Shortcrust pastry is easy to prepare. But to make it perfect, you need to know some secrets. In this article I will write how to make sweet shortbread dough, from which it will be possible to create classic figured cookies, and tartlets, and tart, and baskets. Such dough can be prepared for future use and stored in the freezer for up to 3 months.

In addition to the recipe for the dough itself, I will write how to bake delicious gingerbread cookies, tangerine tart, classic shortbread cookies from this dough.

This dough is perfect. The shortbread dough itself should resemble wet sand in structure, in finished form it turns out to be crispy and crumbly. This dough can be used to make biscuits, tarts and tartlets, cake baskets and cake cakes.

In this recipe, I will show you how to knead the dough correctly so that it rolls out well and does not break after baking. I will also share the secrets of making shortbread dough.

Ingredients:

• cold butter - 300 gr.
• icing sugar or sugar - 150 gr. (4 tablespoons with top)
• eggs - 2 pcs.
• sour cream - 1 tablespoon
• salt - 1 pinch
• flour with a low gluten content - 600 gr.

Step by step preparation of shortcrust pastry.

Secret number 1. The butter should be cold. It is from such oil that a loose dough structure will turn out. Do not take the oil out of the refrigerator beforehand to soften it. And all the more, do not drown him. Melted butter will not make a good shortbread dough of the desired texture. It will be sticky and gooey.

1.Grate the oil cold. Do this quickly so that the oil does not heat up from the warmth of your hands. Otherwise, it will be difficult to rub it, it will float.

1. Add powdered sugar to the grated butter. You can also put sugar, but the powder is better rubbed with cold butter, there will be no grains. Mash the butter with the icing sugar with a fork. Also do this quickly so that the butter does not melt.

Secret number 2. Powdered sugar should be exactly 2 times less than butter. A lot of sugar will make the dough crunchy and the biscuits less crunchy.

1. Beat the eggs into the dough. Beat in one egg first, stir, then beat in the next.

Secret number 3. Place 1 tablespoon in the dough. sour cream. It will make the dough more elastic, it will not crumble. But excess sour cream will also harm: the dough will float and lose its necessary consistency.

1. After the eggs, add 1 tbsp. sour cream and mix in the same way with a fork.

Put in a pinch of salt, stir quickly. Very little salt is added to all sweet baked goods, because it better reveals the taste of sugar and gives a new flavor note.

Secret number 4. Shortbread dough requires flour with a low gluten content (less than 20%). This flour is made from soft wheat varieties. If you do not have such flour, then use this advice. Take a glass of plain flour, add 2 tbsp. flour, put 2 tablespoons instead. starch. The result is a low gluten mixture.

1. For 300 gr. butter you need to put 600 gr. flour, that is, a ratio of 1: 2. If there is too much flour, the dough will turn out to be hard, it will not work out of it to mold the necessary product. Sift flour and add to butter base, stir quickly. When the dough already looks like a crumb, knead it with your hands, just not for a long time, otherwise the cookies will not be so crispy. The finished dough turns out to be quite tight.

Put 1 tsp in the cookie dough. baking powder, you do not need to put it in the tart dough.

1. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to cool (or 2 hours). Immediately, the dough cannot be rolled out, dry and wet ingredients must react, then the dough will be elastic and pliable.

How to make various pastries from shortcrust pastry.

Above, the process of making a dough from 300 gr was described. oils. For this amount of oil, you need to take 600 gr. flour. I will divide this oil base into 3 equal parts (100 grams of oil each). It turns out for each part of 200 gr. flour. From the first part we will make classic shortcrust pastry cookies, from the second part - tangerine tart, from the third - gingerbread cookies with chocolate.

Raw dough can be made ahead of time and frozen in the freezer. There it can be stored for several months.

Making gingerbread cookies from shortcrust pastry.

Additional ingredients:

• ground ginger - 1 tablespoon without slide
• baking powder - 1 tsp without slide
• nuts and chocolate for decoration

As you can see, the additional ingredients are dry, so they must be mixed first with flour, and then combined with the oil base. So, in 200 gr. flour (per 100 gr. butter) add 1 tbsp. ground ginger and 1 tsp. baking powder, mix. 200 gr. flour is 6 tbsp. with a slide. You can also add vanilla or vanillin if you wish.

For this baking, it is better to use baking powder, not baking soda, because baking soda acts immediately, and baking powder gradually, during the baking process. Since our dough will still be cooling, an instant reaction is not needed.

Mix the dry mixture with the butter mixture, knead the dough, just don't need to knead the shortbread dough for a long time. Wrap in plastic wrap to keep the dough from chapping and refrigerate (30 minutes to 2 hours).

After half an hour, take out the dough, roll it out on parchment about 5 mm thick. Cut out the desired shapes with tins and bake on parchment at 200 degrees for 15 minutes.

If you wish, you can decorate the cookies with chocolate with nuts. To do this, take any nuts and chop them (you can do this with a rolling pin). Take any chocolate, just not porous. Melt it in a water bath, do not overheat, otherwise it will exfoliate.

When the finished cookies have cooled slightly, dip half of them in chocolate and then in nuts. Place on parchment and leave to set.

The cooked liver is very aromatic and tasty.

Mandarin tart.

