Hello, my dear readers and guests of my blog. Today I’ll tell you all the secrets of successful shortcrust pastry. Depending on what product you will bake, you will choose the recipe you need.

I’ll be honest, I wrote this post for a long time, a very long time, because I got confused. I collected information on the Internet, checked it in books and even from French bloggers. I tried to structure it so as not to miss anything. The dough seems like dough - everything is simple, not like yeast, but it’s the methods of preparation that led me into difficulty.

Have you noticed in the recipes how to prepare shortcrust pastry, two different options are described everywhere.

1. Grind the softened butter with sugar and eggs, then add flour.
2. Cold butter is ground (chopped) with flour, and then eggs beaten with sugar are added.

Sometimes we prepare the same recipe in these different ways. Do your baked goods end up the same? Let's figure it out.

So the first option is shortcrust pastry, and the second option is considered chopped dough.

But let's start with the basics of cooking. We will remember and sort out the completely obvious properties of products that are known to you without me and there will be nothing new here. The point is to further learn how to apply this knowledge about preparing the perfect shortcrust pastry.

Properties of ingredients

Shortcrust pastry should be crumbly. How to achieve this? You need to know a little about how each component in the test works.

• Flour. Flour, as you know, can be different, but what is important to us here is the amount of gluten, gluten. Translated from Latin, gluten means glue. The less it is, the looser the dough will be. Sometimes starch is added to flour to remove the viscosity. It is possible to add another type of flour, for example, oatmeal cookies contain an admixture of oatmeal.
• Oil. Butter is fat; it prevents the flour from sticking together. The higher quality and fattier the oil, the tastier the baked goods will be. Oil in some recipes is replaced with cooking fat (such as lard). Previously, it was sold on the same basis as margarine and in the same 250 g packages, but now I have not seen it anywhere in stores. You can replace butter with margarine. In Soviet times, all recipes in culinary notebooks were made with margarine. Look at your own financial capabilities. But I still recommend using butter. Do not forget that margarine is a combination of fats that are difficult to digest by the body and are poorly excreted from it.
• Eggs and water. This is the link between flour and butter. Depending on the recipe, it is added in a certain amount so that the mass is kneaded into dough, otherwise everything will not come together. Protein is like glue, so for a more sandy effect it is better not to use them. Cookies made with yolks are more crumbly and remain soft longer, for example, Palets Breton (Breton cookies).
• Sugar. Since the dough must be prepared quickly so that the butter does not have time to melt, it is best to replace it with powdered sugar. Another option is to grind with eggs until the crystals are completely dissolved.
• Salt. Salt must be present in any dough, even in sweet ones; a small pinch is enough to highlight the taste; salt brings out the taste of sugar and makes it brighter. With salt, the dough will not seem fresh.
• Baking soda or baking powder. Soda is not placed in the shortbread dough; flowability is achieved through proper preparation. But some housewives who are not confident in their abilities resort to the help of baking powder. Baking will definitely be a success with it. So it's your choice.
• Additional flavoring ingredients. By adding different components, such as vanilla, cocoa, lemon zest, a variety of nuts, dried fruits, drops of chocolate, ground ginger, cinnamon, you will get a new exquisite taste and aroma.

Cooking rules

Now you know how the ingredients work, but there are still mandatory conditions, so to speak, a technological process that must be followed, no matter what recipe you use below.

1. All ingredients must be weighed on a scale. A recipe in cups or spoons is not suitable here; the recipe must be followed strictly in grams. Of course, you can use measuring cups, but be sure to stick to the recipe more closely. Use the table of weights and volumes.
2. Dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking soda or baking powder, cocoa powder, ground nuts) are mixed before cooking. But remember that cocoa is equivalent to bulk cocoa, i.e. to the flour. Therefore, if you add cocoa powder to the dough, then reduce the same amount of flour in the recipe. For example, reduce 1 tablespoon of flour and add 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder.
3. If you are preparing chopped dough, then all kitchen utensils (beating container, whisks, rolling board, rolling pin) should be cold.
4. You can’t knead the shortbread dough for a long time, just combine all the crumbs into a lump and knead it a couple of times. Strike out.
5. The finished shortbread dough must be cooled. Place in a plastic bag, seal tightly and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, preferably an hour. To make the dough cool faster and better, do not put it in a ball, flatten it slightly. Why do you need to refrigerate at all? Look, when heated, butter separates into milk fat and liquid. You could observe this if you were preparing ghee, and remaining cold in the mixture with flour will prevent the flour from absorbing moisture, because flour contains gluten, which combines with the liquid and adds viscosity to the dough. And this cannot be allowed.
6. The dough must be rolled out evenly, otherwise thinner layers will dry out more in the oven. If you are baking one large cake, prick it all over the surface with a fork.
7. Bake shortcrust pastry products in a preheated oven at 200°C, placing the baked goods in the middle of the oven in the standard “top-bottom” oven mode until slightly golden brown.

Shortcrust pastry recipes

France is considered the founders and unsurpassed leaders of confectionery art. So in France, shortbread dough is divided into three types.

1. pâte brisée – basic basic chopped dough.
2. pate sablee – chopped sweet.
3. pate sukree – tender sweet shortbread dough.

Completely unfamiliar names, incomprehensible to ordinary housewives, but familiar to everyone based on the cooking technology.

Basic chopped shortcrust pastry or pâte brisée

It is considered the most universal, basic test. It is usually used to make savory baked goods, such as meat pies, open pies with vegetables or quiche.

Pate Brise is a minced pastry made with just flour, water and a moderate amount of butter, without adding sugar or salt.

Ingredients:

• flour – 250 g;
• butter – 125 g;
• ice water – 50 ml;
• salt - a pinch.

It is prepared using a food processor or mixer, but you can easily knead it with your hands.

1. Place well-chilled butter on flour and chop with a knife (grate or cut into small cubes), grind with flour until fine powdery crumbs are obtained.
2. Gradually add cold water and quickly form the dough into a ball.
3. Place in the refrigerator.

