Sweet Dough for Pies
Submitted by kharrisak
Sweet dough for pies is a classic pate sucree-style pastry: butter, sugar, egg, and flour combine into a tender, cookie-like crust ideal for tarts, galettes, and dessert pies.
YIELD
1 batchPREP
30 minCOOK
0 minREADY
30 minSweet dough for pies is the American home-kitchen version of French pate sucree, a short, sweet pastry that bakes into something closer to a crisp cookie crust than a flaky pie dough. The egg-plus-sugar composition makes this dough ideal for custard tarts, fruit galettes, and any dessert where you want the crust to contribute its own buttery-sweet flavor rather than stay neutral.
The technique is what makes or breaks this dough. Butter gets rubbed into the dry ingredients until the mixture “resembles coarse ground cornmeal." That texture detail is load-bearing. Any larger and the crust will be greasy and uneven; any finer and the finished crust turns crumbly and sandy.
An egg serves as the only liquid. No water. No milk. The egg binds the dough, enriches it, and keeps the crust tender without toughening.
Food processor or hand method, the rule is the same: once the egg is in, you want a shaggy, barely-holding-together dough. Overworking activates gluten and the result turns chewy instead of short. Three or four quick kneads on the counter is plenty to bring it smooth.
The one-hour minimum chill is non-negotiable. Cold dough rolls thin without sticking or tearing and holds its shape in the oven.
Chef Tips
- Use unsalted butter straight from the fridge, cut into small cubes. Cold butter gives the signature short, tender crumb; softened butter turns the crust greasy.
- Sandwich the disk between plastic wrap and press into a 6-inch circle before chilling. Pre-shaping saves ten minutes of rolling later.
- If the chilled dough is too firm to roll, let it rest at room temperature for 10 minutes. Don’t try to muscle cold dough; it cracks.
- This dough freezes beautifully for up to 2 months. Double-wrap in plastic and thaw in the fridge overnight.
Variations
- Add ½ teaspoon vanilla extract or ¼ teaspoon almond extract to the egg for flavored dough perfect for fruit tarts.
- Swap 2 tablespoons of flour for cocoa powder to make a chocolate sweet dough.
- Stir in 1 teaspoon lemon or orange zest for citrus-scented pastry ideal for berry or cream tarts.
Ingredients
Directions
To mix the dough by hand, combine flour, sugar, salt and baking powder in a medium mixing bowl and stir well to mix.
Cut butter into 1 tablespoon pieces and add to dry ingredients.
Toss once or twice to coat pieces of butter. Then using your hands or a pastry blender, break the butter into tiny pieces and pinch and squeeze it into the dry ingredients.
Occasionally reach down to the bottom of the bowl and mix all the ingredients evenly together.
Continue rubbing the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles a coarse ground corn meal and no large pieces of butter remain visible.
Beat the egg(s) in a small bowl and pour over the flour and butter mixture.
Stir in with a fork until the dough begins to hold together, but still appears somewhat dry.
Scatter a teaspoon of flour on the work surface and scrape the dough out onto it.
Press and knead the dough quickly 3 or 4 times, until it is smooth and uniform.
To mix the dough in the food processor, combine flour, sugar, salt and baking powder in work bowl fitted with metal blade.
Pulse 3 times at 1second intervals to mix. Cut butter into1 tablespoon pieces and add to work bowl.
Process, pulsing repeatedly at 1second intervals, until the mixture is fine and powdery, resembles a coarse ground cornmeal and no large pieces of butter remain visible, about 15 pulses in all.
Add the egg(s) to the work bowl and pulse ten times or so, until the dough forms a ball.
Scatter a teaspoon of flour on the work surface and scrape the Press and knead the dough quickly 3 or 4 times, until it is Press the dough into a disk (two equal disks for the larger amount of dough). Sandwich the disk(s) of dough between two pieces of plastic wrap and press it into a 6 inch circle. Refrigerate the dough until firm, or until you are ready to use it, at least 1 hour. Storage: Keep the dough in the refrigerator up to two days, or freeze it doublewrapped in plastic. Because the dough is thin, it will defrost quickly at room temperature when you intend to use it.
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