Additional ingredients:

• eggs - 4 pcs.
• starch - 40 gr. (2 tablespoons)
• tangerines - 4-8 pcs.
• lemon - 1 pc.
• sugar - 150 gr. (8 tbsp.)
• butter
• almond flakes - for garnish
• icing sugar - for decoration

From tangerines and lemon zest will be needed - 1 tbsp. and juice - 250 ml

In a meat base with 100 gr. add 200 gr of butter. sifted flour. Baking powder does not need to be added to these baked goods, as in cookies. Knead the base with flour until crumbly, then quickly knead the dough for 1 minute. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least half an hour.

While the dough is cooling, you can prepare the cream.

Stir the eggs with a whisk until smooth.

Pour boiling water over tangerines and lemon for a few seconds. Next, remove the fruit from the water and wipe it off with napkins. The next step is to grate the tangerine and lemon zest on the smallest grater. Rub by turning the fruit in a circle. Make sure that the white part does not rub off, only orange is needed for the zest, otherwise the filling will taste bitter. In total, 1 tbsp is needed. zest.

If desired, citrus zest can be replaced with finely chopped candied fruits. Or not use it at all. You can also put the zest in the dough rather than in the cream.

Squeeze the juice from fruits without zest. Do this in any way, the main thing is that the seeds and pulp do not get into the juice. You can grind the pulp (remove the seeds in advance) in a blender, and then squeeze through cheesecloth or a sieve. Or squeeze the juice through a sieve using a fork. For the cream you need 250 ml of juice.

Combine the juice and citrus zest in one bowl. Add sugar to them, stir. Next, pour in the stirred eggs, also bring to a homogeneous state. You don't need to whip for a long time, just put everything together.

To prevent the cream from burning, it must be brewed in a water bath. To do this, boil water in a saucepan. Place the cream on top of the boiling water in a bowl or saucepan. Cook, stirring occasionally, to prevent the eggs from curdling, until the foam is gone and the cream begins to thicken a little.

When all the foam is gone, put butter in the cream, melt it.

Dissolve the starch in cold water until a homogeneous gruel (for 2 tablespoons of starch, take 6 tablespoons of water). Add the starch to the cream and stir. Heat the cream until thickened for a few more minutes. Then set it aside to cool.

Never drop dry starch to thicken anything. Be sure to dilute it in cold water.

When the dough has cooled, remove it from the refrigerator. Take a form with high sides. The dough for the tart should be rolled out thinly, about 2-3 mm thick. There are two ways to form a cake:

1. Place the mold on the parchment and cut a circle along the bottom of the mold with a knife. Place the dough on this circle of parchment and roll it thinly over this piece. Transfer the rolled dough along with the parchment into a mold. Knead the dough with your hands, making the sides. It is not necessary to lubricate the mold additionally, the dough is greasy and will not burn.
2. Roll out the dough thinly, with a diameter larger than the bottom of the mold. Using a rolling pin, transfer the dough into the mold, lay it down and cut off the excess dough hanging from the edges with a knife, form the sides.

To prevent the dough from rising during baking, you need to make it heavier. Professional chefs use special stones for this. At home, you can take beans or other dry cereals (peas, buckwheat, rice).

Cover the tart completely with parchment (the sides must also be covered) and pour the beans into the mold, about 500 gr.

In an oven preheated to 200 degrees, put the tart to bake for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, the rim of the tart will turn rosy. Remove the baking dish, remove the parchment and beans, and bake for another 5 minutes. Then let the tartu cool in the mold.

When the tart has cooled, remove it from the mold. To do this, gently turn the baking dish over so as not to break the baked goods. Fill the tart with cream. Put in the refrigerator for half an hour to completely solidify the cream.

When the cream has set, garnish the tart with almond flakes and powdered sugar.

Cut the tart gently and enjoy the delicious taste!

Classic shortbread cookies (white and chocolate).

Additional ingredients:

• baking powder - 1 tsp
• cocoa - 1 tablespoon

To make two types of classic biscuits, divide the 100g butter base. oil into 2 more parts. In the first part, put flour (100 gr. For 50 gr. Butter) and baking powder - 0.5 tsp.

The second part also needs flour and baking powder, but also cocoa. Cocoa is not added additionally, but replaces one spoonful of flour. That is, put flour on 1 tablespoon. less (only 2 tbsp) and 1 tbsp. cocoa. All dry ingredients must be sieved to enrich them with oxygen. First, mix the flour, cocoa and baking powder separately, then add this dry mixture to the butter base.

Knead the dough and put it in the refrigerator, not forgetting to wrap it in plastic.

When the dough has rested, you can roll it out, about 5 mm thick and cut out cookies with cookie cutters.

To avoid clogging the dough with extra flour, roll it between two pieces of parchment paper. It is also good to use a cold board for this (also hide it in the refrigerator along with the dough) and a cold rolling pin.

Cover the baking sheet with parchment; you do not need to grease it with oil, since the cookies are quite fatty. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Sprinkle the cookies with sugar and bake 15 minutes until browning.

Let the liver cool on a baking sheet. The taste of this cookie unfolds well with milk.

Prepare shortcrust pastry according to this recipe and you will have a masterpiece! Write in the comments what kind of baked goods you got. I wish everything to be delicious!