Due to the large grains of cold butter, when the moisture evaporates during the baking process, the dough acquires layered properties. Sometimes this dough is called “false” or “pseudo-layered”.

Depending on the proportions of water, flour and butter, you can even prepare the dough for the crust of the famous and beloved Napoleon cake.

Chopped dough or pate sablee

This is the same chopped dough as the basic one, but with slightly different proportions of ingredients, or rather, with the addition of sugar, eggs and, if necessary, water.

Ingredients:

• flour – 250 g;
• salt - a pinch;
• butter – 125 g;
• sugar – 60 g;
• eggs – 1 pc.

Sweet or buttery shortbread cookie dough (pate sukree)

This is the simplest dough and the easiest to make of all, in my opinion. Cookies from it turn out to be crumbly, they simply melt in your mouth, and the shapes of cookies can be formed into a wide variety of shapes.

The following products can be prepared from shortcrust pastry:

• Kurabye;
• Viennese cookies;
• rings with nuts;
• baskets with protein cream;
• envelopes with jam;
• sugar bagels;
• and many, many other tasty treats.

Shortbread dough is an excellent base for cakes with curd and fruit fillings, and is also suitable for jam pie.

Depending on the amount of flour, the dough will be either softer or denser. The ideal proportion is 1-2-3, i.e. 1 part sugar, 2 parts butter and 3 parts flour. And, note, this is in grams.

The classic one-two-three recipe for shortcrust pastry looks like this:

• sugar – 100 g;
• butter – 200 g;
• flour – 300 g;
• egg – 1 pc. whole or two yolks;
• salt - a pinch;
• baking powder – 1 tsp.

But sometimes a different proportion in a recipe is more justified, namely twice as much flour as butter, especially if milk or sour cream is added to the dough.

How to prepare shortbread dough?

It is good to prepare this dough in advance, the night before, put it in the cold overnight, and quickly form cookies in the morning so that you can be content with fresh pastries for tea for breakfast.

Have you noticed that there are no grains of butter during the cooking process? The butter is ground with sugar and eggs, which means that large voids do not form when heated in the oven, as in chopped butter. This will make the cookies more tender.

I hope you understand the cooking features. Maybe I missed something or made a mistake, write in the comments and we’ll discuss it together.

It’s hard to even count the number of shortcrust pastry recipes. Each recipe has its own characteristics, but they all have one thing in common - the mandatory presence of a large amount of oil.

The basic recipe for making shortcrust pastry uses a minimum of ingredients, and based on it you can prepare a wide variety of desserts.

The standard set of products consists of 12 tbsp. l. high-grade flour, 200 g fatty oil, 4 tbsp. l. Sahara. Vanillin is added at your discretion.

Instead of butter, it is permissible to take high-quality margarine, and instead of sugar, powdered sugar. Large crystals make the mass more rigid, so it is even better to grind regular coarse sugar in a coffee grinder until it becomes powdery.

Preparation:

1. Remove the oil until it reaches room temperature.
2. Sift the flour. Add the rest of the dry ingredients and mix.
3. Grind the flour with the butter, being careful not to overcrowd the mixture. Cookie dough should not be kneaded vigorously like yeast dough. The mass should be soft and elastic. Sometimes a little ice water is added to the mixture for this purpose.
4. Form a ball, carefully roll it in flour, cover with film and put in the refrigerator for ½ hour. It is not recommended to keep it in the cold for longer, as the butter will begin to harden, and then it will be difficult to roll out such a mass into a cake of the required thickness.

The finished dough can be frozen or used immediately for its intended purpose.

Recipe for making pies

Based on this dough, you can bake open and closed pies with different salty and sweet fillings. For salty baked goods, you need to remove sugar from the list of ingredients.

In addition to standard products (4 tbsp. flour, 1 stick of butter and 25 g of sugar), you will also need the following components:

• eggs – 2 pcs.;
• baking powder – 5 g;
• vanilla sugar - at personal discretion.

The preparation algorithm is not at all complicated:

1. Melt the butter on a barely warm stove in a suitable container.
2. Add sugar and stir. Wait until the mixture has cooled completely.
3. Beat the eggs into the cooled mixture and stir.
4. Combine the sifted flour with other bulk products.
5. Combine all components and knead an elastic mass.

Roll it up and put it in a cold place for 25 minutes so that it compresses better. Then the shortbread dough for the pie needs to be rolled out into a layer of the required thickness, sides formed along the edges and the pre-prepared filling laid out.

It is desirable that the filling is not too liquid, but has a thick consistency.

The pie must be baked in the lower part of the oven, otherwise the top will be covered with a burnt crust and the bottom will not have time to bake. If the top of the cake is already burnt, but the inside is still wet, the situation is quite easy to correct - just cover the top of the baked goods with foil.

Classic shortbread cookie dough

Every housewife needs to know the classic shortcrust pastry recipe for making cookies.

Ingredients:

• flour – 12 tbsp. l.;
• butter – 1 pack;
• powdered sugar – 4 tbsp. l.;
• 2 yolks or 1 whole egg.

Baking powder is not needed, as the baked goods are loose due to the large amount of fat.

Preparation:

1. Place the butter in the freezer until it becomes hard. Grind on a coarse grater.
2. Sift flour and mix with sugar. Add the crushed butter and rub with your hands until crumbs form.
3. Add the yolks and knead into an elastic but dense dough. Cool.

The mass can be rolled into a sausage and cut into thin pieces or rolled into a layer and cut out cookies using cutters. The pieces are placed on a baking sheet and baked for 10-15 minutes at a temperature of 220 degrees. There is no need to grease the baking dish with oil, since there is plenty of fat in the products, they will not stick.

Sour cream based option

The dough made with sour cream is more tender and soft. It stays fresh longer and is good for making cakes and soft pies.

In addition to Art. 12 l. flour, 100 g butter and 3 tbsp. l. sugar you will also need the following products:

• sour cream - 10 tbsp. l.
• lemon zest;
• baking powder - 2 tsp.

