Tart Shell

[Intrepidtrier]

Would anyone out there have a nice recipes for  sweet & savoury tart shells?? Mine always turn out tough as. I don`t know what I do wrong but they never turn out. Thanks Sandy

[Carine]

The shortcrust pastry from EDC works for me.  I simply add a spoon of sugar to the dough if I make a sweet tart.  The trick is to have cold hands to handle the pastry and not to play with it too much

[fundj&e]

i love this one, you can add sugar to it

Cream Cheese Pastry: from cookie 1
Lovely for a quiche base or similar:
Ingredients:
115g plain flour
50g butter, chopped
125g cream cheese chopped (I used low fat)

Preparation:
Place flour and butter into bowl and process until like breadcrumbs.
Add the cream cheese and use  until it comes together.
Place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes and then use.

Photos:

Tips/Hints:

This is lovely to work with and I find it makes a delicious base for quiches

[cookie1]

I use the one fundj has put up for you. As she says it is lovely to work with.

[fundj&e]

Cookie thats your one

 Cream Cheese Pastry: from cookie 1

[Cornish Cream]

I agree Cookie's Creamcheese Pastry is fantastic

[Intrepidtrier]

Thanks everyone will try this one next time.

[milnead]

I made this chocolate tart shell from one of my Italian THX books:

150 g flour
25 g pure cocoa powder (no sugar)
40 g sugar
65 g really cold butter, cubed
1 egg
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 pinch salt

All goes in together, cover and put MC in place. Process 15-20 seconds at speed 4. Done. I think I put it in the fridge and then rolled it and put it in pan, and I put in some apricot jam in bottom before putting in filling.




Enjoy!

[Bedlam]

I use the one fundj has put up for you. As she says it is lovely to work with.

Cookie, the first time I made it it was delicious, the second time it tasted yum but was oily. Has this ever happened to you? Any ideas?

[cookie1]

No it hasn't Bedlam. Not sure why it could happen. Perhaps someone older wiser will be able to help.

[Bedlam]

Cookie it was probably user error, I catered for 16 people, for lunch (DH birthday) the day before we left for our holiday. So quite probably.  It all went and I saw people come back for 2nds so it did taste good.

[PaulaM]

Just wondering, I have ben looking for answers as to why my EDC almond pastry shells crumble? They are fine when small but when I try to do one large tart base it falls apart. Can anyone please please please help me?!

More butter, less butter? I don't know!  I've already tried it several times and have completely lost confidence!

I will try the cream cheese recipe, is that suitable for sweets?

Thanks!! 

[cookie1]

Paula I haven't had a lot of success with the almond pastry in the edc either.
Just add a little bit of icing sugar to the cream cheese pastry to make it sweet. That's all I do.

[snappy]

I used the sour cream pastry off this forum and it was nice and flaky - I used it for a custard tart and it worked perfectly.

If you want an almond pastry specifically, I have made tenina's one from her olive oil tart and it holds up really well.  You can find her recipe here: http://tenina.com/2009/07/oil-unlock-your-master-chef

[PaulaM]

thanks Cookie1 and snappy )