Sand dough - secrets. How to cook the perfect shortcrust pastry recipe, benefits and harms

  • 19.10.2019

The easiest shortbread dough to prepare serves as the basis for various delicious pastries. In old grandmother's chests there are records of interesting recipes for cookies, cakes and pies at home from shortcrust pastry.

The table is set for the arrival of loved ones delicious meals and in the center of the table are cake, pastries, and an abundance of biscuits. Each piece crumbles into small crumbs, reminiscent of the golden sand of the southern sea, and melts in your mouth.

These products were made from shortcrust pastry. The recipe for its preparation has some subtleties, observing simple rules, at home you can make your own shortcrust pastry. Creativity to shortbread baking diversifies evening tea or festive table.

Fantasy turns on, confectionery masterpieces appear from shortcrust pastry:
original cake with sour cream with strawberry;
"golden" nuts stuffed with boiled condensed milk;
confectionery "sausages" with the addition of nuts, sesame seeds, candied fruits;
various options cookies.
There are hundreds of recipes for making cookies from shortcrust pastry (curly, marshmallow, chocolate, cottage cheese).

Secrets and tricks of cooking

Most important rule how to make shortbread dough correctly is the need to use a lot of fats and sugar. A special friability is obtained due to the presence of oil in the product. It absorbs and envelops the flour, not allowing it to densely stray and stick together. To get a more porous dough, cooks are advised to use baking powder.

Important! Choose flour that has gluten, the percentage of which will be medium, otherwise, the resulting products will become dense. When working with flour, the gluten of which has low interest, baking will crumble quickly.

Skilled chefs say that shortbread dough will turn out good only when proper preparation. Used appliances, kitchen utensils (rolling pin, work surface, including), as well as products (butter, flour, eggs) must be well cooled. Otherwise, it will cease to be unique, and baking will lose its crumbliness. The time spent on kneading should be kept to a minimum.

Note! Dry products are always combined with flour, and liquid products are always combined with eggs, at the end of kneading they are combined.

In some cases, a little flour is replaced with crushed almonds, chopped nuts, potato starch. From the refrigerator in the manufacture of products from shortcrust pastry, the necessary part of it, which is used in the work at the moment, is taken out.

Fantasies of culinary specialists through experiments received alternative recipes for making shortcrust pastry. They make it different and any original holiday and will unite more strongly at a family dinner.

Shortcrust pastry - a classic recipe

The quantitative composition of the necessary products for the classic shortcrust pastry:

  • 300 g - butter (butter);
  • 3 art. - flour;
  • 1 st. - sugar;
  • 2 pcs. - eggs;
  • vanilla, a little lemon juice and soda.

Classic shortcrust pastry traditional recipe prepared like this (step by step):

  1. flour is passed through a sieve onto the work surface in a small pile;
  2. sugar, soda, slaked with lemon juice, vanilla are placed on top of it;
  3. butter, cut into small pieces, placed on top, chopped with all the ingredients together with a sharp knife;
  4. eggs are added last;
  5. kneaded by hand, then placed for about 1 hour in the cold.

Then it is used for the preparation of conceived confectionery.

Easy cookie dough recipe

Products used:

  • 260 g - butter (butter);
  • 210 g - sugar;
  • 0.5 kg - flour;
  • 2 pcs - eggs;
  • 0.5 tsp - baking powder;
  • 1 sachet - vanillin.

How to make the necessary dough:

1. Rub the eggs until a white foam forms with sugar and vanilla. A fairly soft butter is added to the resulting consistency. For variety and taste, you can add 0.1 kg walnuts or almonds, crushed with a blender to a state similar to dust.

2. Baking powder is added to the flour.

3. The dough is kneaded from the combined flour and eggs with sugar. Knead on a floured surface until smooth and elastic.

