Tarts in Parts: Down to the Crust

My grandmother was the queen of crust.  Her pie innards weren't always stellar, but she had superlative skill with a crust; everybody said so. 

When I was younger I tried to get her to teach me, but the first thing she said was, you have to do this a lot to get good at it.  Which was not exactly what I wanted to hear at the time.  At nineteen, I wasn't THAT interested, and how many nineteen-year-olds do you know that like to hear "Practice Makes Perfect"?  Vomititious.

Now, of course, I am.  Interested, that is.  I wish now I had taken advantage of her tutelage, and it's too late.  What a dim-bunny.  The written instructions she gave me, and my sketchy memory of the time we spent together baking pies just aren't enough.  My pie crusts are dense, tooth-breakers.  Or they fall apart, the ingredients apparently having declared war and refusing to bond.  So when I started on tarts, I wasn't sure I was ready to tackle that behemoth "The Hand-Made Crust" again. I did a lot of searching the net for recipes and advice, and wow, I had no idea there were so many options for tart crusts.  The alternative crust list is below.  But to begin, here are two basic recipes for "from scratch" tart crust:

From Fabulous Foods 1 1/2 C flour 1/4 C sugar 1/4 tsp. salt 1/2 C butter 1 egg yolk 1/4 C cold water

From Epicurious.com 2 cups all purpose flour 1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt 3/4 cup (1.5 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes 3 tablespoons (or more) ice water 2 tablespoons chilled whipping cream

Differences: egg yolk in one and whipping cream in the other.  The destructions are pretty similar too, although Epicurious assumes you have a food processor, which I don't, and puts emphasis on not over-mixing.  This is the primary thing my gramma said too, cutting in the butter only until clumps form, not mixing it too thoroughly, was very important.  That, and working quickly, which I never could do.  But yeah, I know, practice makes perfect.  Basically:

Combine flour, sugar and salt in a bowl. Cut in shortening thoroughly with a {pastry blender or food processor, or two knives or big fork, as my gramma did it} until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. In a small bowl, stir {egg yolk or cream} together with cold water. Pour this mixture into the flour/butter mixture and mix until a ball of dough forms. Shape the dough into a disc and refrigerate at least an hour before rolling out.

Fabulous Foods also has a page of destructions for rolling out and baking the crust here, complete with pictures (one of which I stole here).  I just love a site with pictures.  Generally speaking, no matter what kind of pan or tin you use, just roll out the dough, cut into rounds that are a bit bigger than your pan/tin, press the dough down into the pan, and trim the edges if desired.

Now if you want to try some other (or some easier) alternatives:

• Crust made with a tube of refrigerated crescent rolls, like this recipe.  You just roll crescent dough out on a lightly floured surface; seal seams and perforations. Cut into 2-inch circles. Place in prepared muffin cups.
• Crust made with phyllo dough, a thin Greek pastry, like this recipe.  You can find more tips on working with phyllo at Ellen's Kitchen, but the basic idea is to layer, oil, sugar, and then cut the stacked dough and press into muffin cups.
• Crust made of shortbread, like this recipe.  Now this sounds delish, must try.  Perhaps a bit more forgiving than the traditional pie/tart crust recipes.
• Crust made from cookie dough - like this recipe.  Hmm, I wonder if you could use refrigerated cookie dough...
• Crust made of graham crackers, like this recipe.  The graham cracker crust is pretty easy, it's just sugar, graham crackers and butter.  But you can also buy these ready-made.

The dough you use really should depend on what your filling will be, as I discovered with my chocolate marshmallow tarts.  I used a pre-made graham cracker crust that worked very well with chocolate filling, but tasted awful when I used lemon curd as a filling. 

Most grocery stores and specialty food shops carry pre-made pie shells in various sizes, if you don't have time to make your own crust, or if you're a chicken-poop like me.  Now, don't get me wrong, I AM going to do some from scratch.  But pre-made shells are a wonderful thing.  I found these wonderful little sweet tart shells (appetizer size) from Clearbrook Farms that tasted a lot like little shortbread cookies.  I filled them with a variety of stuff, some of which worked, some of which didn't.  But more on fillings in my next tart post!

Comments

[Jane]

Your granny was right. I've been making crusts for many years and practice is the only way to get a good crust. My preference is for the basic recipe: 1 cup flour, 1/3 cup shortening (not butter), 1/2 tsp. salt, and ice water. Many of the older cookbooks say to cut the shorteneing in to the size of peas. I have gradually come to agree with this, though I try for SMALL peas. The rationale is that the expansion of the shortening under heat causes the desired flakiness in your crust. When your shortening particles are too small the expansion is smaller, resulting in less air space, thus less flakiness in the mass. Following these guidelines, I have managed to consistently produce what I think of as a very good crust.

[Christine]

Hey thanks, Pebbles! I always wonder if anybody reads or gets anything out of these posts. I sure am enjoying doing them, and learning a lot along the way, too!

[Pebbles]

Great post - one of the most useful I have seen. Great blog - I look forward to coming back.....and to making the chocolate marshmallow tarts. Thanks so much!