Preparation:

1. Cut the butter into small squares and leave until softened.
2. Remove the peel from the lemon using a fine grater.
3. Add sour cream, sugar and lemon zest to the butter. Mix with a spoon.
4. Add sifted flour with baking powder and knead the dough. The mass should be homogeneous, soft and not stick to your hands.

Yeast base for baking

Shortbread yeast dough combines the best qualities of both types. Such products do not have a specific fat content. But since the mass is very dense, you should not expect the dough to rise much. It will just be more tender and layered.

In addition to 500 g of flour, 250 g of butter and 2 eggs, you will need the following products:

• water - 4 tbsp. l.;
• dry yeast - 2 tsp;
• sugar - 2 tbsp. l.;
• salt and vanillin.

Preparation:

1. Dissolve yeast in warm water.
2. Chop the butter into cubes and knead the dough. Gather the mixture into a ball, cover with a clean towel and let rise for 2 hours.
3. Roll out the dough into a layer 5 mm thick. If necessary, add flour. Cut out shaped cookies using cookie cutters. If desired, sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.

Bake for no more than 10-12 minutes at 180 degrees. As soon as the baked goods are browned, it’s time to remove them from the oven.

Mix without eggs

Without eggs, baked goods are no less tasty.

Ingredients:

• flour - 250 g;
• butter - 125 g;
• water - 70 ml;
• powdered sugar - 25 g;
• salt - on the tip of the knife.

Shortbread dough without eggs is in no way inferior to its “brothers”.

Preparation:

1. Remove the butter from the refrigerator in advance and grind with sifted flour.
2. Add salt and sugar to the water, stir until dissolved. Pour into remaining ingredients.
3. Place the mixture on the table and knead until it stops sticking to your hands. This will take 1-2 minutes.
4. Place the rolled out dough into the prepared pan and fill with any filling. Sliced ​​fruits - apples, pears, plums - work well with this dough. They are beautifully laid out in the form of a circle. It is advisable to sprinkle the fruit slices with a little sugar and place shavings of butter on top.

Bake for 30-35 minutes at 200 degrees. The finished product should be browned around the edges.

The Lazy Way to Cook in a Food Processor

Housewives who have a food processor at home are very lucky. This machine can knead dough in minutes.

Ingredients:

• flour - 300 g;
• butter - 150 g;
• sugar - 150 g;
• cold water - 90 ml;
• salt - to taste.

Preparation:

1. Cut the cold butter into pieces.
2. Sift the flour.
3. Add ingredients to food processor bowl and pulse to form crumbly crumbs. There is no need to knead for a long time.
4. Dissolve salt and sugar in water. Pour into the crumbs in small portions and stir.
5. Transfer the mixture to another container, cover with film and place in a cool place for ½ hour.

After this, the dough can be used for its intended purpose.

Unusual chopped shortbread dough

Chopped dough is the best choice for preparing bases for various desserts.

Ingredients:

• flour - 12 tbsp. l.;
• butter - 150 g;
• egg - 1 pc.;
• sour cream - 30 g;
• sugar - 0.5 tbsp;
• salt - on the tip of the knife.

Using this recipe, you can prepare unsweetened chopped dough by removing sugar from the list of ingredients.

Preparation:

1. Sift flour and salt onto the table. Add sugar.
2. Cut the pre-chilled butter into cubes. It is better to do this on a large wooden board with a knife. Mix the flour and butter with your hands or use a food processor.
3. Beat in the egg and mix. The mass should not be homogeneous, the main thing is that it is thick and crumbly. If it crumbles too much, you can add a little sour cream or the yolk of one egg.
4. Wrap the dough ball in film and place in the refrigerator.

The main thing is not to knead the dough, collecting it into a ball. It just needs to be compressed.

Cooking with cottage cheese - step-by-step recipe

Cottage cheese gives the dough unusual softness and tenderness. You can use it to prepare both sweet and savory products, which will be lower in calories.

Required components:

• flour - 300 g;
• butter - 1 pack;
• cottage cheese - 200 g;
• sugar - 50 g;
• salt - to taste.

Preparation:

1. Cut the butter into pieces.
2. Place all ingredients except cottage cheese in a food processor bowl and grind into fine crumbs. This will take no more than a minute.
3. Grind the cottage cheese through a sieve and add to the rest of the mixture. Mix with a food processor for no more than 10 seconds. The mass should gather into a lump.

All that remains is to carefully assemble the dough, wrap it in film and put it in the cold.

Plastic and soft shortcrust pastry

Plastic dough that melts in your mouth is prepared according to this simple recipe.

Ingredients:

• flour - half a kilogram pack;
• powdered sugar - 1 tbsp;
• butter - 1 pack;
• 2 eggs or 4 yolks - your choice.

Preparation:

1. Remove the butter from the freezer an hour before cooking.
2. Grind it with sugar with a spatula or spoon.
3. Add flour and eggs.
4. Carefully form a ball and put it in the cold.

You can first give the dough the desired shape, and only then put it in the refrigerator. The main thing is that the products get into the oven cooled.

Ideal dough for cakes and tarts

You need to know that it is almost impossible to get the perfect dough for baskets in the heat. It does not tolerate high temperatures, so it must be done in a cool room.

Required components:

• flour - 7 tbsp. l.;
• butter - ½ pack;
• egg - 60 g without shell;
• water - 15 ml;
• sugar - 1 tbsp. l.;
• salt - to taste.

The main thing is that all components are cold.

