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Pin It A Sweet Pastry Crust, also known as Pate Sucree,is a rich and sweet pastry with a crisp cookie-like texture. Once made, this pastry can be storedin the refrigerator for several days. You might also want to make an extra batchand pop it into the deep freeze, as it freezes so well. That way, when the urgehits, you can produce a quick dessert with very little effort.This SweetPastry Crust is ideal for making both large and small sizedtarts, especially those filled with fruit and/or cream. A Sweet Pastry Crust adds a little more sugar and an egg to your basic Pie Crust recipe. This gives the pastry a sweeter flavor and a softer texture. While it can be made in a food processor, I prefer to use an electric mixer, like I would a regular cookie dough. That is, beat the butter and sugar, then add the egg, and then mix in the flour. Then simply wrap the pastry in plastic wrap and refrigerate it just until it is firm (about 30 minutes in the refrigerator, 10-15 minutes in the freezer). I know pastry is normally rolled, but this pastry has the tendency to tear and crack, both when you roll it out and transfer it to the tart pan. While you can simply patch the tears, lately I have found it easier to just pat the pastry in an even layer over the bottom and up the sides of the pan. But first butter and flour the tart pan or spray it with one of those vegetable/flour cooking spray as this makes it easier to remove the sides and bottom of the tart pan once it is baked. More often than not, this Sweet Pastry Crust is prebaked. Common practice is to line and fill the unbaked pastry crust with pie weights or rice before baking to prevent the pastry from shrinking and puffing up. But you can eliminate this step by putting the unbaked pastry crust in the freezer for 15 minutes. This sets the crust which prevents these problems. I do like to gently prick the bottom of the pastry before baking which also prevents the pastry from puffing up. Now, the pastry is baked at a high temperature for five minutes to set the crust and then the oven temperature is lowered and the pastry is baked until firm, dry, and lightly golden brown. Oncethe pastry shell has been baked, it is a good idea to 'seal' the crust. This 'sealing' prevents the tart filling from softening the crust over time. You can do this immediately by brushing the still warm crust with a little beaten egg white. Or you can spread athin layer of warmed apricot glaze, or even melted chocolate, over the pastry once it has completely cooled.The unfilled baked pastry crust can be covered and stored for a few days before filling. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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