Shortcrust pastry and cold butter

Why

Shortcrust contains a lot of fat for its flour, often about half the flour's weight, and little water: the butter coats the flour particles before the water reaches them, hardly any gluten forms, and the baked pastry snaps and crumbles instead of being springy. Cold butter stays in small pieces in the dough; warm butter softens, the dough smears, sticks and then crumbles, and long kneading stretches the gluten, so the crust comes out hard and shrinks in the oven. That is why shortcrust is only brought together quickly and rests in the fridge both before rolling and after lining the tin, where the fat firms up and the gluten relaxes. Blind baking, i.e. pre-baking the case weighed down with pulses or ceramic beads on baking paper, sets the base before a moist filling goes in and keeps the sides from slumping. Czech linecké (Linzer-style biscuits) are a sweeter, more buttery relative, often made in a ratio known in German as 1-2-3 (one part sugar, two parts butter, three parts flour); the more butter, the shorter but also more fragile the dough, which must be well chilled before cutting out.

How to do it

• Use butter cold from the fridge, cut into cubes, and quickly rub it into the flour with your fingertips or a knife until crumbly.
• Add the egg or ice-cold water only at the end and bring the dough together briefly, just until it holds.
• Wrap the dough and chill it for at least 30 minutes; in a warm kitchen, return it to the cold while you work.
• Lay the dough into the tin loosely without stretching it, and chill the lined case again before baking.
• To blind bake, line the case with paper, fill with pulses and bake at about 190 °C for about 20 minutes; then remove the weights, prick the base and bake until golden.
• Cut out linecké from well-chilled dough, gather the scraps quickly and bake only until pale golden.

If it goes wrong

Dough that crumbles when rolled is either too cold – let it soften for a while – or too dry – add a teaspoon of cold water. Return greasy, sticky dough to the fridge for 20–30 minutes and roll it between two sheets of baking paper. A hard, shrunken crust can't be fixed once baked; next time knead it less and let it rest longer.