4. The dough is placed in the refrigerator, wrapped in a film for food products, for three quarters of an hour.

5. The dough taken out of the refrigerator is divided into parts, rolled out and, using special shapes, stars, Christmas trees, mugs, bunnies, hearts are cut out.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for 20-25 minutes.


Shortcrust pie dough

In addition to shortbread dough cookies, a pie is often prepared with a filling chosen to your liking, it can be fruits, jam, cottage cheese, berries.

For the pie you will need:

  • 160 g - butter (butter);
  • 210 g - flour;
  • 110 g - sugar;
  • 1 PC. - egg;
  • 1 teaspoon - baking powder.

How to cook:

Common and affordable products from which a delicious treat will be prepared step by step:
1. Baking powder is added to the flour and mixed with butter, grated on a grater in a cold state.

2. The mass is rubbed by hand until crumbs form. Then an egg with sugar is added, and the dough is kneaded. It turns out a rather elastic dough with a pleasant aroma, and if you add vanilla, it will turn out unusual.

3. The dough is wrapped in a plastic bag, placed for 30 minutes in the cold.
After half an hour, you can start working with sand dough. To do this, prepare a frying pan or a detachable form. You can choose any filling of your choice. Experts believe that the most tasty pie from shortcrust pastry baked with fresh berries and apples or cottage cheese.

4. A certain amount of dough is left to decorate the cake, branches are laid out on its surface, flowers are cut out with a knife, decorated with geometric shapes.

Some housewives rub the dough on a grater, getting a grated pie.


Shortcrust pastry for baskets

According to the above recipe, approximately 20-22 baskets come out. If the oven is in molds that have a diameter of a little more than 3 centimeters at the bottom, and at the top the diameter is approximately 7 cm. Ready-made baskets can be filled with any sweets if desired: chocolate, jam, candied fruits, fruits, curd mass. You can come up with many variations.

Would need:

  • flour - 310 g;
  • butter (butter) - 210 g;
  • powdered (sugar) - 110 g;
  • egg yolks - 2 pcs.

Step by step cooking recipe:

Measure the required amount of food and start cooking. You should start by sifting the flour, then add a little salt. Remove the butter from the refrigerator, cut into small pieces when cold and place on top of the flour, which must be sifted through a sieve. With a well-sharpened knife, chop together with flour.

Then add egg yolks and sweet powder, knead the dough by hand as quickly as possible. For kneading, a combine designed for work in the kitchen is suitable.

It is kneaded quickly enough, because from the heat of the hands it becomes sticky due to the melted butter. It is wrapped in a plastic bag and sent to the refrigerator for 0.5 hours.

At this time, baking dishes are being prepared. Lubricate the molds with a small amount of heated butter with a special brush.

covered workplace foil, laid out on it chilled dough. Levels up to rectangular shape, it is covered with foil from above and rolled with a rolling pin. The dough with such rolling does not stick to the foil. The layer is rolled out to approximately 4 mm. Molds are placed on top of it and cut out in shape, excess is removed from the edges.

A layer of dough is pressed gently against the bottom of the mold and pierced with a fork in order to rid the products of the resulting bulges during baking. Topped with foil right size and to preserve the beautiful, even shape of the baskets, rice or buckwheat groats are poured on it.

Baking in a hot oven at a temperature of 200 degrees is under control until the products grab a little and the danger of a spoiled shape disappears. Pieces of foil are removed along with cereals, and baskets continue to bake. The time spent on preparing these products from shortbread dough is a little more than 10 minutes.

Loose and very fragile baskets are left in the molds until completely cooled and only then carefully removed. It is important to adhere to this rule, when removing still warm baskets from the molds, their edges can break off and sprinkle. Start with any ingredients of your own taste. It turns out a very refined, delicate delicacy.


Shortcrust pastry without eggs. Recipe with sour cream and vegetable oil

The recipe for this test contains:

  • flour - 530 g;
  • vegetable oil, odorless - 120 g;
  • sugar - 190 g;
  • sour cream - 120 g;
  • soda, vinegar, salt, vanillin.
  • spicy and aromatic additives.

