Pasta Frolla (Sweet Shortcrust Pastry)

This is one of our favourites recipes. It is a simple base preparation that gives extraordinary results. You can use it to prepare cookies, tarts, pies, crumbles, and many other delicious things. Just try it once, you will make it again, and again...

​Difficulty level:
Cooking Time:	Cookies: about 12 minutes (or until slightly gold) Base for Tart: about 20 minutes (or until slightly gold) Jam Tart: about 30-35 minutes (or until the border is turning light brown)
Oven Temperature:	170˚C
​Cooking Method:	​Fan Oven

Ingredients for 1kg pastry (3 tartes of 22cmø):

500g of flour (in summer put the flour in the refrigerator before using it)

300g butter (cold from the fridge)

200g of granulated sugar (or powdered sugar)

4 egg yolks

a sachet of vanillin (0,5g)

Don’t knead the pastry too much or the heat from your hands will melt the butter. A good trick is to hold your hands under cold running water beforehand to make them as cold as possible.

Steps:

1. Sift the flour into a bowl.

2. Divide the butter into small pieces and, using your hands, mix it with the sugar and the vanilla.

3. If you want to experiment with different flavours you can add grated lemon zest, orange zest, lime zest, or cinnamon. Just remember to give a hint of flavours and never exceed.

4. Add the egg yolks and gently mix until well incorporated.

5. Add the flour and bring the pastry together as quickly as you can.

6. The final appearance of the sweet shortcrust pastry must be: compact, not shiny (it becomes shiny when it is too hot)

7. Wrap the pastry in cling film and let it rest in a cool place for at least 2 hours before using it.

For best results, the dough should be prepared the day before. If this is not possible, you can prepare the pastry on the same day of its use by replacing the granulated sugar with icing sugar. The icing sugar is also used for the preparation of fine sweet shortcrust pastry for the production of dry pastries.

Once the dough is ready to use you can use it to prepare several delicious treats. Here there are two ideas, for more explore our blog, stay tuned, or simply ask us!

Cookies:

Who doesn't love a cookie?

Sweet shortcrust pastry cookies are super easy to do, they are great for tea parties, with a coffee, or as a nibble in any occasions.

What is important is that they have the same thickness. If you do not have rolling pin with thickness guides just use two guides made of aluminium of 4 or 5mm, you can easily find them in any diy store and you can buy different sizes.

Place the guides on the table and start rolling the pastry, putting some flour on the table, and to the rolling pin to avoid the pastry from attaching to the surfaces.

If you want to prepare chocolate chunk cookies you can sprinkle chocolate drops on the pastry while you're rolling it.

Cut the cookies and place them on a baking tray.

Put the tray in a fridge for about 15 minutes before baking.

Because of the butter, the shortcrust pastry is very fragile immediately after baking, let it cool down a few minutes before moving it.

Carefully move the cookies on a wire rack to cool down.

Once baked place the cookies in a jar or tin box, they will last up to ten days (but they are so good they always finish much sooner...)

Jam tart:

We love Jam Tarts, they are one of our favourite ways to use homemade jam.

Prepare the jam tart one or two days before to get the best results.

Roll the pastry using a rolling pin with thickness guides.

Cut a disk of 22cm of diameter (or at the size of your baking tin), for big parties we use baking trays as it is easier to slice.

Roll the pastry again (if needed) and cut some stripes 0,7/1cm wide.

Using the stripes create the border of the tart.

To ensure the stripes attach better to the base you can brush some egg white that will act as glue.

Place the pastry stripes to create the tart border (at least 0,7mm high)

Place the jam in a bowl and stir it a little with a spoon.

Generously spread the jam on the base, do not reach the top of the border leave at least 3 to 5mm.

Cut some other stripes and use them to create a net on top of the jam, attach the stripes to the border using the egg white.

Do some decoration on the border using a fork.

Put the jam tart in a pre-heated oven. During the baking some bumps or bubbles can appear, using a sharp knife or a fork deflate them as soon as they appear.

Let the tart to cool down for at least 2 hours before removing from the baking tin.