A novice cook often encounters such a problem: he wants to make a cake or cookies, opens a recipe book, and it says: “From two eggs, one hundred grams of butter, two tablespoons of sugar and 150 g of flour, knead shortbread dough". A novice cook takes to follow the recipe, throws everything into one bowl, but it turns out some kind of nonsense. The dough is not kneaded, and when baked it becomes hard. And all because the authors writing cookbooks for some reason believe that a person is born into the world with full knowledge of what cooking technology is. shortcrust pastry. But this is a kind of skill that should be comprehended. And this article will help all beginners knead correctly. There are two types. And we will tell you in detail how they differ and how to cook them. And we will also reveal some of the subtleties and secrets of preparing this base for cakes, cookies and pastries.
A bit of history
Dough products appeared at the very dawn of the Neolithic revolution, when mankind had just mastered the cultivation and use of cereals. The grains were ground with a hand millstone, a little water was added to the powder ... It is believed that the first flour products looked like dumplings. But the technology for making shortcrust pastry is not so ancient. It is assumed that the first products from it began to be baked in the Persian Gulf region. The crusaders who fought in Palestine for the Holy Sepulcher brought to Europe a recipe for shortcrust pastry, as well as a fork and other benefits of civilization. Cookies from this base very quickly gained popularity. And the name of the dough - shortbread - was given by French chefs. After all, the consistency of the finished product is crumbly, fragile. You bite off a piece, and it crumbles into small “grains of sand” in your mouth. It is shortbread cookies that are served with the traditional English tea party at five o'clock in the afternoon. And now we will learn how to cook it.
Ingredients
The technology for making shortcrust pastry products is quite simple. It is within the power of everyone, even a novice cook. But there are a few secrets that you need to know in order for the dough to turn out really crumbly, sandy. We have already said that it is divided into two types. The first is sand-dough. For its preparation, only the so-called basic products are used. These are flour, fats (butter, margarine), sugar and a little salt. To achieve the splendor of products, another baking powder (soda, ammonium) is added. Sand-jigging dough has a more liquid consistency. For its preparation, in addition to basic products, eggs and (sometimes) sour cream are also used. Of course, you can and even need to add different seasonings to both types of shortcrust pastry. It can be chocolate pieces, cocoa powder, ginger, raisins, nuts, cinnamon, vanilla, grated lemon zest and more.
Secrets of preparing ingredients
As we have already said, the technology for making shortcrust pastry is quite simple. But she also has her secrets. The first concerns temperature regime. If you knead shortbread dough in a hot kitchen, you will not get a quality product. After all, it is based on fats. They melt at high temperatures. And we just don't need it. Therefore, it is important to prepare the dough in a room where the temperature does not exceed eighteen degrees. Next is flour. For good yeast dough it should be with a large amount of gluten, and for shortbread, on the contrary, with a small amount. But since in our conditions we don’t have much to choose, we will limit ourselves to buying white wheat flour of the highest quality. The butter should be very cold, but not from the freezer. For best results, margarine should also be used. The ratio of fats should be one to one. In order for the pastry to literally melt in your mouth, you must first turn it into powder. Eggs and sour cream, if we use them, should also be cold.
Shortcrust pastry: food preparation and technology
The main focus of kneading is to mix the fats into the flour as quickly as possible. Therefore, we first of all prepare bulk products. We need the flour particles to be coated with fat. Then the gluten contained in it will not be able to come out, and the dough will not come out elastic, like yeast. Therefore, the flour must first be sifted into a deep bowl through a fine sieve. Next, add other bulk ingredients: powdered sugar, salt, for cookies or soda with ammonium). If the recipe calls for cocoa powder, vanillin, cinnamon, grated ginger and other similar ingredients, we will also add them at this stage. Mix all dry ingredients. We take cold and hard butter with margarine (or quickly and quickly rub them on a coarse grater. We mix these chips with flour with our fingers. We work until the whole bowl is filled with so-called bread crumbs.
Shortcrust pastry: recipe and cooking technology
Of course, each product has its own set of products and their quantity. Here you need to rely on the recipe. But still there is a certain formula for the ideal shortcrust pastry. It lies in the proportions of the base products. In general, flour should take twice as much as fat. But you should not immediately pour it all into a bowl. Leave some of it for later kneading. At the first stage, we put the basic products in the bowl in the following proportions: for three hundred grams of flour - two hundred butter with margarine and one hundred powdered sugar. Even in sweet products, do not forget to add a pinch of salt. So that the dough does not come out “clogged”, pour in a little soda and ammonium - literally at the tip of a knife, otherwise the products will get bad smell. Now it is important for us to achieve a kneading of a moderately elastic dough. The fat begins to melt, and the breadcrumbs stick together easily. We roll a bun in a bowl and knead it with our hands. All breadcrumbs should be part of the dough.