Preparation:

1. Sift the flour and mix it with the rest of the dry ingredients.
2. Cut the butter into cubes.
3. Place the prepared foods in a container and place in the refrigerator.
4. Beat the eggs with a whisk with water and also refrigerate.
5. Rub the flour and butter into crumbs using your palms. It is better if you use a mixer to do this so that the oil does not come into contact with warm hands.
6. If the butter does not melt, you can immediately add the egg mixture. Has the baby become warm? This means that before adding the eggs it needs to be cooled and only then stirred for a few seconds at low speed.
7. Quickly knead the dough without unnecessary movements. The mass should not stick to the table, and if it sticks, it means the dough is overheated.
8. Place the dough on baking paper dusted with flour, roll it out, cover with another sheet and refrigerate for 1 hour.
9. Roll out the dough a little if necessary and place in the pan. Wait until it settles, then gently press it against the walls. Cut off the protruding sides and prick the bottom with a fork.

French confectioners cover the dough with a special film, cover it with rice, and then put it in the refrigerator for 1-1.5 hours. After this, the form with the dough is sent to an oven preheated to 170 degrees and baked until browned. Then the film with rice is removed, and the base itself is baked for another 10 minutes. At the very end, it is carefully laid out on the wire rack and used for its intended purpose.

Ingredients:

• flour - 3 tbsp;
• butter - 200 g;
• mayonnaise - 200 ml;
• sugar - 11 tbsp. l;
• large egg;
• vanillin - sachet;
• baking soda and vinegar or lemon juice.

Preparation:

1. Combine sugar with eggs and mayonnaise. Add vanillin, quench the soda with lemon juice.
2. Add flour in small portions, stirring constantly.
3. Cut the softened butter into pieces and stir quickly. The mass should be soft, and in no case hard.

This dough can be used to make any desserts.

Shortbread dough for one, two, three

The good thing about this recipe is that the quantities of ingredients can be easily remembered once and for all.

The dough itself is prepared using simple technology:

• 1 serving of sugar;
• 2 servings of fat;
• 3 servings of flour.

Sometimes egg yolks are added for binding. The cooking principle is completely similar to the previous recipes. Thanks to this simple formula, you can make exactly the amount of dough you need.

Kurnik dough - what is special?

Kurnik dough is prepared with margarine or butter.

Products:

• flour - 2 tbsp;
• butter - 200 g;
• sugar - 2 tsp;
• egg - 1 pc.;
• salt - 0.5 tsp;
• a little soda and lemon juice.

Preparation:

1. Combine butter with sugar and salt. Stir with a fork.
2. Beat in the egg and mix again.
3. Add flour in small portions and add slaked soda.
4. Quickly knead the dough and refrigerate.

After this, the dough is used according to the recipe. It is divided into 2 parts, rolled out into 2 layers, and then one of them is laid out in a mold. Form the sides and distribute the meat filling. The second layer is laid on top and several holes are made in it. The pie takes no more than 40 minutes to prepare.

You can make a huge variety of savory snacks and sweet desserts from regular shortcrust pastry. And the recipe is easy to choose from those proposed in accordance with your own preferences and the availability of the necessary ingredients in the kitchen.

Anyone who is interested in cooking, and especially baking, has most likely dealt with shortcrust pastry. After all, it is from it that various pies, cake bases, tartlets, baskets, and cookies are prepared. And it is generally accepted that it is quite simple, and it is easy and simple to prepare.

And in principle, this is how it is, it is prepared quickly and simply. And therefore it is widely used in home cooking. For example, I have also been using it for baking for a long time. But what’s interesting is that I had never really thought about the fact that products made from it can be completely different.

For some, they turn out to be tender and crumbly, while for others, they turn out to be too oily or even hard. And I wondered why this was happening. After all, this question is by no means rhetorical! When you bake, you don’t want to waste food, and you also don’t want the baked goods to turn out great one time, but not at all the next time. I want it to always come out with the same result - Excellent!

And then I began to be more attentive to the recipes I cooked according to, and to the recipe of this or that baked product. I studied cooking recipes and analyzed them. I also began to read information on this topic that I came across. And it turned out that this is a whole science that all world-class chefs and confectioners comprehend.

It turns out that to prepare real shortcrust pastry you need to know some basic principles and many nuances and secrets. Knowing them, there will never be any problems with cooking recipes and, of course, with baking, and everything we prepare from it will turn out with a predictable, excellent result.

Most likely everyone knows why it is called that way? Confectionery products baked from it crumble like sand, hence the logical name. What makes it possible to achieve such a consistency and what ingredients are required for preparation? We will consider these questions first.

1. Of course, the first thing we need is flour. What is baking without flour?! It is believed that for “correct” preparation, it must contain an average percentage of gluten or gluten, or, simply put, glue. If the percentage is low, then the finished confectionery products will quickly crumble. If, on the contrary, the percentage is high, then the “glue” will stick it together and the baked goods will not turn out as crumbly as we would like.

We will not now determine how much gluten is in this or that flour. Everything has already been decided for us. And we will simply use ready-made results taken from the Internet. It is believed that the average percentage of gluten contains premium and “Extra” grade flour. So we didn’t go wrong with this, and we always prepared it from the “correct” flour.

Sometimes some additional components are added to the flour, such as nut or almond flour, oatmeal or starch. All these components are added depending on what you would like to cook. Next, we will look at how to add these components.

2. Crumbly products are obtained from a sufficiently large amount of fat, namely butter or margarine in the recipe. This is a very important component and therefore its selection should be taken very seriously.

In Soviet times, butter was a great luxury, and therefore almost all baked goods were prepared with margarine. Currently, I have not used margarine for a long time, too many unflattering words have been written about it, and besides, it is believed that it is poorly absorbed by the body, and is simply harmful for consumption.

I use 82.5% oil, it is natural and healthy. Peasant butter contains 72.5% trans fats, which are also not recommended for consumption.

It is believed that the higher quality and fattier the oil, the tastier the products baked with it will be. Oil prevents the flour from sticking together; it envelops the flour particles and prevents them from connecting to each other. And it is precisely because of this that the baked goods turn out crumbly and tender, with a soft sandy consistency.

Due to the large grains of cold butter, when moisture evaporates during the baking process, the product acquires layered properties. Therefore, sometimes in the literature you can find such a concept as “false puff pastry”.

