Pâte Brisée and Short Pastries

The quality of the pastry used to make tarts and tartlets is perhaps even more important than the quality of pie dough. Because tarts are generally thinner than pies, with less filling, the dough is a prominent part of the finished pastry and not just a holder for the filling, as often seems to be the case with American-style pies. The best of these doughs are made with pure butter, not shortening, and they generally are enriched with eggs and sugar.

This section includes two types of doughs, which differ in their mixing methods. Pâte brisée (pronounced pot bree zay; the term means “broken dough”) is mixed the same way as mealy pie dough—that is, the fat is first combined with the flour. The amount of mixing determines how flaky the dough is. Review pie dough production if necessary. If you compare the formula for pâte brisée in this chapter with the formula for Enriched Pie Pastry, you will see they are very similar. Pâte brisée is usually used for large tarts.