What is important to know when kneading
The temperature regime is very important at this stage. If the room temperature is below fifteen degrees, we will stop at the “breadcrumb” stage, since the fats will remain solid. And if the thermometer in the kitchen is above twenty-five, the butter will melt and stand out from the total mass of products. At the same time, it is important for us to quickly and thoroughly prepare shortcrust pastry. Reviews of experienced chefs advise putting the cutting board in the refrigerator in advance and prepare a container with ice water, where you should lower your palms from time to time. We take out the bun from the bowl. Transfer it to a floured cutting board. wooden board. We knead with our hands quickly and vigorously, rolling the edges inside the bun. The dough should be smooth, elastic, but matte. If the bun is shiny, it means that the butter has melted too much. To fix this, put the dough in the refrigerator.
rolling
At this stage, the same requirements are observed as during kneading. That is cool temperature and speed. The bun pulled out of the refrigerator should be lightly kneaded with your hands. But the longer you knead the shortbread dough, the harder the product from it will become. Sprinkle the board with flour. We put the dough in its center, giving it the shape of a brick. We take out the rolling pin from the refrigerator. Roll out from the center to the edges. At the same time, we move the rolling pin from and to ourselves at a right angle, turning the board in a circle. The technology for preparing dishes from shortcrust pastry is such that we need to roll out a rather thin layer. It's not biscuit cupcakes, and not pies. The layer of rolled shortbread dough should not exceed eight millimeters in height.
How to make shortcrust pastry
As we remember, liquid products - eggs and sour cream - are added to this second type of base for cakes, pastries and cookies. Sometimes, if the dough turned out too steep and rolls poorly, cracks, add a little water. But it spoils the taste of baking. The technology for preparing shortcrust pastry of the jigging type is not much different from that described by us above. When we achieve “bread crumbs”, we enter the number of eggs and sour cream indicated in the recipe. Knead until you get an elastic ball. If it's slightly shiny, it's not a problem. Transfer the dough to a floured board and continue kneading there. It is important not to overdo it with eggs. Proteins can give products rigidity. Therefore, it is better to limit oneself to yolks. Sour cream, as an additional fat, gives the dough additional tenderness and friability. This ingredient should be of high quality, very thick.
Baking products
The oven must be preheated to the temperature indicated in the recipe. If we make recesses, we cut a layer of dough. We shift the blanks to a baking sheet covered with cooking paper. The thinner the layer of dough, the higher the temperature and the shorter the cooking time. Accordingly, the higher the cake, the colder the oven should be. We check the readiness of such products with a match: if the splinter comes out dry, it's ready. The technology for making shortcrust pastry cakes allows the use of metal or silicone baskets. The surface of such products must be pricked in several places with a fork so that it does not swell. Bake cakes and cookies until golden brown.
shortbread cupcakes
These products require liquid ingredients. The technology for making cakes from shortcrust pastry involves the use of milk. A full glass of this product will require three hundred grams of flour, 180 g of butter, 100 g of powdered sugar, two eggs, 10 g of baking powder and a pinch of salt. Optionally, you can add two handfuls of raisins, vanilla, grated lemon zest, dried apricots, chopped prunes into the dough. We start work with mixing bulk products. Then add crushed cold butter. Getting "bread crumbs". Put eggs and milk into a bowl. We beat the mass. Add raisins or other groceries. Beat again to saturate the dough with oxygen. Pour into a cake mold. We put in an oven preheated to one hundred and ninety degrees. Bake for about forty minutes.
Shortcrust pastry is ideal for making cookies. From sand cakes, smeared with butter cream, very tasty cakes are obtained. And if these cakes with cream are cut into rectangular pieces and additionally decorated with nuts or berries, then you can treat guests with homemade shortbread cakes. In order for shortbread dough to turn out tender and crumbly, it must be able to cook it correctly.
All ingredients for the dough should be cold - the dough does not tolerate strong heat. It is also advisable not to heat the room where you will knead it, i.e. Do not turn on the oven beforehand. You will light it while the dough is “resting” in the refrigerator. Some general rules dough preparation:- Shortcrust pastry is the more crumbly, the more fatty component it contains (butter or margarine). In butter, the dough will be tastier than margarine, but less fragile. Therefore, it is recommended to take them in equal amounts.
- Sugar is also placed in the shortbread dough, and so - if you replace it with powdered sugar, then the dough will literally “melt in your mouth”.
- Shortbread dough responds well to all kinds of fragrances, but it is best to add lemon zest to it - it will give an incredible aroma and freshness.
- Some recipes suggest laying eggs in shortcrust pastry, although some chefs try to do without them. In extreme cases, replace the eggs with only their yolks - the proteins make the dough tough.
- Take ice-cold water for kneading the dough - put a few cubes of people from the freezer in it in advance.
- Make the dough very quickly so that the butter does not have time to melt, but simply mixes with flour.
- butter - 50 g;
- margarine - 50 g;
- flour - 200 g;
- sugar - 50 g;
- ice water - 2 tablespoons;
- vanillin or lemon zest - to taste.
