The Classic French Dough I Use to Make All My Tarts

My go-to pastry dough is pâte sablée, a sweet, cookie-like dough that can be baked into a tart shell or sliced and baked as cookies. Sablé, which means “sand” or “sandy” in French, refers to the dough’s crumbly texture when baked; it is one of several essential French tart doughs, including pâte brisée and pâte sucrée. Like pâte sucrée, pâte sablée is a versatile dough consisting of flour, sugar, eggs, and butter. Sablée recipes, however, frequently call for powdered sugar instead of granulated or caster sugar, giving the dough a more tender, crumbly texture than its sucrée and brisée counterparts. My love of pâte sablée is all about the fact that it's the most like a cookie of all of the classic French doughs—this makes it perfect for desserts like a lemon tart or fresh fruit tart, in which you want a sweet, short crust. 

While it's incredibly delicious, delicate pâte sablée is also slightly more finicky than its pastry siblings. Some recipes have cooks incorporate just a single yolk, but I find that those doughs are more difficult to work with and fall apart easily. So in my recipe below, I incorporate a whole egg: The proteins in the egg whites provide structure, making the dough easier to work with, while the fat in the yolks give the dough additional richness. A touch of almond flour adds a nutty note, while also giving the dough a satisfying crispness after it’s been baked. 

A tart shell made from pâte sablée is wonderful with fruit or frangipane, and you can also use the dough as the base to make intricate layered French desserts called entremet. Sablée also makes a great cookie: I frequently use it to make slice-and-bake sablés hollandaise (chocolate-and-vanilla checkerboard cookies) and I also sometimes put the dough in a piping bag to create decorative swirled cookies. Here are my tips on how to make a pâte sablée for pâtisserie-worthy desserts at home.

Key Techniques for Making Pâte Sablée

Sablage. In this recipe, you'll use your fingertips to rub cold butter into flour, confectioners' sugar, and ground almonds to create a sandy dough. This traditional French pastry technique—called sablage—helps coat the flour in fat to inhibit gluten development, resulting in a crumbly (in a good way!), tender crust. Some sablée recipes call for creaming softened butter with sugar in a stand mixer, but I reserve that approach for sablé à la poche—piped sablé cookies—which require a soft, pipeable dough. Creaming very soft butter is ideal if you need a dough soft enough to pipe, but makes less sense when you plan on rolling it out between parchment before chilling it, as it’ll take much longer to firm up again.

Fraisage. The other essential French technique in this dough is fraisage, which involves using the heel of your hand to smear the dough against a work surface. This helps evenly combine the butter, egg, and dry ingredients, and also distributes fat and moisture for a short, crumbly dough.  

Resting the dough. Resting and chilling the dough at various points throughout the process helps the gluten relax and keeps the butter cold, resulting in a tender crust that holds its shape when baking. 

Roll the dough between parchment. Sablée is delicate and slightly sticky, with a tendency to break or tear when manipulated. Rolling the pastry between two sheets of parchment makes it easier to place in a tart pan: After the rolled dough has chilled and firmed up, you’ll peel away away one side of the parchment, invert the dough onto the tart pan, then quickly and gently use your fingers to press the dough into the tin’s crevices. For easy shaping, roll the dough one to two inches larger than your tart pan, then use a sharp paring knife to trim away the excess after you’ve shaped and chilled the dough in the tart pan.

Pay attention to the dough’s temperature. If the rolled dough is too warm, it will stick to the parchment. If it's too cold, it will tear when you place it in the pan. Aim for something in between—it should be firm and cold enough to peel the parchment away easily, yet malleable enough to press into the pan without tearing or breaking. When in doubt, chill the dough until firm, then let it sit at room temperature for three to five minutes to let it soften ever so slightly before inverting it into the tart pan. If you've chilled the dough overnight, let it sit at room temperature for 10 minutes before flipping it onto the pan.

Use a tart pan with a removable bottom—then grease and flour it well. A tart pan with a removable bottom makes it much easier to lift the baked and cooled tart shell from the pan. I recommend lining the bottom of the tart pan with parchment, then coating it with nonstick spray and dusting it lightly with flour. If you’re using a ring or pan with flat sides (as opposed to fluted), you can line both the bottom and the sides with parchment strips instead of greasing and flouring it. 