3. It must also contain a liquid component - and here it is eggs and water. Water, as a rule, is used very cooled, almost ice-cold. And if we cook it with eggs, then you can use only the yolks.

The white contains more adhesive substances, and therefore it glues particles together more than it holds together, while the yolk practically does not glue, but has adhesive properties, which allows it to remain crumbly. With all this, it binds flour and butter together well. This also applies to cold water.

The water must be very cool to prevent the butter from melting.

4. If we prepare it for sweet confectionery, then, of course, we cannot do without sugar. It is better to take small sugar so that it dissolves quickly. It’s best to grind the amount of sugar required according to the recipe into powder.

It is clear that we add sugar to sweet dough, but what about the non-sweet dough? It is believed that you should always add a pinch of salt to it, and a pinch of sugar to unsweetened food.

Speed ​​of preparation is the main condition. It should not be in contact with the surrounding air and warm hands for a long time. Our task is to prevent the butter from melting during kneading!

Therefore, in order for sugar to dissolve faster, a technique such as grinding sugar with eggs is used, and that is why sugar is used fine or ground into powder.

5. Salt, as well as sugar, must always be added, whether we are preparing sweet or non-sweet dishes. Therefore, do not forget about it, and always add a pinch, or as much as required according to the recipe.

It is believed that adding salt and sugar allows you to prepare very tasty, not bland-tasting baked goods.

5. Now we are offered a huge number of different recipes in which soda or baking powder can be found in the ingredients. It must be said that these ingredients are usually not used in classic recipes. But, in principle, they are acceptable. In this case, soda is usually extinguished not with vinegar, as we are used to, but with lemon juice.

This is done so that the finished products do not have an unpleasant specific taste of soda.

6. And what is not added as additional flavoring additives, mainly lemon and orange zest, vanilla and vanilla sugar, cocoa, chocolate, various nuts, including as flour, dried fruits, candied fruits. Ginger and cinnamon are also added.

7. All components must correspond exactly to the recipe. If it says that you need 115 grams of oil, and 75 grams of oil, then that’s exactly how much you should use. In this case, the expression “by eye” is completely inappropriate!

Use electronic scales, and if you don’t have them, there are many tables of weights and measures on the Internet, from which you can accurately determine the required proportions.

Basic cooking principles

Of course, the composition of the ingredients is very important! But it can be the same for everyone, but the end result will be different for everyone.

Let's figure out together the basic principles of cooking, and also learn all the secrets, thanks to which our confectionery products will always turn out perfectly.

1. To prepare the chopped dough, all ingredients, including flour, must be chilled in the refrigerator.

The oil must be chilled. Someone puts it in the freezer to cool - this is wrong. The butter should be easy to cut into cubes with a knife, and when you press on it, it should “flatten” slightly.

2. All kitchen utensils that we will use must also be pre-cooled in the refrigerator. This is a board, a rolling pin, and a knife. If you use a mixer, you will also need to keep it in the refrigerator for some time.

This is important because it must have a certain structure, otherwise the baked goods may turn out very far from ideal. That is why you also need to knead it extremely quickly! So that the butter does not have time to melt!

3. Before starting mixing, you need to combine all the bulk components separately, and all the liquid components separately.

Flour and baking powder (if you use it, or it is in the recipe) must be sifted through a sieve. Add salt and starch to the flour if it is in the recipe. Bulk ingredients include nut flour, oatmeal, cocoa, cinnamon, and dried ginger.

If we use these ingredients, we also mix them with flour. But make sure the proportions are correct. If you introduce additional ingredients into a recipe yourself, then enter them according to the principle of substitution. We decided to introduce a spoonful of almond flour, remove a spoonful of regular flour from the recipe.

It is believed that no more than 10% of flour can be replaced. So if your recipe specifies 300 grams of flour, and you decide to add almond flour, then add 30 grams of almond flour and 270 grams of regular flour. The same goes for cocoa. If you add a spoonful of starch or cocoa, remove the spoonful of flour.

Sugar is also a bulk ingredient, but it is better to mix it with the egg yolks in advance. This way it will dissolve faster and you won’t have to knead the dough for a long time. We remember that this is unacceptable.

You should also not add sugar; stick to the recipe - excess sugar will make the finished products too hard.

In general, the rule is simple - dry ingredients are always mixed with flour, and liquid ingredients with an egg, and only immediately before kneading they are combined.

Sometimes ice water is added instead of eggs, or together with them.

How to Knead and Use Baking Dough

There are also certain rules in this regard, breaking which is not in our interests if we expect to bake delicious pastries. How to knead and work with flour:

• Sift the flour into a mound through a sieve onto a cooled board.
• add sugar, vanilla sugar, baking soda and lemon juice on top
• Cut the chilled butter into cubes measuring 1x1 cm, add to the flour

• Chop the butter with a knife or two (this will be faster) along with all other ingredients
• chop with movements from the edges to the center
• add eggs when crumbs form

• Do the kneading by hand. This should be done as quickly as possible, especially if the kitchen is warm. The carbon dioxide formed during long kneading will evaporate and the finished product will become too dense.
• try to touch it with your hands as little as possible, otherwise it will be too sticky, and the baked goods will turn out hard and not crumbly
• put the dough in a bag, crush it into a thick pancake and put it in the refrigerator for at least an hour
• if you use a large amount of the finished product, then divide it into several bags and take it out one at a time so that the butter in it does not have time to melt and not disturb its texture
• it should be rolled out on a table or board sprinkled with flour so that it does not stick
• it cannot be stretched or pulled out, because During baking, it may shrink and then the products will lose their desired shape.
• thick layers do not bake well, so you need to roll it into a layer no more than 4-8 mm thick
• when you need to roll out the layer thinly, you can do this on a sheet of baking paper
• transfer it to a baking sheet; in this case, you can roll it onto a rolling pin