- Mix flour, sugar, vanilla or zest in a bowl.
- Solid, but not frozen, grate butter and margarine on a coarse grater directly into the flour.
- Rub the flour with a fatty component with your hands so that you get a kind of butter-flour crumbs in a bowl.
- Pour in water and quickly knead the dough.
- Roll it into a ball, which then flatten a little - you get a thick cake.
- wrap the dough cling film and send it to the refrigerator, but not to the freezer.
In the presented video, you can see how to cook shortcrust pastry according to a different recipe - with the addition of eggs to it. By the way, you can pour a couple of tablespoons of cocoa powder into any dough - then it will turn out to be sandy-chocolate. Or crushed into powder walnuts- the dough will be sandy-nutty.
I love and often cook shortbread cookies and pies from shortcrust pastry. Traditionally, margarine or butter is used for their preparation. The latter I respect and, moreover, love. But if you often cook on it, it will be greasy (in every sense of the word). A lot has already been said about margarine and spreads, but I consider it useful to recall that the transgenic fats that they contain lead to an increase in the level of "bad" cholesterol in the blood, disrupt normal work cell membranes, contribute to the development of vascular diseases, etc. Therefore, I completely excluded these "products" from my kitchen. And now I'm making shortcrust pastry on vegetable oil. Completely safe, tasty and healthy. And what is important, even cheaper and faster than with margarine! And a couple of words about margarine. Margarine drinkers are more likely to develop angina, myocardial infarction, arrhythmias, and heart failure. It was invented in France to feed the army and the poor - a cheap product for sandwiches and fries. All this happened at the end of the century before last, people had different ideas about food and life. I want to warn you that products made from this dough are A LOT harder than those made from margarine or butter, but is it worth ruining your blood vessels for the sake of a small difference ???
1. Butter cold temperature, not frozen, cut into pieces.
2. Combine the butter with the flour sifted through a sieve.
3. Chop the flour with quick movements with a knife to make fine flour crumbs. Add soda, salt and sugar and continue to move the knife so that the products are evenly distributed.
4. In the flour crumbs, make a small indentation into which beat the egg.
5. Stir the mass with a fork or knife so that the egg is evenly distributed throughout the mass.
6. Knead the dough with quick movements, collecting it into a lump. Here, in fact, you don’t need to knead anything, just rake the dough from the edges to the middle, forming it into one whole “bun”.
7. Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate for half an hour, and better hour. The dough can be kept in the refrigerator for 1-2 days. It can also be frozen for up to 3 months.
After a certain time, you can start baking cookies, cakes, cakes, pies. But note that since the dough contains a large number of fat, then the board and rolling pin must be chilled, so I recommend keeping them in the refrigerator for some time in advance. It is also important to roll out the dough very quickly, because. it must not be allowed to warm up.
Note: the dough can be given a special taste and aroma. To do this, vanilla sugar, grated lemon or orange zest, crushed chocolate, cocoa powder, ground or chopped nuts, cinnamon, etc. are added to the composition. Additives should be put when kneading the dough and together with them it should be cooled in the refrigerator.
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Cooking secrets:
- There are no special secrets when creating shortcrust pastry, but you should definitely sift the flour, this will saturate it with oxygen.
- In order for the dough to come out homogeneous and tender, it must be thoroughly kneaded. Many hostesses do this in food processor, then the dough comes out more elastic. But even kneading it with your hands, it is possible to achieve such an effect, you just need to make a little effort.
- But after this, it is better to let the dough rest a bit in the cold so that it becomes more pliable and ready for modeling.
How to make shortcrust pastry correctly?
Ingredients
- 350 grams of flour;
- 200 grams of butter;
- 110 grams of sugar;
- 1 egg;
- 1 teaspoon baking powder;
- a pinch of salt.
Instruction:
Remove the butter from the refrigerator some time before preparing the dough so that it becomes soft and plastic. Divide the oil layer into several smaller pieces to make it easier to work with. But do not melt it on the stove, then you get a completely different result.
Prepare a spacious container, place inside soft butter, add the specified portion of granulated sugar. The dough with this amount of sugar will turn out to be moderately sweet. Also be sure to add a pinch of salt, it will emphasize the sweetness. Stir the mass intensively for several minutes to dissolve the sugar crystals in the oil as much as possible.
Pre-sift the right amount of flour through a special sieve, this will save it from debris. And it is also worth noting that baking with sifted flour is more airy.
At the same time, you can add a spoonful of baking powder, which will make the dough softer and fluffier.
When all the ingredients are in place, it will be difficult to knead the dough with a spoon, then you can let the palms of your hands enter.
After a long kneading, you should get a single piece of plastic dough, which should be placed in a bag, tightly closed and loaded for 25 minutes in the refrigerator.
After the time has elapsed, the shortcrust pastry is ready to use.
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