Flaky Tart Crust

The fat in our tart dough is mostly butter with a little shortening. Many people think that an all-butter crust is the goal. But even Julia Child, America’s foremost champion of butter, recommends making crusts with a combination of butter and shortening. Butter for its inimitable flavor, and shortening because that’s what makes a crust flaky.

We call for butter to be cut into ¼-inch cubes to make tart dough. The truth is, you only need to cut it that small if you’re making crust by hand. If you’re using a food processor, the whirling metal blade works so well to cut up the butter that you can get away with roughly chopping it into slabs.

Once you have the food processor out (if you’re using one) and the counters all floured up, we think it’s a great idea to make as much dough as you’ll use for the next 2 months. But don’t make the mistake of doubling the recipe. Make a batch of dough, and then make it again. And again. Making dough in small batches is key. When you make crust dough in bigger batches, you have to work it more, to cut the butter into the flour and then to work the dough into a ball. Working dough is bad. Overworking dough is a crust crime.

Yield: enough for two 9-inch tart crusts, one for now and one to freeze for later

( More... )

© Ken for MobiPre.COM | mobipre's posterous