• It should be rolled out evenly, otherwise during baking thin layers will burn and thick layers will not be baked
• If you make cookies from the dough, the cutting grooves should be sharp. Blunt grooves crease the edges of the products and this will not allow the products to rise
• When baking blanks for open pies or cakes, the rolled out layers are pierced in several places with a fork. This must be done so that bubbles of released carbon dioxide do not form on the surface and so that the products do not bubble
• When placing the workpiece in the mold, press it against the mold with your fingers, not allowing air pockets to form, otherwise during baking the mold or products may become deformed and become unsightly
• thick layers should be baked at a low temperature, and thin layers, on the contrary, at an increased temperature
• There is no need to grease the baking sheet with oil, all products already contain a sufficient amount of it
• Products made from such preparations should be baked at a temperature of 200 degrees, in the lower third of the oven, so that the lower part of the pie turns out crumbly and the top does not burn
• the finished baked goods should have a nice golden color

• It is allowed to cover the baking dish with the products with foil so that the top does not burn and the middle is baked
• If the finished products are stuck to the sheet or are difficult to reach, then they should be given a little time to cool. Then lightly hit the sheet on the edge of the table, the sheet will move and you can pick it up with a spatula or your hands
• When using the filling, you should be aware that fruit fillings and custard can be spread or brushed onto the cakes while they are still warm. If you use buttercream, wait until the cakes have cooled completely.

In addition to the fact that the dough can be kneaded by hand, you can also use a food processor or mixer for these purposes. In it, kneading occurs much faster, and the butter does not have time to melt. In addition, contact with warm hands is reduced to almost nothing.

The only thing you need to pay attention to when working with a mixer is that you don’t need to turn on high speed. Grind flour and butter at low speed so that they do not heat up excessively.

If something doesn't work, possible errors

1. Why does the dough turn out too greasy when rolled out?

• You may be using oil at room temperature
• it might be very hot in the kitchen
• kneading too long, your hands become hot and melt the butter

How to eliminate: put the product in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Use small portions for rolling.

It should be smooth and matte in appearance, but if it is shiny and glossy, then the butter has melted.

2. Why is the product tough?

• flour with a high degree of gluten is used
• use a lot of egg white or eggs
• uses a lot of sugar
• kneaded for a very long time, especially in warm conditions, carbon dioxide evaporated and the product became dense

How to fix: the products are already baked - no way! Just keep this in mind for the future!

3. Why did the dough after baking become uneven, decreased in size, or covered in bubbles?

• They did not keep it in the refrigerator for a sufficient amount of time before baking. The butter melted before the necessary processes began to occur in the flour.
• When they laid it out in a mold, or on a baking sheet, they stretched it very much. It returned to its shape when baked.
• the layers were not pricked with a fork, and the bubbles of the resulting carbon dioxide swelled the baked goods.

How to fix: Consider these rules for your next baked goods.

What types of shortcrust pastry exist and their recipes?

From a properly prepared product you can prepare various sweet and savory baked goods. And there are several methods for proper preparation and different baking options.

Chopped method

The product, which is prepared by chopping, received this name. This is often the method used to make savory pies. And traditionally, flour, ice water, butter, a pinch of sugar and salt are used to prepare it. Proportions 1-2-3, you've probably heard this concept. Everything is very simple, the proportion is given for ease of remembering - take 1 part of water, for example 50 ml, oil - 2 parts, that is 100 g, and flour - 3 parts, this turns out to be 150 g, and of course a pinch of salt and sugar.

The easiest way to prepare it is in a food processor; this speeds up the cooking process by 2-3 times, thereby preventing the butter from melting. But you can do it with your hands, but you need to do it quickly!

It is prepared this way.

—Pour flour onto the table or into a mixer, add salt and sugar

— Cut the cooled butter into 1x1 cm cubes, add to the flour and chop with a knife, or do it using a food processor

- Grind flour and butter into crumbs

— Gradually add ice water and quickly combine the mixture into a ball

— Place it in a plastic bag, slightly flatten it with your hand and put it in the refrigerator to cool for 30-60 minutes.

From the product prepared in this way, you can bake meat and fish pies, open pies, French quiche, or tart, which are also prepared open and closed.

It is from this that you can make tartlets.

In this version, the dough is first laid out in a mold and a piece is baked, which is subsequently filled with filling, which is already ready or will be baked additionally.

Sweet butter dough

This option is suitable for sweet baked goods - cookies, pies, cakes, baskets and cake layers. For proper preparation, there is also a proportion, which is called “one-two-three dough” - this is the easiest and simplest option. That is, for example, take one part of sugar, for example 50 g, two parts of butter, this will be 100 g, and 3 parts of flour - 150 g.

In general, the classic recipe is this:

• flour - 3 cups
• butter - 300 gr
• fine granulated sugar - 2/3 cup
• egg - 2 pcs
• soda - on the tip of a knife
• zest of 1/2 lemon
• vanillin - to taste
• salt - a pinch
• lemon juice - to extinguish soda

Instead of water, add both whole eggs and egg yolks. It all depends on what kind of baked goods you want to make. Therefore, if the recipe states that you need to use eggs - we use eggs, it says to use yolks - then we use only yolks.

We remember that using proteins makes the product denser, and using yolks makes it more crumbly. It is prepared this way.

— Sift the flour onto the table or into a mixer bowl.

— If you make a product with the addition of starch, cinnamon, nut flour or other dry additives, add them to the flour.

— Cut the cooled butter into cubes and add to the flour. Chop with a knife or mixer.

- Separately, mix the yolks with fine sugar or powdered sugar, grind thoroughly until the sugar dissolves.

— Add the egg-sugar mixture to the flour and butter and knead quickly.

— Place the resulting mass in cling film or a plastic bag, wrap tightly and place in the refrigerator for 30-60 minutes.

The baked goods turn out crumbly and tender - these are everyone’s favorite kurabye cookies, rings with nuts, Viennese cookies, and various baskets.

You can use it to make Italian crostata, open and closed pies with fruit, berry or curd fillings, everyone’s favorite. And just recently I shared with you a recipe with a very nut cream, just like this with a base.

