Pate Brisee or Traditional Savory French Tart Pastry

Pate Brisee: The Perfect Pastry Recipe for that Special Savory French Tart

Presenting a Savory French Tart made with Pate Brisee is a triumph for me as I have made Canadian prairie pies all of my life. Using a ring mold and any pastry recipe other than my go-to Tenderflake Pastry recipe was simply unheard of, until I was over 40, to be honest. Preparing this more refined and formal presentation of a tart using a ring mold warms me with a great sense of personal accomplishment. However, it is not that difficult. If I can do it, you can do it!

Pâte Brisée: Making the Dough

Mis en place: Flour, butter, egg yolk water salt and yes, a bit of sugar. I always use my Thermomix when making anything in my kitchen that can be done in it. This is a very traditional recipe and there will be Pate Brisee purists who argue making this pastry in a machine is blasphemy. I ask them to try mine. However, I understand the fervent protest, as well. I am a believer in doing everything by hand, first. Use a machine once acquiring the inherent skill necessary to know the correct consistency of ingredients within each step of a recipe.

Pate Brisee: Making Dough in Thermomix Machine

Flour, salt and butter are weighed into the bowl, mixed to combine and then egg yolk is added and mixed to combine.

Above, left, I opened the bowl early to take a peak and found the liquid from the yolk and the fat from the butter had not yet incorporated with the flour.

It is also evident in the above pastry log. Thus, even though making pate brisee dough in the Thermomix machine, once out onto the counter, it still needs to be smeared by hand onto the work surface to ensure the fat is fully incorporated and the dough is homogeneous. This process is called “Fraiser” and should be done no more than 3-4 times, as overworking it will make it tough. Thus, best done by hand and not mixing to combine further in the Thermomix machine. (Although I do admit, I have found the sweet spot for this, and if you are able to do this, it can be completely made in the machine.) The Fraiser method is demonstrated in the video at the end of this post, after the recipe. Béné taught me about it and first demonstrated it to me at the cooking class she did here for French Tarts a few years ago.

Pate Brisee: Mixing Dough by Hand

After working the butter into the flour and salt with one’s fingers until oatmeal-like, the egg yolk and water are added to a well made in the middle. The traditional hand method is then to use one finger to work the dry ingredients slowly and purposefully into the wet until full incorporated.

Once that is done, the Fraiser method is applied, and the dough is smeared onto the work surface, using the heel of the hand to incorporate the fat into the pastry until it is homogeneous.

At this point, the dough is wrapped to rest and is ready to use for any recipe you have in mind.

Pate Brisee: Rolling the Dough and Using the Ring Mold

Roll dough on lightly floured parchment paper or mat covered work surface with pastry sleeve on rolling pin. Above, plastic was used to roll over the dough as the pastry sleeves were in the wash.

Place ring mold on parchment covered baking pan. Gently roll dough around pin, and unroll over top of pastry ring. With pin in pastry sleeve (or use plastic wrap over dough) roll over pastry to cut off extra pastry from rim. Remove excess pastry, as in image below. Not sure why, but when the unbaked tart is revealed by pulling away excess dough, I get a little tingly thrill every single time.

The pastry requires par-baking first to ensure the crust is not soggy on the bottom.

Pate Brisee: Par-baking the Pastry

Regular plastic wrap can actually be used at the temperature used to par-bake these tart shells, but it isn’t food safe. Of course, this is a go-to recipe for home bakers in France, so one can find a food safe wrap there for this purpose. I have not found one here, yet, so please do let me know if you find one, as I can stop bringing them home in my suitcase or bribing friends to bring them for me! **PLEASE READ MY AFTERWORD on this topic, below, as I have changed my position on this. **

The wrap is rolled over the tart to prepare it for a filling of the necessary rice or beans required to ensure that the sides of the tart don’t shrink and that the bottom doesn’t puff up during the par-baking process.

Rice or beans are placed into the cavity, covered with the wrap, and into the oven it goes for the par-bake. When time is up and crust is checked for stability, the plastic and beans or rice is removed and the crust is ready to fill.