The fastest and easiest recipe for cooking:

Combined in a bowl vegetable oil with sour cream. The rest of the products are included. The mixture is thoroughly mixed, flour is sifted into it, kneading is carried out until a soft, homogeneous composition is obtained.

Aged, wrapped in film dough, in the refrigerator for an hour. After this time, you can start making cookies, which will be unusually tasty if sprinkled with poppy seeds, sesame seeds, nuts on top.

How to make shortcrust pastry without eggs and butter

Required products:

  • 330 g - flour;
  • 170 ml - vegetable oil, odorless;
  • 120 ml - ice water;
  • salt.

Mixing rules:

Connect first vegetable oil odorless, with ice water. The mixture is shaken to a consistency similar to an emulsion, with the addition of a small amount of salt. Then the sifted flour is added to the resulting mixture and the shortcrust pastry is kneaded. It is sent under cling film to the cold and remains in it for 20 minutes.

Then the pie is baked with your favorite filling. This shortcrust pastry recipe is suitable for lenten pies, and can be used to support fasting. This option is prepared from very simple products, but the result will be excellent, the wonderful taste will surprise and delight the whole family.

Video: Shortcrust pastry cupcakes from Yulia Vysotskaya

1. The shortbread dough is rolled out in identical and fairly thin plates so that it bakes well enough. The most suitable thickness should be 4-7mm.

2. Increased friability in baking by replacing several whole eggs with only their yolks. It is especially important if the flour used has a high percentage of gluten.

3. Pierced in different places with sharp objects (fork, knife) layers of shortcrust pastry before being sent to the oven. This must be done so that the ugly bumps on the layers from carbon dioxide, which is released during baking, do not spoil the look of the finished product.

4. For shortcrust pastry, it is sufficient to use a dry baking sheet, because it does not stick to the bottom during baking.
The most suitable temperature for baking is 220-250 degrees.

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.


And now the recipe for a very tasty and light shortcrust pastry. Prepare:
  • butter - 50 g;
  • margarine - 50 g;
  • flour - 200 g;
  • sugar - 50 g;
  • ice water - 2 tablespoons;
  • vanillin or lemon zest - to taste.
Prepare the dough in the following order:
  1. Mix flour, sugar, vanilla or zest in a bowl.
  2. Solid, but not frozen, grate butter and margarine on a coarse grater directly into the flour.
  3. Rub the flour with a fatty component with your hands so that you get a kind of butter-flour crumbs in a bowl.
  4. Pour in water and quickly knead the dough.
  5. Roll it into a ball, which then flatten a little - you get a thick cake.
  6. Wrap the dough in cling film and put it in the refrigerator, but not in the freezer.


Let the dough rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes and then work with it. Roll it out on a board sprinkled with a little flour. Using cookie cutters or ordinary glasses, cut out future cookies and place them on a dry baking sheet. Bake products in an oven preheated to 180-200 degrees. Pour the finished cookies with chocolate icing or glue two by two with any thick jam.


Shortcrust pastry is great for “grated” pie. For him, prepare the dough from twice the amount of ingredients. Divide the finished shortbread dough into two unequal parts (2/3 and 1/3). Roll the smaller one into a ball and freeze in the freezer - it will take 60-80 minutes. Roll out the larger part in the form of a baking sheet and lay it on a sheet. Spread any thick jam or jam on top. Grate the frozen dough directly onto the fruit filling using the largest grater. Bake the cake until the top layer is golden.

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 powdered walnuts - the dough will be sandy and nutty.

Hello, our dear readers and guests of our site. Today I will tell you all the secrets of a successful shortcrust pastry. Depending on what product you will bake, you will choose the right recipe for yourself.