In addition to the main, so-called basic recipes, there are also other cooking methods.

Soft shortbread dough with sour cream or milk

Depending on the composition of the ingredients, you can obtain a product with a softer or denser consistency. It depends on what you want to cook. And in this case, we no longer pay attention to the proportion 1-2-3.

This usually happens when it is prepared with the addition of sour cream or milk. In these cases, there may be twice as much flour as butter. And this dough is prepared a little differently.

The main difference will be that the oil in such recipes is used at room temperature; it must be removed from the refrigerator about an hour before cooking.

How to cook?

- Grind soft butter or margarine with sugar, eggs or egg yolks. With eggs the finished product will be denser, with egg yolks it will be more crumbly.

— Add sour cream or milk, stir

- Mix flour with salt, baking powder or soda, which is quenched with lemon juice

-Pour the flour into the mixture of butter, sugar and eggs. Mix quickly. Form a ball

— Wrap the ball in film, slightly flatten the ball and put it in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours

This dough turns out to be quite soft and sometimes you have to literally spread it on a baking sheet or the bottom of the mold. And to prepare cookies, you will need to squeeze out the mixture through a pastry bag.

Recipe with sour cream

• flour - 3 cups
• butter - 200 gr
• sour cream -2/3 cup
• egg - 1 pc.
• sugar -2-3 tbsp. spoons
• soda - 1/3 teaspoon
• salt - 1/2 teaspoon

Another option is being prepared using the same principle.

Soft shortbread dough recipe

• flour - 3 cups
• butter - 400 gr
• egg yolks - 3 pcs
• sugar - 2/3 cup
• soda - on the tip of a knife

The recipes are of course very high in calories, since they contain a lot of oil. This must be taken into account, and such baked goods should not be prepared so often, otherwise you will soon have to go on a very strict diet.

You probably noticed the difference between this method and the chopped method. In the “soft” version there are no grains of butter with flour. It is almost completely ground with sugar and eggs. As a result, no voids are formed inside during baking, which means it will turn out more tender.

By the way, depending on the proportions of flour, oil and water, you can prepare cakes for everyone’s favorite. This recipe is on the pages of my blog, the recipe is secret, if you are interested, read the recipe at the link. This cake turns out to be very tender and tasty.

In addition to the so-called basic cooking methods, recipes with unconventional additives began to appear, such as cheese, cottage cheese or even mashed potatoes. Since there are such recipes, let's look at them too. Moreover, baking with them turns out unusual and quite tasty,

Shortbread dough with cheese

This option can be prepared if we want to bake pies with potato or fish filling. These pies turn out to be very tender, tasty, with a certain piquant cheese flavor.

We will need:

• flour - 200 gr
• hard cheese - 200 gr
• butter - 150 g
• egg - 1 pc.
• salt and sugar - a pinch

Preparation:

1. Sift flour onto a board. Add salt and sugar. Make a hole in the middle of the slide and crack an egg into it.

2. Grate the cooled cheese and add to the flour. Cut the cooled butter into cubes and add to the total mass.

3. Chop the resulting mass with a knife or grind into crumbs using a mixer.

4. Quickly knead. Then roll it into a ball and put it in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

5. Use as needed.

Recipe with added cottage cheese

This option can be prepared when we want to bake pies with fruits or berries.

We will need:

• flour - 300 gr
• cottage cheese - 200 gr
• butter - 200 gr
• egg - 1 pc.
• sugar - 2 tbsp. spoons
• salt - a pinch

Preparation:

1. Cottage cheese must be fatty, but not liquid. It is not recommended to use stale cottage cheese; it will add unnecessary sourness to our baked goods.

Grind the cottage cheese through a sieve and put it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

2. Sift flour onto a board, add salt and sugar. Beat an egg into the middle.

3. Cut the butter, add it to the flour along with the cooled cottage cheese. Chop everything into crumbs.

4. Quickly knead, form a ball, wrap it in film and put it in the refrigerator for an hour.

In such options, you can add walnuts, chocolate, ginger, cinnamon, cocoa, and condensed milk as additional ingredients.

Potato recipe

Boiled, cooled and coarsely grated potatoes can be added when we want to make pies with meat or vegetable filling.

We will need:

• flour - 200 gr
• boiled potatoes - 200 gr
• butter - 150 g
• egg - 1 pc.
• sugar - 1 teaspoon, incomplete
• salt - 1 teaspoon, incomplete

Preparation:

1. Sift flour onto a board, add salt and sugar.

2. Make a hole in the middle of the slide and crack an egg into it.

3. Add grated boiled potatoes; by the way, you can grind them into puree.

4. Add cooled and diced butter.

5. Chop the resulting mass with a knife until crumbly, and then quickly knead the resulting mass.

6. Roll it into a ball, wrap it in film, slightly flatten it with your hand and put it in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

And so, let’s summarize what has been said. In fact, preparing the “correct” shortcrust pastry and delicious baked goods from it is not at all difficult. The main thing is to understand what happens as a result of this or that action we perform when mixing it.

If we understand what's what, then firstly, we will not ignore the explanations to the recipe, and secondly, we will not forget the sequence and order of action. After all, in fact, everything here is logical and understandable!

Therefore, if you don’t quite know how to cook it yet, then I hope that today’s article will help you with this.

If after reading you still have questions, then ask them in the comments, and if I know the answer, I will be happy to answer it. If I don’t know the answer, then we’ll try to figure it out together. It's so exciting to learn culinary secrets and tricks.

And I am always grateful to you for sharing articles with your friends. Therefore, I would like to thank you in advance for the CLASS you provided or the repost you made!

Always prepare only delicious pastries. And bon appetit!

1. Cold-temperature butter, not frozen, cut into pieces.

2. Combine the butter with the flour sifted through a sieve.

3. Using a knife, quickly cut in the flour to form fine flour crumbs. Add soda, salt and sugar and continue moving the knife so that the products are evenly distributed.

