Perfect Tart Crust Recipe
Perfect Tart Crust: buttery, just a little sweet, and tender as can be. This easy-to-make, basic dough will complement any kind of filling!
Fall is in full swing now, my friend! Soon we will be knee-deep in pies and tarts!
I figured, why not get ahead of it, and post one of the most useful recipes in any good baker’s arsenal: Tart Crust! I’ve been using this recipe for years, and it’s even a component of many of the recipes you’ll find on this website. Check out this Salted Honey Nut Tart, these Lemon Cheesecake Tarts, and this Rhubarb Tart, and you’ll see what I mean!
Tarts are fun to make, mainly because they’re so versatile. You can fill a tart crust in so many delicious ways!
But the pastry dough is step one. You want a recipe that’s easy to make, tender and a little crunchy, buttery, and not too sweet, to provide the perfect contrast. And this recipe is IT!
WHAT IS TART CRUST?
When you make a tart, the crust can be almost as important as the filling! You want to make sure that you have a sturdy base that provides a flavor contrast as well as a little bit of texture.
Tart crust is definitely it’s own kind of thing. It is buttery and a little sweet, and it has kind of a shortbread-like mouthfeel.
It’s not the same thing as pie crust. Pie crust, while also buttery and not too sweet, tends to have more of a flaky texture, while tart crust is more like a cookie. And honestly, tart crust is WAY easier to make! This dough comes together in about 10 minutes flat. You gotta love that!
HOW TO MAKE TART CRUST STEP-BY-STEP
I like to make this tart crust recipe in the food processor, but if you don’t have one, that’s totally fine! It can also be made in a stand mixer or the old-fashioned way, by hand!
Start by combining the dry ingredients: flour, powdered sugar, and salt. Just give them a quick stir.
Next, add the butter. It’s best if the butter is cold. If you’re using a food processor, just pulse it a few times until you have something that resembles coarse meal. This can also be done with a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, or by hand with 2 knives (or one of my favorite tools: the pastry blender).
Once the butter is cut in to the dry ingredients, you can add the liquids. An egg yolk provides richness and structure, a little cream will help keep the dough workable, and vanilla extract is added for flavor.
As soon as the dough has gathered itself into a ball, stop mixing. If the dough is overworked, the tart crust could come out tough and it could also shrink a lot as it bakes.
Wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, and chill for about an hour in the fridge, just to stiffen it up a little and make it easier to roll out.
WHAT SIZE PAN CAN THIS TART CRUST RECIPE BE BAKED IN?
Honestly, you can use this recipe for just about any size tart (within reason!). For the pictures and video you see here, I used a standard-sized 9-inch round tart pan with a removable bottom.
But it will also work with an 8-inch round pan, a rectangular tart pan, or even with a set of 6 mini tarts. Just roll the dough out to just an inch or two wider than the diameter of your cake pan. This is typically about 1/8-inch thick, but if it’s a little thicker or thinner that’s totally ok.
HOW LONG SHOULD THE TART CRUST BAKE?
Really, it depends. If you have a tart recipe, follow it. Sometimes tarts are baked filled, and sometimes just the pastry shell is baked, without the filling (this is known as “blind baking).
Just to give you an idea, the blind-baked tart shell you see here was baked for 20 minutes at 375 degrees F.
If you’re blind baking your crust, you might want to prick the bottom with the tines of a fork. This will prevent it from getting air trapped underneath and poofing up as it bakes. Sometimes it’s a good idea to place dry beans or pie weights in too, for the same reason. I didn’t do either of these things for what you see in these pics, and it was totally fine, but if you’re finding this to be a problem for you, give these solutions a try!
CAN THIS TART CRUST RECIPE BE MADE AHEAD?
I would recommend making the dough about an hour ahead. If you chill it much longer than that, it might become a little too stiff to work with easily. Of course, this can be remedied just by leaving it out at room temperature until it becomes a little softer.
You can also pre-bake the shell (unfilled), if your tart recipe allows for that. It will keep in a zip-top bag for a few days at room temperature, about a week in the fridge, and around a month or two in the freezer.
When you’re ready to assemble your tart, just thaw the pre-baked crust at room temperature, and fill!
Next time you’ve got the itch to make a beautiful tart, try this perfect tart crust recipe! It’s the perfect base to complement just about any kind of filling!
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- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup powdered sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold
- 1 large egg yolk
- 2 teaspoons heavy cream
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
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Place the flour, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor, stand mixer, or in a medium mixing bowl.
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Pulse/stir/cut in the butter with a pastry blender, until the mixture resembles coarse meal.
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Add the egg yolk, cream, and vanilla, and process/mix/stir until the dough gathers itself into a ball and pulls away cleanly from the sides of the bowl.
