Sweet Crust

In my last post, I shared a recipe for Long Island Blueberry Tart and recommended using this crust.  Like the tart, this recipe comes from Bon Appétit in August 1985 and was created by the talented food writer Richard Sax.

This sweet pie crust is great to use with fruit-based desserts that require a pre-baked shell.  Flavored with orange juice and sweetened with a bit of sugar, it is something like a thin shortbread.  It does a good job of staying crisp, and you can make the dough ahead of time and refrigerate it for a few days until you need it.  The ingredients are simple, yet create a rich crust.

The food processor does most of the work in putting the ingredients together.

After combining the ingredients in the processor, you pat them into a disc and refrigerate the dough for about half an hour. Once it’s chilled, you can roll the dough out to fit the tart or pie pan you are using. After fitting into the pan, the crust chills for a bit longer, which will help create a crispy crust for your pie. 

The chilled crust is baked briefly with foil and pie weights to help it keep its shape. Then it is baked alone to finish the browning.  Once out of the oven, it can sit at room temperature until you are ready to put in the filling.

While I show this crust being made in a tart pan, it works well for pies, too.  This is my favorite crust to use for Long Island Blueberry Tart.

Sweet Crust

Sunnyside Cook

Dawn Dobie

Crisp pie crust with a hint of orange

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 1 hour hr 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 20 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 35 minutes mins

Servings 1 crust

Ingredients

  

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon table salt
• 1/2 cup well-chilled unsalted butter cut into 8 pieces
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tablespoons or more chilled orange juice or water

Instructions

 

• Mix flour, sugar and salt in food processor with a few on/off turns.
• Drop butter pieces into food processor bowl and pulse 6-8 times, until coarse meal forms.
• Mix egg yolk and juice together, then add to bowl. Pulse a few times until dough gathers together. If more liquid is needed, add juice by one tablespoon at at time.
• Transfer dough to floured plastic sheet and shape into disc. Flour the top lightly, wrap tightly in plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
• Roll dough between two pieces of wax paper to fit into tart pan--about 1/16 inch thick. Transfer dough to tart pan and refrigerate for another 30 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Pierce dough with fork in several places. Smear butter on one side of a piece of aluminum foil big enough to cover tart crust bottom and sides. Place butter side down onto crust and fill with rice, dry beans, or pie weights. Bake until sides are set, about 10 minutes.
• Remove crust from oven and take off foil and pie weights. Return crust to oven and bake an additional 10 minutes, until golden brown. Check on the crust a couple of times and pierce any bubbles that form in the crust with a fork.
• Cool completely at room temperature before filling.

Notes

You can make the crust up to the disc or chill-crust-in-tart-pan stage up to 3 days ahead of time. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap until ready to proceed with recipe from the stage needed.

Adapted from Richard Sax in Bon Appétit (August 1985)