt into a large bowl. Stir it with a whisk to combine.
3. Add the cold butter cubes, cover them with flour and start rubbing the butter and flour between your fingers.
4. You're done after the mixture starts looking crumbly, like sand, after approx. 2 minutes. Some bigger bits are completely fine. Be as quick as you can so the butter doesn't melt.

5. Add the egg and lemon zest to the mixture. Using a fork, cut through the mixture to combine all the ingredients to form dough clumps.
6. Use the palm of your hand to gently knead it until it comes together into a smooth, sticky dough. Don't over do it.
7. Place the dough on a piece of plastic wrap and wrap it to form a disc. Place in the fridge for 20-30 minutes to rest and chill.

How to blind-bake a crust

Now that you've learned how to make pate sablee, let's get into the nitty gritty of baking it. Some recipes will require you to blind-bake the crust before adding any fillings, like this French Strawberry tart.

Depending on your filling, you will either need to bake the crust partially or fully. How much partially baking will it need, again depends on the filling and its quantity.

Though the instructions seem relatively long, don't be afraid, the recipe is easy. You just need some patience and a bit of spare time.

8. Take the dough from the fridge and place it between two sheets of parchment paper. If it's too cold, let it rest at room temperature until it becomes soft enough to roll without breaking, but not too soft.
9. Roll the dough into a circle 2-3mm thick. You will notice that the more you roll it, the softer the dough becomes, which happens rather quickly. After you've rolled it, place it in the fridge again for 20-30 minutes to firm up.

Place your tart pan on the parchment-covered dough to check if you've rolled the dough enough to cover the sides and the bottom.

10. In the meantime, grease the tart pan with a little bit of butter.
11. Remove the top parchment paper and turn the dough upside down in the tart pan. Gently remove the parchment paper from the dough and use your knuckles to press the dough, gently, to fit into every corner of the tart pan. Don't worry if you leave some marks or accidentally tear a piece. This dough is great to patch up.
12. Remove any excess dough by going with a rolling pin on the edges, or you can use a knife.
13. Once again, place the dough in the fridge or in the freezer, this time for at least an hour. It will help to avoid any possible shrinkage while baking.
14. After the dough has chilled, remove it from the fridge and poke with a fork. Cover it with parchment paper and put some weight in the tart case. I used barley, but you can use rice, beans, specialty baking beans... some people even use coins, but I find that a bit unhygienic. No judgment though.
15. Blind bake in a preheated oven for about 15 minutes or until the edges start getting slightly golden. Remove the pan from the oven and remove the parchment paper with the weights.
16. Return the pan to the oven and continue baking for another 10-15 minutes, until it's baked through completely and have deep golden color. The dough will pull away from the sides a little bit, that is okay. If you experience severe shrinking, on the sides as well, the dough wasn't cold enough or baked enough with the weights.
17. Once it's done, remove from the oven and put on a cooling rack to cool completely.

Keep the dough cold. The correct temperature of the ingredients and your working space is important to achieve the right texture and it makes it easier to handle the dough. If at any point during the making of this recipe the dough seems too soft, just pop it in the fridge for 10-15 minutes and continue.

Yield

This recipe makes enough dough for an 11-inch tart pan. You will have some leftover dough, that's because I like to have enough dough to work with. I'm not always the best at rolling the dough into a perfect circle, so that's why I love to have tiny leftovers.

You can use any leftover dough for baking shortbread cookies or 1-2 tartlets.

💡Tips and tricks

• Use a kitchen scale and metric measurements. Being accurate with measuring ingredients means you're halfway there.
• Cube the butter in advance and keep it like that in the fridge before using.
• Feel free to use a food processor to make the dough, instead of rubbing the mixture between your fingers, especially if your hands tend to be hot or you live in a very hot area. However, I suggest using a 'pulse' option for better control of mixing stages.
• For single-serving tartlets that look like they come from a French pastry shop, use perforated tart rings.
• Keep the dough cold to prevent shrinking and tearing. You'll need to put the dough in the fridge a few times while making it to keep the handling temperature just right. Seems like a fuss, but it's worth it and less annoying than you think 🙂
• Use a tart pan with loose bottom for easier handling and serving. This is what I use (not sponsored).
• Ovens vary. If your oven runs hotter make sure to reduce the baking temperature. If the edges of the dough start to brown much quicker than the base, cover the tart pan with parchment paper.

Storing

You can store the baked tart case in an air-tight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.

However, once you add the filling, the crust will eventually go soggy from the moisture absorption. Keep the assembled tart in the fridge for a couple of days.

You can also make the pâte sablée in advance and keep it wrapped in cling film in the fridge for 2-3 days.

Filling variations

This pastry is an excellent, versatile vessel for all kinds of tart fillings. Let your imagination loose and create your own delicious flavors and combinations.

Some of my favorites would be:

• lemon curd with meringue topping
• chocolate ganache with raspberry jam and fresh raspberries
• vanilla pastry cream and fresh fruit (such as this Tarte aux fraises)
• coconut cream filling and caramel

FAQs

If you have any other questions that I didn't cover, please let me know in the comments section down below - I'd love to help you out!

And if you try this recipe for Pâte Sablée, tag me on Instagram @anasbakingchronicles so I can see it or feel free to e-mail me your pictures and thoughts! I love seeing your bakes!

Happy baking,

Ana

📖 Recipe