Shortbread dough is not at all fussy, its recipe is extremely simple and even a beginner can prepare it. Unsweetened shortbread dough can be prepared with different fillings; its main difference is that it is prepared without sugar.

In addition, this dough is well suited for tartlets, baskets, and cakes or snacks will look original and appetizing on any table.

• Premium flour - 200 grams;
• Butter 150 grams;
• Salt 0.5 teaspoon;
• Yolk - 1 piece;
• Water - 3 tbsp. spoons;

Step by step recipe

After you knead the dough well, you can put it in the refrigerator for one hour, covering the bowl with a towel or cling film.

The dough needs to be rolled out quite thinly, about 4-8 mm. The thinner the dough, the less it bakes. When rolling out cake layers or pastries, it is important to roll out each subsequent layer to the same thickness as the previous one.

There is no need to grease the pan before you place the crust. The dough is quite oily. The oven should first be warmed up well, and then place the molds with the dough. If during the baking process you notice that the cakes are burning on top, then they should be placed lower or covered with parchment paper.

A pie from this dough can be prepared in 20-30 minutes. The cake is baked at 220 degrees for 15-25 minutes, depending on the thickness of the cake and the type of filling. Products made from shortcrust pastry are crumbly due to the high fat content. This dough is suitable for small children and diabetics, because according to the recipe it does not contain sugar.

You can add starch to the dough instead of some of the flour. Just be careful while kneading so that the dough does not get warm, since the dough contains a lot of fat. In this case, the board for rolling out the dough should be cool and the dough should be kneaded for a minimum time.

If necessary, the dough can be put in the freezer and used, for example, when unexpected guests arrive. Only this dough can be stored in the freezer for no more than 6 months, and in the refrigerator for a maximum of 2 weeks. And if you are going to bake tomorrow, then today you should take the dough out of the freezer and put it in the refrigerator.

You need to put the dough in the refrigerator in any case, regardless of whether you are baking today or in a week. If the dough stands for half an hour in the refrigerator, it will be manageable and will not stick to your hands. In addition, the dough will be easy to roll out. Before you start rolling out, the table should be well floured. Then the sheet of dough is rolled out and transferred into the mold with a rolling pin.

For sweet pies, you can also use unsweetened dough. In this case, you should use sweet jam or berries, adding sugar or powdered sugar at the end. Just first you need to bake the cake, having previously formed the sides. After the crust is almost baked, add the filling and bake the pie with the filling for about 10 minutes.

Pies made from unsweetened shortcrust pastry can be prepared closed or open. Closed pies are more juicy and the dough is softer than open pies. Covered shortbread pies have their advantages. The top of such a pie is covered in a variety of ways, laying out mesh, flowers, figures, butterflies, and animals from the dough. Closed pies look more beautiful on the holiday table.

The pie gets its original taste with lemon or orange zest. Sand pies with prunes, raisins, cinnamon and nuts are considered healthy. And cakes made from unsweetened shortbread dough with cream and nuts have long been considered a favorite treat for little ones with a sweet tooth.

This shortbread dough is also suitable for making pizza, but before adding the filling, the edges should be folded up a little. Then you can lay out the minced meat, sausage, vegetables and pour egg sauce over it. The pizza turns out crispy and tasty.

Managing partner of the culinary school “Bread and Food”, author of cookbooks, TV presenter Alena Spirina

Yes! And we, continuing our acquaintance with various types of dough, will make a smooth transition from sweet shortbread to unsweetened crumbly dough. It is not very popular in our country, although it makes excellent pies, pies and just snack cookies. This is a great alternative to store-bought puff pastry without yeast!

The most common use of unsweetened crumbly dough is an open-faced pie with an egg and cream filling, known as quiche. The famous American pies with apples or berries, covered completely or with a lattice, are also baked from it. Moreover, the legendary twelve cake layers for the iconic Soviet homemade “Napoleon” were rolled out from this very dough, consisting of flour, fat, salt and a minimal amount of liquid.

Dough composition and choice of ingredients

Like shortcrust pastry, crumbly unsweetened dough becomes so solely due to its high fat content - at least 50% of the flour weight. Fat envelops flour particles during kneading, preventing the formation of strong protein bonds. Then, during baking, the fat melts, the moisture evaporates, and the dough becomes crumbly and light.

Unsweetened crumbly dough differs from shortcrust pastry not only in the absence of sugar, but also in the presence of a fairly significant volume of liquid. The liquid is either an egg (or just the yolk) and milk (cream or sour cream), or cold water mixed with vodka or vinegar. The remaining ingredients are the same: flour, fat, salt.