Most savory tarts are not baked until done, as the one below, as usually the filling requires cooking in which case the filling is added and the tart is baked according to the recipe instructions. However, if the filling needs refrigeration instead of baking, the crust is baked until golden, as below.

Important: Afterword about using any kind of plastic when baking

While I have only used food safe plastic when blind baking, I believe it is best practice to avoid any plastic in this day and age, when baking. Fortunately, my friends and readers have chimed in with comments below and provoked a pointed conversation which not only encouraged but convinced me that I have been misguided and in turn am misguiding my readers. Upon further thought, I wholeheartedly agree that using food safe plastic or any kind of plastic when cooking is not a best practice. Do not do it: use parchment, foil, baking cloth. I am looking forward to investigating the options and updating this post about my favourite. Thank you, sincerely, for chiming in and making a difference. 🙂

Pâté Brisée is actually written with these “accents”; however, with search engine SEO (system engine optimization) I cannot use them as then the word cannot be “read” in searches in English.

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Pâte Brisée or Traditional Savory French Tart Pastry

Pâte Brisée or Savory French Tart Pastry is easy to make; a welcome change from our traditional lovely flakey North American counterpart. Watch the video within this post to learn the fraiser technique if making by hand.

Course Pastry

Cuisine French

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour

Total Time 1 hour 20 minutes

Servings 1 Large Tart

Author Valerie Lugonja

Ingredients

• Ingredients for the Pâte Brisée:
• 250 g flour (2 cups)
• 125 g butter at room temperature (0.55 cup)
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 egg yolk , whisked
• 3 tablespoons water
• (more or less water may be necessary depending on consistency of dough when making by hand)

Instructions

Instructions for Making the Dough:

1. In large bowl, mix flour with salt; cut the soft butter into small pieces and add to flour/salt mixture: dough should resemble coarse crumbs
2. Create a well and pour the egg yolk and the water and combine all ingredients using your finger
3. Once it forms a soft ball, engage in the fraiser method* 3 or 4 times, until the dough is homogenous (with attention not to overwork it)
4. Dough is ready when it holds together and is soft to the touch
5. Gather dough into a ball, cover with a plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for approximately 30 minutes
6. Roll out the dough between two sheets of cling wrap and place into mold/ring
7. Preheat oven to 360 degrees F
8. Poke holes in the dough, line the crust with plastic wrap and fill it with beans or rice to keep the bottom from puffing and the sides from falling
9. Prebake shell for 15-18 minutes
10. Fill with whatever you are making
11. Bake for 30 – 40 minutes (until cooked)

Instructions for Thermomix:

1. Weigh flour and salt into TM bowl; mix to combine for 5 seconds, speed 4
2. Weigh butter into TM bowl by pinching small pieces into it; combine until resembling course meal for 2 seconds on Turbo one or two times
3. Whisk egg yolk together with water; pour into TM bowl and combine for 2 seconds on Turbo one time (ingredients should be completely incorporated into small balls of pastry)
4. Combine for 2 seconds on Turbo one more time to bring ingredients together into one homogeneous ball if you have experience with what that should look like OR to avoid overworking the dough...
5. Remove dough from TM bowl and engage in the fraiser method* 3 or 4 times, until the dough is homogenous (with attention not to overwork it)
6. Dough is ready when it holds together and is soft to the touch
7. Gather dough into a ball, cover with a plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for approximately 30 minutes
8. Roll out the dough between two sheets of cling wrap and place into mold/ring
9. Preheat oven to 360 degrees F
10. Poke holes in the dough, line the crust with plastic wrap and fill it with beans or rice to keep the bottom from puffing and the sides from falling
11. Prebake shell for 15-18 minutes
12. Fill with whatever you are making
13. Bake for 30 – 40 minutes (until cooked)

Recipe Notes

*Fraiser: a French technique to evenly blend butter, sugar, etc. into flour dough with heel of hand on a flat surface in a downward smearing motion; once complete, dough is folded back upon itself and technique is repeated until every ingredient is evenly incorporated into a smooth dough

It is important to not over work dough during this process. This enables a light, fluffy crust.