Name: Sweet Pastry (Pâté Brisée)
Yield: Makes 1 quantity
Ingredients: 500 g (1 lb 2 oz) unsalted butter, chilled, cut into 1.5 cm (⅝ inch) cubes; salt; 665 g (1 lb 7½ oz) plain (all-purpose) flour, chilled; 80 g (2¾ oz/about 5) egg yolks, chilled; 260 g (9¼ oz) icing (confectioners’) sugar, sifted and chilled

Preparation info

Makes
1
quantity

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Bourke Street Bakery

By Paul Allam and David McGuinness

Published 2009

About

This is a shorter pastry than the pâté brisée, meaning that it has a higher ratio of butter to flour. The fact that it has no water means that the texture of the pastry itself is more crumbly — it holds its shape better and remains crisper for longer than pâté brisée. You can use this as you would a shortcrust pastry.

Ingredients

500 g (1 lb 2 oz) unsalted butter, chilled, cut into 1.5 cm (⅝ inch) cubes

Method

Remove the butter from the refrigerator 20 minutes before you start mixing — the butter should be just soft but still very cold.

If you are mixing the dough by hand, put the butter, icing sugar and salt in a bowl and mix well with a wooden spoon to combine. Beat the yolks into the bowl, a lit