I’ll tell you frankly, I wrote this post for a long, very long time, because I got confused. I collected information on the Internet, clarified it in books and even from French bloggers. I tried to structure it so as not to miss anything. The dough is kind of like dough - everything is simple, not like yeast, but the cooking methods made me difficult.

Have you noticed in the recipes how to cook shortbread dough, two different options are described everywhere:

  1. Grind the softened butter with sugar and eggs, then flour is added.
  2. Cold butter is rubbed (chopped) with flour, and then eggs beaten with sugar are added.

Sometimes we cook the same recipe with these different ways. Do you end up with the same baked goods? Let's figure it out.

So the first option is shortbread dough, and the second option is considered chopped.

But let's start with the basics of cooking. We will remember and sort out the completely obvious properties of products that you know even without me, and there will be nothing new here. The bottom line is to learn how to apply this knowledge about making the perfect shortcrust pastry in the future.

Shortbread dough should be crumbly. How to achieve this? It is necessary to know a little which component in the test has what properties.

  • Flour. Flour, as you know, can be different, but here the amount of gluten, gluten is important to us. Translated from Latin, gluten is glue. The less it is, the dough will be more friable. Sometimes starch is added to flour. It is allowed to add another type of flour, for example, oatmeal cookies are mixed with oatmeal.
  • Butter. Butter is fat, it keeps flour from sticking together. The higher quality and fatter the oil, the tastier the pastries will be. Butter in some recipes is replaced with cooking oil (such as lard). Previously, such fat was sold on a par with margarine and in the same packages of 250 g, now I have not seen it anywhere in stores. Can butter be substituted for margarine? Probably you can. And in Soviet times all the recipes in the cookbooks were on margarine. See for yourself according to your financial capabilities, but I still recommend using butter. Do not forget that margarine is a compound fat that is difficult for the body to digest and is poorly excreted from it.
  • Eggs and water. It is the link between flour and butter. Depending on the recipe, it is added in a certain amount so that the mass is kneaded with dough, otherwise everything will not connect. Protein is like glue, so for a more sandy effect, it is better to use only yolks.
  • Sugar. Since the dough must be cooked quickly so that the butter does not have time to melt, it is best to replace with powdered sugar. Another option is to grind with eggs until the crystals are completely dissolved.
  • Salt. Salt must be in any dough, even in sweet ones, a small pinch is enough to set off the taste, salt shows the taste of sugar, makes it brighter. With salt, the dough will not seem bland.
  • Soda or baking powder. Soda is not put in shortbread dough; flowability is achieved by proper cooking, but some housewives who are not confident in their abilities resort to the help of baking powder. With baking powder, baking shortcrust pastry will surely succeed. So it's your choice.
  • Additional flavoring ingredients. By adding different ingredients to taste, such as vanilla, cocoa, lemon peel, a variety of nuts, dried fruits, chocolate drops, ground ginger, cinnamon, you will get a new exquisite taste and aroma.

Now you know how the components work, but there are still prerequisites, so to speak, technological process which must be observed. These conditions are the same, no matter what recipe you cook below.

  • All ingredients must be weighed on a scale. The recipe in cups, spoons is not suitable here, the recipe must be strictly observed in grams. Of course, you can use measuring cups, but be sure to follow the recipe more precisely. Use the table of measures of weights and volumes.
  • Dry ingredients according to the recipe (flour, salt, soda or baking powder, cocoa powder, ground nuts) are mixed before cooking. But remember that cocoa is equivalent to loose, i.e. to flour. Therefore, if you add cocoa powder to the dough, then reduce the same amount of flour in the recipe (for example, reduce 1 tablespoon of flour and add 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder).
  • If you are preparing chopped dough, then all kitchen utensils (beating bowl, whisks, rolling board, rolling pin) should be cold.
  • Shortbread dough cannot be kneaded for a long time, just combine all the crumbs into a lump and knead a couple of times. Strike out.
  • The finished shortbread dough must be cooled, put in a plastic bag, tightly closed and sent to cool in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes, and preferably for an hour. To make the dough cool faster and better, do not put it in a kolobok, flatten it slightly. Why is it necessary to refrigerate at all? Look, butter, when heated, separates into milk fat and liquid. You could observe this if you cooked ghee, and remaining cold in the mass with flour will prevent the flour from absorbing moisture, because there is gluten in the flour, it combines with the liquid and adds viscosity to the dough.
  • Roll out the dough in an even layer, otherwise thinner layers will be more dried in the oven. If one large cake is baked, it must be pricked over the entire surface with a fork. Bake the shortcrust pastry in a preheated oven at 200°C, placing the pastry in the middle oven in the standard oven mode "top - bottom" until slightly golden.