Flour

Most often, premium wheat flour is chosen for kneading crumbly dough. It makes sense to start getting acquainted with it, but as you gain experience, you can start switching to first-grade or whole grain flour, first partially, and then completely. A good dough is made from spelled flour or from a mixture of wheat flour and other grains and legumes: rye, oatmeal, buckwheat, corn, soybean. Of course, you will have to find the correct ratio of flour and liquid yourself, but it is not that difficult. Start by replacing 10% of the total flour mass, and then look at the circumstances. Of course, any new flour affects the properties of the dough, as well as the taste, color, and aroma. As long as the dough and filling match, you'll be fine!

Liquid

If in shortcrust pastry the liquid is represented by eggs (whole, white or yolk), sometimes with a small addition of milk, then for kneading unsweetened crumbly dough, choose either the combination “egg (yolk) + water (milk)” or “water + vodka (vinegar)” " This is the main recommendation, but depending on the circumstances, you can use sour cream, yogurt, and cottage cheese.

For the classic French dough “Pate Brise”, take 100-110 g of butter, 1 egg yolk and 30 g of milk per glass of flour (150 g). In terms of its properties, this dough is very similar to shortbread, only unsweetened: just as tender and crumbly thanks to the butter and yolk.

The version with water and vodka gives the effect of a more layered dough; it is also crumbly, but not as soft as brize. Since gluten does not develop in the presence of alcohol, dough kneaded with a mixture of equal parts water and vodka has less developed gluten than dough kneaded only with water. The result is a more tender and flaky dough. In addition, mixtures of water and vodka can be added to the dough with more than just water to make the dough easier to knead and roll without fear of it becoming rough and tough. Remember that a little vinegar was always added to the dough for homemade Napoleon cakes. Vinegar, being an acid, destroys the proteins of flour, and the dough turns out to be tender and brittle.

The choice of fat affects not only the taste and aroma of the finished dough, but also its structure. The higher the fat content in the dough, the more crumbly the dough will be. Butter is the most common product, but a combination of butter and margarine works great. Recipe

Oil gives the dough a pleasant taste and aroma, but it contains water, which contributes to the development of gluten. There is no water in margarine, and besides, it does not melt as much from the heat of your hands, and the dough is easier to knead. The French use rendered duck, goose or pork fat - lard - for the dough, and the British use internal beef fat. The dough turns out simply luxurious, melts in your mouth. And no foreign smell! If possible, try it. Only the amount of liquid will have to be increased slightly, because animal fat does not contain it at all.

The ratio of flour to fat varies from recipe to recipe. The higher the fat content, the more crumbly and tender the dough will be. This factor is especially important to consider when choosing a recipe for the base of an open-faced pie: a dough that is too crumbly will not hold a heavy and/or bulky filling.

Salt and sugar

Salt is an essential ingredient in any dough; it harmonizes the taste. Often savory dough recipes include a small amount of powdered sugar or fine sugar. It doesn’t really affect the taste, it just browns the dough better. If you don't want to add sugar, don't add it.

Kneading dough

It is important that all dough ingredients are cold. Cut the butter into cubes and put it in the refrigerator along with the measured liquid. Remove the oil and liquid just before kneading the dough.

To prepare crumbly dough, butter is mixed with flour until the smallest particles are formed, no matter how it is made. Like shortbread dough, unsweetened crumbly dough can be kneaded by hand, in the bowl of a food processor, or in a stand mixer with a paddle attachment. The goal is one: to get crumbs from flour and fat. The crumbs can be approximately the same size and resemble wet sand, or they can contain fairly large pieces of fat, ranging in size from a grain of rice to a bean. In the first case, the dough after baking will look like shortbread, in the second you will get a version of “false puff” dough.

You need to add just enough liquid so that all the flour is moistened and the dough comes together into a lump that does not crumble in your hands.

If you are mixing the dough with vodka and water, use all the vodka first and add water as needed. Very often, when kneading, much less liquid is used than indicated in the recipe. So don’t rush to add it all at once.

If the dough is a bit dry and just requires a few drops of water, spray it with a spray bottle.

Divide the kneaded dough into parts, wrap it in cling film or put it in a plastic bag, flatten it into a disk and put it in the refrigerator. If the dough will be stored in the freezer, be sure to label the bag so there are no unpleasant surprises.

Always knead the dough generously: removing excess dough from the mold is easier than stretching a small amount of dough to fit the mold. And bake snack cookies from scraps and leftovers. Just roll out the dough, cut with a knife or cookie cutters, sprinkle with coarse sea salt, grated cheese, cumin, sesame, poppy seeds (any seeds) and bake in an oven preheated to 190-200 degrees.

