Pate Sucree Crust for 9 Inch Dessert Tart

Pate Sucree is a classic French sweet tart crust dough. It is used for fruit tarts and nut tarts, such as Almond tarts. Pate sucree is heavy in sugar and butter and forms the basis of many pastry dough tarts, making it a delicious classic French dessert for entertaining guests.

This recipe uses a vanilla paste with tragacanth, a natural gum that acts as a binder and thickener and forms form the crust. Various fondants and gum pastes for sugar craft-type cake decorations use tragacanth to firm the structures.

The vanilla paste with tragacanth improves the workability and formation of the sweet dough. This recipe has good repeatability. The dough's characteristics seal well when using tart fillings on the more liquid side.

Tragacanth starts degrading above 300°F but holds its shape when the dough is set with a blind bake at 375°F for 15 minutes when foil covered, followed by a brief additional baking with no foil cover for 5 minutes. The final texture of the tart crust should be crumbly and slightly crunchy.

Ingredients for Pate Sucree French Sweet Tart Crust Dough

• 1-1/4 cups (150g) All-purpose flour

• 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar.

• 1/4 teaspoon table salt

• 8 tablespoons (113g) unsalted butter

• 1 large egg yolk

• 1 tbsp vanilla paste

Instructions for Pate Sucree

1. Prepare the egg yolk and vanilla paste and whisk together thoroughly.

2. Add Flour, sugar, and salt into food processor equipped with metal chopping blade, pulse to combine.

3.  Cut cold butter (refrigerator temperature) into small pieces about a half an inch square. Cold butter is used because the food processor's friction adds heat and softens it.

4.  After food processing, gather it together. Form into a ball, cover with plastic wrap, and form into a thick disk about 5 inches in diameter. Refrigerated overnight.

5.  When it is time to form the dough into the tart pan or dish, remove it from the refrigerator and allow it to warm up for 5-15 minutes; if you find the dough warming too much and sticking to your rolling pin, you can place it in the freezer or refrigerator. To do this, lift the parchment with the dough disc into a cookie sheet to keep it lying flat and place it in the freezer for 5 to 25 minutes or in the refrigerator for 15-30 minutes. The dough will stiffen and have less tendency to stick.

6.  Unwrap the dough and place it on a large sheet of parchment. Use a rolling pin to form it into a larger diameter if you pan or dish.

7. Place the disc of dough over the tart pan or mold and form it flat and up the sides. Do not punch fork holes in the dough. The pate sucree sweet tart dough has little moisture and no need to vent it. Putting holes defeats the purpose of a tart dough that seals well to prevent fillings in the liquid side from leaking out. After the dough is placed and formed into a tart pan dish, refrigerate for 30 minutes or more.

8.  Preheat oven to 375°F to blind bake the tart. Place the foil into the tart pan or dish and gently form it up against the sides to hold its structure during baking. Place one pound of ceramic pie weights on top of the foil.

Notes for making Pate Sucree Tart Crust

• I prefer a rolling pin on the dough versus a finger forming into the tart pan or dish.

•  To minimize gluten development, use only the metal “S” shaped blade in the food processor; do not use the dough blade.

•  Oversized foil for edge protection during cooking tarts.

•  If using a tart dish, you can apply a light coating Avocado oil spray to help it not stick and to remove slices easily from the dish.  

 Making A Foil Disk for Shielding the Crust Edges

Making a dual-use foil disk, a pie shield, is simple. It is first used in the blind bake, placed on top of the tart dough filled with pie weights. It is then placed under the tart dish and folded up and over the tart crust edges to prevent the crust edges from burning. You can watch this video, Jacques Pépin Makes Quiche Lorraine, and see more on how to make a foil disc for baking crusts.

Steps for Making the Foil Disk “pie shield”

• Use the larger 18" wide heavy-duty foil rolls.

• For a 9-inch tart, cut two squares of foil 14" x 14".

• Place them on top of each other, fold in half, and fold in the other direction in half again to form a quarter of the original square.

• The common center corner forms a triangular-shaped fold.

• Flip it over and make another triangular-shaped fold.

• You now have a triangular-looking folded foil, a cone, and a two-dimensional cone-looking shape.

• Opposite the point, using scissors, cut a radius. Cutting, short radius is easy.

• You can now unfold the foil, and you will have a large two-layer foil disc. When you folded it, you created twelve segments, and your radius cut was only one twelve the perimeter distance. This is much easier than free hand cutting a circle. If you end up with a scalloped edge, you need to cut a gentler larger radius.

• Note: Foil pie shields are rings that only cover the crust edges, but I find little to no impact with a complete disc covering the bottom of the tart pan or dish. You can simply make the large disc and use it for the blind bake and the final tart baking to shield the crust edges. Using heavy duty foil to make the disc, you can also wipe it clean, flatten it out to store it and reuse it.