4. Make a small well in the flour crumbs and crack the egg into it.

5. Stir the mixture with a fork or knife so that the egg is evenly distributed throughout the mixture.

6. Knead the dough with quick movements, gathering it into a lump. Here, in fact, you don’t need to knead anything, just rake the dough from the edges to the middle, forming it into one whole “ball”.

7. Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate for half an hour, or better yet, an hour. The dough can be kept in the refrigerator for 1-2 days. It can also be frozen for up to 3 months.
After a certain time, you can start baking cookies, pastries, pies. But keep in mind that since the dough contains a large amount of fat, the board and rolling pin for rolling must be chilled, so I recommend keeping them in the refrigerator for some time in advance. It is also important to roll out the dough very quickly, because... it must not be allowed to warm up.

Note: the dough can be given a special taste and aroma. To do this, vanilla sugar, grated lemon or orange zest, crushed chocolate, cocoa powder, ground or chopped nuts, cinnamon, etc. are added to the composition. Additives should be added when kneading the dough and cooled with them in the refrigerator.

Sometimes you want to enjoy some baked goods. And the more successful it is, the greater the feeling of satisfaction. Each of us has a favorite delicacy, the basis of which is shortbread dough. A skilled housewife can complement a classic recipe with her favorite ingredients, which will allow her to create an individual culinary masterpiece.

Shortbread dough

This is a semi-finished product that is used in the preparation of flour products both on an industrial scale and at home. It is obtained by mixing different ingredients and is the basis of many recipes, so how tasty the finished dish will be depends on it. At the same time, you need to know what dough is being prepared for what purpose and how to knead it correctly.

The dough can be prepared using two different technologies:

• yeast;
• yeast-free.

In production using the first technology, yeast is used as a leavening agent. There are two possible methods here: sponge (first the starter is kneaded, and then the dough itself) and straight (the dough is used immediately after kneading).

Yeast-free dough is divided into biscuit, shortbread and puff pastry. Each of them is prepared using its own technology and differs significantly in taste.

The classic recipe of which is based on maintaining a 3:2:1 ratio (flour/butter/sugar), is used for baking cookies and pies, and is also found in some recipes for pastries and cakes.

Classic shortbread dough

The correct shortbread dough turns out to be very tasty and tender. The classic recipe has several options:

• flour, butter, sugar, water, egg yolk;
• flour, butter, sugar, water;
• flour, butter, sugar, eggs, soda, vanillin;
• flour, butter, sour cream, sugar, soda, baking powder.

This dough is prepared easily and quickly, it turns out very tender and crumbly.

Shortbread dough, the classic recipe of which necessarily includes butter, is kneaded in several ways. It depends on what consistency the oil is in. Frozen butter is grated, hard butter from the refrigerator is cut into cubes with a knife, softened butter is placed in flour and mixed with it with a mixer, melted butter is poured out and also mixed. If you need to get lean shortbread dough, then replace the butter with vegetable oil.

Cookie dough

Freshly prepared homemade shortbread cookies have a unique taste and delicate aroma. This is a case where the simplest is the best. Such cookies, intended for use, will probably take longer to cook than to show off on the dinner table.

Classic does not contain any frills or unnecessary ingredients. The good thing about such cookies is that they are served warm, sometimes still hot, as they say, piping hot. This is where its charm lies. What makes these cookies especially attractive is their shape: you can cut out little animals, flowers and stars.

So, let's take the necessary products:

• 200 g butter;
• 100 g granulated sugar;
• 2 eggs;
• 2 cups of flour;
• 0.5 tsp. soda

Let's start cooking:

If desired, you can add raisins, cocoa powder, and nuts to the mixture before baking.

Pie dough

The classic recipe for shortcrust pastry for a pie allows you to well retain the moisture that is released from the fruit during baking. At the same time, the pie remains crispy on the outside, and to prevent it from leaking, you need to put a little starch in the filling.

The minimum version of such a test looks like this. Let's take as ingredients:

• 235 g flour;
• 115 g butter;
• 115 ml water.

Preparation:

1. Place all food and equipment in the refrigerator for ten minutes.
2. Using a knife, cut the butter into small cubes and then chop it with flour.
3. Add ice water to the fine butter crumbs and gather the dough into a ball.
4. Wrapping it in film, place the dough in the refrigerator for half an hour.
5. Place it on the table, roll it out, add the filling and put it in the oven.

If you do everything using this technology, the dough will turn out crispy and will not form bubbles during baking.

The pie can be decorated open or closed, on a baking sheet or in a mold. As a filling for such a pie, you can use strawberries, cherries, wild berries, and apples. You can simply sprinkle the filling with sugar, or you can pour gelatin dissolved in yogurt over the berries or fruits. This delicacy will be appreciated by everyone.

Wonderful dessert

Classic shortbread dough forms a beautiful golden brown crust when baked. The recipe with a photo of the finished product is a vivid example of this.

The dough made according to the previous recipe is very suitable for a pie with berries. The only thing you can add to the ingredients is granulated sugar. In addition to sweetness, it also forms a pleasant aromatic crust, which will give the finished product a beautiful appearance.

This pie would be a wonderful dessert; it goes very well with milk, juice, and compote. Enthusiastic praise from loved ones will be a reward for your efforts in preparing the pie.

Various shortcrust pastry products

Recently, shortcrust pastry products have become very popular because they are easy to prepare and have a homemade taste.

When made correctly, the dough has a crumbly structure and a sweetish taste. You can use it to make closed and pastries, cakes, bagels, and tartlets. They will decorate a festive table and are also suitable for a modest evening tea party.

Wonderful shortbread dough, the classic recipe of which is supplemented with kefir, will be used for bagels with jam. Kefir makes the dough very elastic, which allows you to roll a bagel filled with aromatic filling.

Shortbread dough, the classic recipe of which allows you to roll it out very thin, will be an excellent basis for cheesecake with cottage cheese. Children love this pastry because it has a very delicate creamy taste.