And it’s always useful to have delicious, versatile homemade dough on hand! Recipe

Bakery

At all stages of working with crumbly dough, it is important to keep it cold: knead it - in the refrigerator, roll it out - in the refrigerator, line the mold with dough - in the refrigerator. Only in this way will the dough be well stabilized and will not shrink or slide off the sides of the pan during baking, and it will be possible to do without baking under pressure (“blind baking”).

It is most convenient to roll out the dough between two pieces of film or baking paper and move it on them. Make sure that the dough is the same thickness everywhere - 2-3 mm, unless otherwise indicated in the recipe. Before baking, prick the dough with a fork to prevent it from bubbling during baking.

Even if you bake in a pan with a non-stick coating, do not be too lazy to cover the bottom with baking paper or place paper strips 5-7 cm wide - “slings” – crosswise into the pan. This will make it much easier to transfer the finished cake from the pan to a cooling rack.

Bake crumbly dough and products made from it in an oven well preheated to 180-210 degrees.

You can bake pies on a preheated loaf stone or baking sheet. The heat coming from below will bake the bottom of the pie faster and more evenly.

Unsweetened crumbly dough (Pate Brise)

Photo: / Arseniy Kosterin

For one open pie with a diameter of 24-26 cm:

Ingredients:

Flour - 1 cup
Butter at room temperature - 110 g
Salt - 1/2 tsp.
Egg yolk - 1 pc.
Cold milk - 2 tbsp. l.

How to cook:

1. Cut the butter into pieces of any shape.

2. Sift the flour into a bowl or onto a work surface and sprinkle with salt.

3. Place pieces of butter on the surface of the flour mixture. Using a knife or fork, chop the flour and butter until fine crumbs form.

4. Collect the crumbs in a pile, make a well in the middle and pour the yolk and one tablespoon of milk into it.

5. Using your fingertips, mix the ingredients into a soft dough and form into a ball. If the dough crumbles, add another tablespoon of milk. Knead the dough 2-4 times - it will become homogeneous. Form into a ball, flatten into a disk, wrap in film and place in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes, preferably 4 hours.

Photo: / Arseniy Kosterin

Ingredients:

Pate Brise dough - 250 g
Cooked chicken (boiled, fried or baked) - 350 g
Starch (preferably corn) - 1 tbsp. l.
Cream with fat content 20-22% - 750 ml
Eggs - 7 pcs.
Salt - 1/2 tsp.
Black pepper - 1/4 tsp.
Grated nutmeg - a pinch
Ground cayenne pepper - a pinch
Hard cheese - 180 g

How to cook:

1. Cut the chicken into 1.5-2 cm pieces. Grate the cheese on a coarse grater. Recipe

2. Line a baking dish with a diameter of 24 cm with vertical sides 5 cm high with slings of baking paper. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees.

3. Roll out the dough into a circle with a diameter of at least 30 cm (dough thickness 2-2.5 mm), transfer to the mold so that the dough hangs slightly over the sides. Using your fingertips, press the dough around the entire perimeter of the pan. Trim off excess dough with a knife. Prick the dough on the bottom and sides with a fork. Place in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes.

4. Place the pan in the oven and bake the dough for 15-20 minutes. It will get stronger, but will hardly brown. Brush the bottom and sides of the pan with the white of one egg, sprinkle with a thin layer of cheese and return to the oven for 2 minutes. Take out the form with the dough and wait 10-15 minutes.

5. Reduce oven temperature to 160-165 degrees.

6. Prepare the filling. Grind the starch with a small amount of cream into a smooth paste. Add the remaining eggs (including the yolk and white leftover from the brushing) along with a pinch of salt (remember, cheese is also salty) and whisk lightly, add the remaining cream, season with black and cayenne pepper and nutmeg.

7. Place half of the chicken pieces on the bottom of the dough basket and fill with half of the egg mixture. Sprinkle with half of the remaining cheese. Place the other half of the meat, pour out the remaining filling. Sprinkle with cheese.

8. Bake the quiche for at least an hour, until the filling at a distance of 2 cm from the dough springs back when pressed with a finger, and the surface is slightly browned.

9. Remove the quiche from the oven, place on a wire rack and let it cool completely, at least two hours.

10. Lifting the edges of the paper, pull the quiche out of the pan (or remove the side of the springform pan). Serve the quiche at room temperature or reheat in the oven or microwave.

