Pate Sucrée

This is a wonderfully easy, all-purpose pastry for fruit and other tarts.

1-3/4 cups (230g) all-purpose flour

½ teaspoons fine sea salt

½ cup vanilla sugar

4 large egg yolks

8 tablespoons (125g) unsalted butter

 

1.  Sift the flour onto a work surface and make a large well in the center. Place the salt, the sugar, and the egg yolks in the well and mix them with your fingers until the sugar dissolves.  Pound on the butter to soften it slightly, add it to the well and quickly combine it with the other ingredients, using the fingertips on one hand, until partly blended.  Gradually work in the flour with the fingertips of your hands, pulling flour from the side towards the butter mixture, until large crumbs form. Continue blending the pastry by cutting it into pieces with a dough scraper. When the dough is smooth, gather it into a ball then continue to work it by pushing it away from you and against the work surface with the heel of your hand and gathering it up with the dough scraper until it is pliable and thoroughly combined. Press the dough into a flat round and let it sit in a cool place for at least 30 minutes. Roll it out as specified in the recipes.

 

Dough for a 10-1/2 inch (26.5cm) tart