France is considered the founder and unsurpassed leader of the confectionery art. So in France, shortbread dough is divided into three types: pâte brisée (basic chopped dough), pate sablee (chopped sweet) and pate sukree (delicate sweet shortbread dough). Completely unfamiliar names, incomprehensible to ordinary housewives, but familiar to everyone according to the cooking technology.

Basic chopped shortcrust pastry or pâte brisée

It is considered the most universal, basic test. Pate Brize is used to make mostly savory pastries such as meat pies, open pies with vegetables or Quiche.

Pate Brize is a chopped pastry made with only flour, water and a moderate amount of butter, and no sugar or salt is added to it.

  • Flour - 250 g
  • Butter - 125 g
  • Ice water - 50 ml
  • Salt - a pinch

As a rule, it is prepared with the help of a combine-mixer, but it can be easily done by hand.

Put the well-chilled butter on the flour and chop with a knife (grate or cut into small cubes), grind with flour until fine mealy crumbs are obtained. Gradually adding cold water, quickly combine the dough into a ball. Send to refrigerator.

Due to large grains of cold butter, when moisture evaporates during the baking process, the dough acquires the properties of layering. Sometimes such dough is called false or pseudo-puff.

Depending on the proportions of water, flour and butter, you can even make dough for the cakes of the famous and beloved Napoleon cake.

Chopped shortcrust pastry or pate sablee

This is the same chopped dough as the base, but with slightly different proportions of ingredients, or rather, with the addition of sugar, eggs and, if necessary, water.

  • Flour - 250 g
  • Salt - a pinch
  • Butter - 125 g
  • Sugar - 60 g Eggs - 1 pc.

Mix dry ingredients. Put the well-chilled butter on the flour and chop with a knife, when there are small pieces of butter, grind them with flour until fatty flour is formed.

Separately, grind the eggs with sugar and pour the egg mass into the flour. Knead a tight dough.

Sweet or savory shortcrust pastry (pate sukree)

Shortcrust pastry is the simplest and easiest to make of all, in my opinion. Cookies from it turn out to be crumbly, just melt in your mouth, and a wide variety of cookie shapes can be formed. From shortcrust pastry, you can cook, for example, kurabie and Viennese cookies, ringlets with nuts, baskets with protein cream and many, many more different sweets. Shortcrust pastry is an excellent base for cakes with curd and fruit fillings, and is also suitable for jam pie.

Depending on the amount of flour, the dough will either be softer or denser.

The ideal proportion is 1-2-3, i.e. 1 part sugar, 2 parts butter and 3 parts flour. And, mind you, this is in grams.

The shortcrust pastry recipe for one-two-three looks like this

  • Sugar - 100 g
  • Butter - 200 g
  • Flour - 300 g
  • Egg - 1 pc. whole or two yolks
  • Salt - a pinch
  • Baking powder - 1 tsp

But sometimes another proportion is more justified in the recipe, namely, twice as much flour as butter, especially if milk or sour cream is added to the dough.

How to cook shortcrust pastry?

Mix flour, baking powder, salt.

The butter should be at room temperature and take it out of the fridge about one hour in advance. Rub the butter with sugar until the grains disappear, and preferably with powdered sugar, then add the eggs, and, continuing to knead, gradually add flour, knead a soft dough with a spoon.