Photo: / Arseniy Kosterin

Ingredients:

Pate Brise dough - 250 g
Sour cream 20-25% fat - 200 ml
Egg yolks - 4 pcs.
Egg - 1 pc.
Fine sugar - 100 g
Pitted cherries - 350 g

How to cook:

1. Turn on the oven to preheat to 190 degrees. Place the baking sheet in the oven to warm up. Line the bottom of a 22-24 cm diameter mold with baking paper.

2. Roll out the dough into a circle with a diameter of 28-30 cm and transfer to the mold. Press into the bottom and sides, being careful not to pull the dough. Prick the dough with a fork, brush with egg white, cover with film and put in the refrigerator.

3. Prepare the filling by mixing the yolks and remaining whites with sugar and sour cream.

4. Place the pan with the dough in the oven on a hot baking sheet and bake for 17-20 minutes until golden brown.

5. Remove the pan from the oven, fill with berries and pour over the egg-sour cream mixture. Reduce the temperature to 170 degrees, return the pan to the oven and bake the pie for 40-45 minutes until the filling is set and browned.

6. Place the pan on a wire rack and leave for 5-7 minutes. Remove cake from pan and cool completely on a wire rack. Serve cold.

A properly prepared shortcrust pastry product is tender and crumbly, with a pleasant aroma of butter. In order for your dough to turn out exactly like this, you need to take flour and butter by weight in a ratio of 5 to 4. However, dough prepared only on the basis of good flour and high-quality butter turns out to be too fragile. To avoid this, it is enough to mix butter with vegetable solid fat in a ratio of 3 to 1. This finished product is more delicate, with a subtle aroma of butter.
The French, according to culinary tradition, lightly knead the dough with the heel of their palm at the end of cooking. This helps the flour and butter mix better. This technique is called fressage. We will talk about it later in the description of the cooking process.

Shortcrust pastry ingredients for savory pastries.

Flour – 140 g
Butter – 85 g
Vegetable fat (solid) – 30 g (2 tbsp.)
Water – 3-4.5 tbsp.
Salt – 0.5 tsp.
Sugar (optional, for color) – a pinch

How to prepare shortcrust pastry for savory pastries.

1. I would like to note right away that shortbread dough can be prepared either manually or using a food processor. Let's consider both options. The first method is manual. Shortbread dough must be kneaded very quickly so that the butter does not have time to melt in the dough; not only can the butter melt from the warmth of our hands (excessive touching the dough), but it can also be quite warm in the kitchen. If you get used to the dough, you can knead it quite deftly, touching it only with your fingertips, without using your palms.
2. Before mixing all the ingredients for the dough, butter and vegetable oil must be pre-cooled, then cut into small pieces. Place the butter in a large bowl, then add all the other ingredients except water (flour, salt and sugar) into the bowl. Add sugar as desired, it gives the dough a beautiful color. So, rub all the ingredients with your fingertips until the butter turns into small pieces. You shouldn’t grind the mass too much; we’ll still have time to do that. Next, add ice water to the mashed mass, mix the dough with one hand, cupping your palm, and gather the dough into a ball. If all the dough does not fit in your palm, sprinkle it with a small amount of ice water (up to 1 tbsp) and add it to the main mass. Next, roll the dough into something like a ball with quick and confident movements. The resulting dough should be soft and hold its shape, but in no case sticky.
3. Next, consider the second option for preparing shortcrust pastry - using a food processor. Of course, this method is easier, because the machine will do almost everything for you. For this amount of ingredients, a 1 liter bowl will be enough (if desired, you can increase the amount of all ingredients several times and use a large food processor bowl). Place the attachment with a knife into the combine bowl and add all the bulk ingredients (flour, salt and sugar). Cut the cooled butter and vegetable fat into small pieces (for ease of mixing the dough), while trying to touch the butter with your hands as little as possible. Place it in the combine bowl and turn it on 4-5 times in Pulse mode. Then add ice water and immediately turn on the food processor again 2-3 times in Pulse mode. If enough water has been added, dough should gradually gather on the blades of the knife attachment. Otherwise, add just a little more water (gradually - add a drop, turn on the food processor, check if this amount of water is enough, add again if necessary, etc.). Very soon the dough will begin to come together, you can stop kneading at this point so as not to overdo it. Place the finished dough on the work surface and begin kneading.
4. We will use the fressage method. Using the heel of your palm, press on the edge of the dough and spread it 15 cm away from you with quick and confident movements. In this way, knead all the dough. Next, using a spatula, gather all the dough into a pile and form it into a ball. Wrap it in cling film or wax paper and put it in the cold so that the dough “hardens” (for 1 hour in the freezer or in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or overnight).
By the way, this dough can be stored in the refrigerator for 2-3 days or in the freezer for 2-3 weeks.
5. As we said above, shortbread dough, which contains a large amount of butter, needs minimal contact with your hands. The same applies to rolling out; you need to do this quickly and confidently, otherwise the dough will melt, after which it will be impossible to work with it. Place the chilled dough on a floured work surface and sprinkle the dough with flour as well. Place a rolling pin in the middle of the lump of dough and roll it back and forth several times with confident movements, lightly pressing it onto the dough so that the dough begins to move. Next, we place the rolling pin just below the middle of the cake and begin to roll it out with even movements away from us, not reaching the edge of the dough by 2-3 cm. Then we turn the dough over and begin to rotate it in a circle by 15-20 degrees, continuing to roll it out with even movements, time sprinkle the dough with flour from time to time. As a result, we should get a circle 3 mm thick. The diameter of the circle should be 3 cm larger than the diameter of the shape in which you will cook the pie. It often happens (especially among novice housewives) that the circle of dough turns out to be uneven; in this case, you should cut off the protruding edges and put them where there is not enough dough. The rolled out dough must be used immediately, otherwise it will melt.
6. The pie dough is ready. All that's left to do is put the dough into a baking dish and put the intended filling on top. It can be anything: cheese, bacon, sausage, vegetables, mushrooms. Very often, open pies are made from shortcrust pastry, for example, French quiche with open walls that support the filling. In France, they use a baking ring for such pies: place it on a baking sheet, and carefully place the dough into the ring itself. When the pie is ready, the ring is simply lifted up and the pie is transferred to a plate. You can also use a 4cm high, straight-sided round baking dish with a removable bottom. The mold with the finished pie is placed on some container (for example, a jar), the sides of the mold are carefully lowered, after which the pie is carefully transferred to a dish.