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Wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap, and chill for 1 hour.
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On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough to a thickness of about 1/8-inch.
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Press the dough gently into the tart pan(s), trimming away any excess.
Recipe Video
A few other great crust recipes:
Thanx a lot I made tart it was awesome n soft crunchy thanx again you share delicious recipe
Thank you for this recipe- it’s an absolute godsend! I did have to figure out a few tricks that work best for me when it comes to chilling and rolling it out but the results are always highly satisfactory. I do want to ask- do you have any tips if I want to incorporate almond (or some other nuts) meal into the dough? Eg how much flour should I switch out, and do I switch in a 1:1 amount of the meal? Thanks!!
I tried this. The result was amazing!!
I have made this tart shell 4 times now and it is perfect every time. I made the first with conventional flour and it was perfect. The rest I made with a gluten free flour blend and they were excellent.They were as easy to roll out and handle as the first one. The tart is beautiful and cuts perfectly!
Hi , Thanks for this great recipe, is the oven temperate for fan forced oven? Or should I reduce the temperatures if using fan forced.Thanks
It’s just for regular oven, not fan forced. So if that’s what you’re using, you should probably lower the temperature by 25 degrees F. Good luck!
This is the only crust I use for fruit tarts. I’ve had many people compliment it, one of whom was my mother in law. Thank you for sharing this recipe. It has made several beautiful fruit tarts.
absolutely beautifully perfect tart dough. rolled out like a dream, and tasted amazing. thank you!
Tried your recipe. It turned out wonderful. I’ll be making it again for my Bible Study ladies.
I have an Ireland story for you. My sister and I took our mother to Ireland in 2002. She had always wanted to see the country of her heritage. Our grandmother was 100% Irish, she had the Irish brogue accent and was such a talented pastry cook. She always had a pantry full of delicious pastries and she would make the dessert of our choice for our birthdays. During the depression she was a cook for a school in Chicago.
My mom’s favorite place in Ireland was the Kylemore Abby, (great food). She spent a whole day there with the nuns. I loved how the Abby reflected off the water. We had planned to take mom back in 2004 and continue our trek to find family, but our mom passed before we could get back that summer. So my sister and I decided to continue the trek. We did find family on that trip. Lots and lots of cousins. Also an elderly priest (in his late 90s) who turned out to be a great uncle. He remembered our grandmother and our mom. Wished we could of met him on our 2002 trip with mom. She would have been so excited to meet him. He had spent his whole priesthood in Spokane, WA. That was so amazing to me, because I live in Post Falls, ID, just a mere 25 miles away and didn’t even know.
Ireland is so, so beautiful and I want to go back again with my son and my daughter. They both are so interested in learning their heritage.
Thanks for sharing your wonderful trip with us.
Thank you for a wonderful story. So sorry that your mom wasn’t able to go on that incredible trip with you- but I have a feeling she may have been watching over you the whole time. Your grandmother sounds like a saint as well. God bless!
Your photography is STUNNING!
I use this recipe for mini tarts and it’s just perfect! I tried many recipes that failed in the super hot and humid climate where I live, but yours always works. I pre bake the mini tarts, store in freezer and I’m ready whenever I feel like having my favorite lemon tarts. I even eat them without filling, so crispy and yummy! I save the egg whites for the meringue, perfection!
Hi! I use your recipe for tart crust and it comes out amazing everytime . I have to make tart shells in advance in bulk… How should i store them so they remain fresh to use after 2 or 3 days?
I would cover them tightly or put them in an airtight container. They’d probably freeze well too.
Since only 2 teaspoons are needed, can I use whole milk instead of heavy cream?
I think that would probably work. Good luck!
I tried making this and the dough ball never happened. It just stayed crumbly and sort of combined into small bits of dough, like oily bits of dried clay.
Any idea what I did wrong?
I would process it a little longer Israel, that should get it to come together. A lot of times things seem dry at first but if you keep mixing, they come together. If it still doesn’t, try adding in another drop or two of cream.
Boy you are really hostile to someone who is trying to help you! The email was just a heads-up that your comment has a new reply on it. It instructs that you should click through to read it, and respond via the website. It didn’t come from me at all, it’s an automated email from WordPress with clear instructions on how to respond. If you were able to show a little human decency I would offer you my actual email but I don’t think I’m going to do that because you seem really toxic. I email back and forth with readers pretty much every day, and I also engage with them through my social media channels, so there is complete transparency there, nothing phony about it. Nothing phony about the recipe either, there are over 20 comments from other readers who’ve made it and enjoyed it. You obviously screwed something up and since you’re unwilling to communicate that to me, I am unable to help you. Consider yourself blocked!