Pastry dough rewards a little know-how: how to choose it, cook it, store it, and substitute in a pinch. Browse 40 recipes to cook with it.

What is pastry dough?

Pastry dough is the short, tender crust that lines a pie plate or a tart pan. In its classic form, pate brisee, it is flour cut with cold butter and just enough ice water to bring it together. Bake it and it shatters into flaky, buttery layers under your fork.

The word "short" is the key. Fat coats the flour so the gluten never fully links up, which is why a good crust crumbles instead of turning chewy. Get the fat cold and the handling light and you are most of the way there.

This page is about short crust, not puff pastry. Puff is a separate, laminated dough with dozens of butter layers that rise dramatically. Short crust stays flat and tender and is far more forgiving to make.

Working With the Dough

Keep everything cold. Cold butter, ice water, a chilled bowl in summer. The fat needs to stay in solid flecks right up to the oven, because those flecks melt and steam during baking and leave the flaky pockets behind.

Handle it as little as you can. Mix until it just holds together, then stop. Overworking develops gluten and gives you a tough, leathery crust instead of a tender one.

Chill the dough at least 30 minutes before rolling, and again after you line the pan. Cold dough rolls cleaner and shrinks less in the heat.

Roll from the center out, give it a quarter turn between passes, and add only a whisper of flour so it does not dry out.

For a single-crust pie with a wet or custard filling, blind bake the shell first. Line it with parchment, fill with pie weights or dried beans, and bake at around 375°F (190°C) until the edges set.

Then remove the weights to crisp the bottom. This is what keeps Apple Custard Pie and an Open Face Apple Tart from going soggy underneath.

Pairing and Pitfalls

Short crust handles both sweet and savory. It cradles fruit in Amazing Dried Apple Pie and McCall's French Apple Pie, holds custard, and wraps meat for a French Canadian Meat Pie or hand pies like Empanada (Meat Pie).

A little sugar in the dough leans it sweet. A plain version leans savory.

The most common failure is a shrinking, slumping crust. It comes from warm dough and overworked gluten, so the fix is more chilling and less kneading, plus resting the lined shell in the fridge before it bakes.

A soggy bottom is the other heartbreak. Blind baking fixes it, and so does setting the pie on a preheated baking sheet or low rack so the base gets direct heat. Brushing the blind-baked shell with beaten egg seals tiny gaps before the filling goes in.

Swaps and Shortcuts

No time to make dough? Store-bought refrigerated pie crust rolls out and bakes almost like homemade and is a fair stand-in for most pies. Frozen pre-formed shells are even faster but you lose some buttery flavor.

For a no-roll option, a press-in crumb crust of graham crackers or cookies and melted butter suits cream and custard pies. It will not flake, but it holds.

Puff pastry can sub in when you actually want lift and crisp layers, as in a rustic tart or turnover. It behaves differently though, rising and shrinking more, so it is a swap of character, not a like-for-like.

Buying and Storing

Made from scratch, wrap the dough tight in plastic and refrigerate up to 3 days, or freeze flattened disks up to 3 months. Frozen dough thaws overnight in the fridge; do not rush it at room temperature or the butter softens unevenly.

Store-bought refrigerated crust keeps to the date on the box and also freezes well in its packaging. Once a crust is baked, keep filled pies by their filling. Fruit pies hold a couple of days at room temperature, while custard and cream pies must be refrigerated.

If raw dough cracks at the edges when you roll it, it is too cold or too dry. Let it sit a few minutes to soften, or patch and press the cracks closed with your fingers before they widen.

Quick facts

In Chinese

酥皮面团

British (UK) term

Pastry dough

en français

pâte à tarte

en español

masa de hojaldre

Recipes using pastry dough

There are 40 recipes that contain this ingredient.

All 40 recipes