Shortbread dough in different interpretations can be found on the Internet. How to understand them?

The simplest recipe is Pâte Sableée. It is found in two varieties - sweet (most often) and unsweetened. Today we are talking about savory foods. Ideal for various types of open pies and... Conveniently, unlike other types of shortcrust pastry - Pate Brisee - There is no need to cool the ingredients to the desired temperature. And the most important thing for me is the property of Pâte Sablee - there is no need to bake the base separately from the filling. The dough does not absorb moisture very actively, so this dough is ideal for pies with liquid filling.

You will need:

• 125 g butter
• 200 g flour
• 1 egg

There are different proportions of the dough, when you take exactly 2 times more flour than butter. But I have verified in practice that in our case the dough turns out to be very tender, crispy and crumbly. The structure will not be stone and rigid. First, let’s look at what role each ingredient plays in the dough. After this everything will fall into place.

Let's talk first about the ingredients for shortcrust pastry.

Oil.

Many people buy special baking margarine for baking, but make it a rule - these special margarines will not give you excellent results. There is a lot of butter in this recipe; it is this that prevents the flour from sticking together; it is the butter that is responsible for the crumbliness of the shortcrust pastry. Any margarine is undoubtedly cheaper, but the composition leaves much to be desired. Unknown vegetable fats that are poorly excreted from the body. Why do you need this? Then margarine still has a specific taste, so you won’t be able to cheat. Even if the dough looks just right, the taste will suffer greatly from this. On the Internet you can find a lot of information on the request: is it possible to replace butter with margarine in shortcrust pastry? So my answer will merge with the chorus of French confectioners: no, you can’t.

Flour

In the store, your eyes widen at the different types of flour.
Choose one that is suitable for baking baked goods. You can find markings on the flour packaging, but more on that another time. Now we will be interested in gluten in flour. Gluten is now often called gluten. This is a complex protein that is part of grains. The presence of gluten affects the consistency of the dough. For simplicity, gluten is formed when the dough is kneaded after the flour comes into contact with water. Therefore, when making tender shortcrust pastry, try to mix as little as possible. Easily. Then your dessert will turn out crumbly.
And before starting cooking, sift the flour, this will saturate it with oxygen and eliminate possible unwanted impurities.

Eggs.

Eggs in shortcrust pastry glue all the ingredients together. The main role of the egg white is that it acts as glue.

Salt.

A pinch of salt will add brightness to the dough and eliminate the blandness.

Preparation

Step 1

Take flour, chop butter into it, add 1 egg, add salt and start kneading. The result will be crumbs, which after a couple of minutes will begin to bind together, forming a soft and elastic shortbread dough.

Step 2

Wrap the finished dough in cling film and place in the refrigerator. The processes of interaction of ingredients will continue. In 20-30 minutes you will have a wonderful dough.

Step 3