At the end of kneading, you can help yourself with your hands to combine the whole mass into a lump.

Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 1 hour.

It is good to prepare such a dough in advance, put it in the cold at night, and quickly form cookies in the morning and be content with fresh pastries for tea for breakfast.

We noticed that during the cooking process there are no grains of butter, the butter is ground with sugar and eggs, and, therefore, large voids do not form when heated in the oven, as in minced meat. Due to this, the dough will turn out more tender.

I hope you understand the specifics of cooking. Maybe I missed something, write in the comments, we will discuss together.

Make good shortcrust pastry at home, not everyone succeeds the first time, so in our article we will try to tell you in more detail how to make soft, tasty and beautiful shortbread dough on your own.

Many hostesses know that dishes made from shortcrust pastry are very airy and literally melt in your mouth. This type of dough differs from the usual one in that it contains a lot of fat. Of course, shortcrust pastry dishes are probably not suitable for diet breakfasts, but for those who are not used to counting calories, such yummy will be just right!

If the dough is well kneaded, then it will be possible not to add edible salt, which the best way affect the taste of the baked goods.

Another secret of high-quality shortcrust pastry is not to let it heat up.

During the kneading process, try to open the windows and ventilate the room well, make sure that the table or board is cool enough before kneading the dough on it. And one more thing: try to minimize the time during which you will knead your shortbread dough, as this will limit its heating.

Structure ready dough should be smooth, matte and in no case shine. If, nevertheless, it so happened that the dough shines a little, then send it for a while to the refrigerator or to any other cool place. When it cools a little, it will begin to knead better and stop sticking to your hands.

Pay special attention to rolling out the dough, as the thicker the layer, the worse it will bake. Carefully roll out the dough until its thickness is no more than 8 millimeters. Otherwise, do not complain that your dish is hopelessly spoiled.

When baking products from shortbread dough, you can not lubricate the baking dish with oil, since a sick amount of it is already contained in the dough itself. The oven must be preheated before baking, and the dough itself must be pricked several times with a fork before being sent to the oven.

If you are going to make shortbread dough much earlier than you will bake it, then we advise you to send it to the freezer until the very moment of baking. Shortbread dough can be stored in the freezer for about three months.

Before preparing the dough, sift the flour well and mix it thoroughly with chilled butter or margarine so that something resembling a crumb comes out. In this case, the dough will turn out crumbly and airy.

Some hostesses recommend kneading shortbread dough only with your hands, and not using special electrical appliances. This way you can control the temperature of the dough and refrigerate it the moment it starts to heat up. And, besides, any dish cooked with your own hands, and not with the help of a machine, turns out to be much tastier and more beautiful.

And now let's take a closer look at the most popular recipes with which you can make delicious shortcrust pastry at home.

Classic recipe

In order to make the perfect shortcrust pastry on your own, classic recipe, you will need the following set of products:

    flour: 3 tbsp.;

    butter: 300 g;

    powdered sugar: 1 tbsp.;

    chicken eggs: 2 pcs.;

    soda: ¼ tsp;

First, carefully sift the flour, then pour all the other ingredients on top. Remember that the oil must be chilled. It should be added last, cut into small pieces.

Now we knead the dough very, very quickly, achieving its uniformity, after which we send it to the refrigerator for an hour, after covering cling film.

Before you make something from the finished shortcrust pastry, it must be removed from the refrigerator, kneaded and rolled out well. The thinner the dough comes out, the better. Bake such a dough at a temperature of at least 200 degrees.

Soft shortbread dough

Shortcrust pastry prepared according to this recipe is incredibly soft and airy, and after cooking it literally melts in your mouth. To make shortbread dough soft, we need the following set of products:

    flour: 3 tbsp.;

    chilled butter: 450 g;

    chicken eggs: 3 pcs.;

    granulated sugar: 2/3 tbsp.;

    soda: ¼ tsp;

    lemon juice: 1 tsp;

Thoroughly mix the eggs and sugar with butter, then mix the flour with salt and soda, which should first be quenched with pre-prepared lemon juice. Now we mix all the ingredients as quickly as possible, knead the dough and send it to the refrigerator for one hour.

Such a dough is much softer than the classic shortbread dough, so in order to cook it, such a dough should be spread on a baking dish.

Dough with sour cream

Shortcrust pastry with the addition of sour cream turns out to be very lush and has a very pleasant aftertaste, which gives a dairy product. To make the dough according to this recipe, you should stock up on the following ingredients:

    flour: 3 tbsp.;

    chilled butter: 250 g;

    sour cream: 1 tbsp.;

    granulated sugar: 2 tbsp. l.;

    lemon juice: 1 tsp;

    salt: 0.5 tsp;

Grind the chilled butter with a grater, then mix it with sour cream. In the same container, sift the flour, add the rest of the ingredients and start kneading the dough. You need to do this as quickly as possible so that it does not have time to heat up.

When the shortbread dough is ready, send it to the refrigerator for at least two hours, after which you can cook delicious pastries from it.

Using the recommendations from our article, you can always quickly make delicious and proper shortcrust pastry at home. From such a dough, very tasty bagels, cookies and pies are obtained, which your family and friends will surely like. See the video below for more information.

Many people love shortbread dough for its friability, ease of preparation and speed of baking. And also for a large and varied selection of pastries from it. There are different types of shortcrust pastry and how to knead them.

Composition and methods of kneading

Basic ingredients for 400 g shortcrust pastry:

  • wheat flour - 200 g
  • granulated sugar - 100 g
  • butter - 100 g
  • egg yolk - 1 piece.

You can knead the dough in two ways.

First way: Mix chilled butter with dry ingredients and rub until crumbs form. Then knead quickly. Refrigerate the resulting dough.

Second way: Rub the softened butter with sugar until the butter dissolves. Now you can add flour and eggs. After kneading the dough, send it to the refrigerator. After 30-40 minutes, you can start molding products.

You can replace part of the flour with starch. Then the amount of flour should be reduced. Change the taste and aroma of baking by adding chopped nuts, cocoa, spices (cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg) to the dough. How about adding orange and lemon zest? Show your culinary imagination using various fillers.

If you see a whole egg in the ingredients for shortbread dough, it is better to replace it with yolks. In this case, shortbread dough becomes more crumbly and tender.

Types of shortcrust pastry

There are many different types of this test. The choice of one or another type depends on what shortbread dough products we want to cook. By adding additional ingredients to the main recipe, we get different types test.

The classic recipe for shortcrust pastry consists only of a mixture of flour, sugar and butter. For a binder, a small amount can be added cold water(it is better to use cleaned).

Adding eggs to this mixture, we get egg shortbread dough.

Sand dough is considered yeast-free. But adding yeast to the composition, we get a yeast shortcrust pastry. It turns out a kind of mix that has the characteristics of both types. Such a dough is soft and tender (like yeast), as well as crumbly and melting in the mouth (like a "sand" classic).

Lean shortbread dough will turn out if you add vegetable oil instead of butter. It turns out to be somewhat tougher, but is used in some types of pastries for the contrast effect of dough and juicy filling.

Using fermented milk products, knead sour cream shortbread dough and kefir. To prevent such a dough from coming out hard, add baking powder or soda (extinguishing it with vinegar or lemon juice).

You will get a wonderful cheese shortbread dough when you add hard cheese. To do this, take cheese and flour in a ratio of 1: 1. Before kneading the cheese dough, grate hard cheese on a grater. In such a test, a pinch of ground black pepper will not be superfluous.

Continuing the sour-milk theme, we suggest preparing shortbread dough with cottage cheese. This is a great choice if you have a fruit or berry filling. Light sourness of the curd dough and sweet juiciness of the filling ... An enchanting combination in best traditions French chefs.

Potato shortbread dough is made by adding potatoes to the dough. To do this, it is pre-boiled and rubbed on a grater. Put in the dough in a ratio of flour 1:1. Continue with the main recipe.

There is a special kind of shortcrust pastry. This is Brize dough. It is prepared without added sugar. There are also no eggs in Breeze. But despite this, it tastes very good. The consistency is dense (it does not use baking powder) and resembles puff. Universal Recipe originally from France, where he is very popular.


from unsweetened dough

Streusel is a confectionery crumb made from shortcrust pastry. To obtain it, the ingredients are mixed and ground into a "sand" mass. Thus, a large streusel crumb is obtained. And if you need a small streusel, grind a large crumb through a sieve.


and almond streusel

In Germany, a pie of the same name is popular, in which part of the shortcrust pastry is laid out in a mold in the form of a base. A layer of filling is laid on top of the base, which is sprinkled with “sand chips” on top, i.e. streusel.

sand secrets

  1. Before kneading shortcrust pastry, all products must be cooled. This is especially true of oil (it must be solid). If you add water, it should be ice cold.
  2. To grind butter, you can use not only a knife. It is very convenient to rub hard butter on a coarse grater.
  3. Try to knead the dough as quickly as possible. With prolonged contact of the hands with the dough, the fat (butter, margarine) included in its composition is melted. This leads to rigidity of finished products.
  4. If you want a more crispy and crumbly dough, then add powdered sugar instead of sugar. Also, for this purpose, only egg yolks are put instead of eggs.
  5. After kneading the dough, send it to the refrigerator. There it should be at least half an hour (and preferably 40-45 minutes).
  6. Wrap the dough in cling film before putting it in the refrigerator. This will prevent the dough from absorbing foreign odors, and will also prevent it from winding out.
  7. Let the dough rest at room temperature before rolling out. It will gain plasticity and roll out easier.
  8. Roll out shortbread dough about 4-8 mm thick. If the layer is thicker, then it will not bake well.
  9. The baking sheet or baking dish can be lubricated. The dough contains a sufficient amount of fat and it will not stick.
  10. Prick the dough in several places with a fork before placing in the oven. This will prevent bubbles from appearing on the surface.
  11. The oven temperature and baking time depend on the thickness of the dough and the type of baked goods. So for baskets and tartlets, the thickness of the dough is 3-4 mm. They are baked for 10-12 minutes at 230-240 degrees. All kinds of stars, rings, etc. 6-7 cm thick. Bake for 12-15 minutes at a temperature of 220-240 degrees. Cake layers and pie bases are 7-9 cm thick. They are baked at 210-220 degrees for 15-20 minutes.
  12. You can make shortcrust pastry and store it in the refrigerator. The shelf life will be 7-10 days.

What to cook from shortcrust pastry

The number of types of shortcrust pastry is large and varied. You can use cookie dough. Make it in the form of various figures (stars, hearts, animals, etc.). Or cook.


A shortcrust pastry cake or pie will decorate any table. For cakes, sand cakes are baked, which are then smeared with cream. Using shortbread dough, you can cook pies with sweet (fruits, berries) or salty fillings. Unsweetened filling can be fish, meat, vegetable, mushroom. Thus, you can make a closed or open cake. But more often they bake open pies (such as tarte or quiche).

Some recipes:

Also, wonderful baskets and tartlets are made from shortcrust pastry. Fill them with various toppings. For example, baskets - fresh fruits or berries with whipped cream. And tartlets - pate, red or black caviar. You can also fill them with a small amount of salad (meat, crab).


Now you are familiar with various types shortcrust pastry and learned many secrets of its preparation. Using the knowledge gained, you will be able to properly knead any shortbread dough and make delicious homemade cakes from it.