There’s no need to weigh the pastry down when par-baking. To ensure that tart shells can withstand wet fillings like mousses or custards, pastry chefs often bake the shell before filling them. Typically, they line the shells with parchment paper, then weigh down the crust with dried beans, uncooked rice, or pie weights, which prevents it from shrinking as it bakes. In my testing, however, I found that pâte sablée tarts baked without weights were just as—if not even more—smooth, evenly baked, and visually appealing as those baked with weights.   

Line the bottom of a 9-inch tart pan with parchment and, using nonstick spray, grease parchment and sides of pan. Dust lightly with flour, shaking out excess. (See notes.)

In a large mixing bowl, whisk flour, confectioners’ sugar, almond flour, and salt to combine. Add butter to flour mixture and toss with fingers until butter pieces are thoroughly coated with flour mixture. Using your fingertips, pinch and flatten butter, then rub it between your fingertips until a sandy texture forms, 3 to 4 minutes.

Make a well in the center of the flour mixture about 2 to 3 inches wide. Pour beaten egg into the well and, using a fork, gradually incorporate flour into the egg until a dry, crumbly dough forms.

Tip dough onto a large, clean, unfloured countertop. Using the heel of your hand, smear the dough away from you, then use your hands or dough scraper to gather it back into a mass. Repeat until a soft, slightly sticky dough forms, about 6 to 8 more times.

Divide dough into two portions, about 300g (10 1/2 ounces) each. Flatten each portion into a 7-inch disc and place it between two sheets of baking parchment. Using a rolling pin, roll each to a 11-inch circle about 1/8-inch or 3mm thick. Carefully transfer dough, still between parchment, onto a 13- by 18-inch rimmed baking sheet and refrigerate until cold to the touch, about 30 minutes.

Carefully peel away one side of the parchment and flip, dough side down, onto prepared pan. (The dough should be cold but malleable; if dough is completely firm, let sit at room temperature for 3 to 5 minutes until pliable.) Remove remaining parchment and use your fingertips to gently press dough into the bottom and fluted sides of the pan. Refrigerate until firm to the touch, about 30 minutes.

Using a sharp paring knife, trim excess dough from edges so that it is level with the pan. Using a fork, prick bottom of tart dough all over. Refrigerate tart shell for at least 1 hour or up to 24 hours, then freeze tart shell for at least 30 minutes and up to 24 hours.

To Bake: Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat to 325ºF (165ºC). Bake until crust is firm and deep golden brown, 28 to 30 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely, 45 to 60 minutes, before filling or removing from tart pan.

Special Equipment

9-inch tart pan with removable bottom, rolling pin, parchment, wire rack

Notes

Almond flour can be substituted with the same amount of all-purpose flour, but the dough will be less flavorful and slightly more difficult to work with.

The chilled rolled dough should not be rock solid. If the dough is too cold it won't be malleable enough to press into the pan, but if it's too warm it will break. Ideally, you’re aiming for cold to the touch but still slightly malleable. This can take 15 to 35 minutes depending on your refrigerator.

If using a flat tart ring or pan, you can line the ring with a thin strip of parchment instead of using nonstick spray.

This recipe requires a medium egg (about 48 to 50g). To use a large egg, crack into a bowl, beat with a fork, then weigh out  50g.

This recipe can be doubled.

For tartlet shells: Prepare recipe through step 5. Using a 4-inch ring cutter, cut out 12 circles of dough. Use your fingertips to gently press 1 dough circle into bottom and fluted sides of tart shells. Transfer filled tart shells to a 9- by 13-inch baking tray and refrigerate until firm to the touch, about 30 minutes. Using a fork, prick bottom of tart dough all over. Refrigerate tartlet shells for at least 1 hour or up to 24 hours, then freeze tartlet shells for at least 30 minutes and up to 24 hours. Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat to 325ºF (165ºC). Bake until edges are firm and crust is deep golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely, 45 to 60 minutes, before filling or removing from tart pans.

Make-Ahead and Storage

Dough can be rolled between sheets of parchment and refrigerated for up to 24 hours. When ready to use, let sit at room temperature until dough is malleable enough to drape into pan without cracking, about 10 minutes. 

Lined and trimmed tart pan can be tightly wrapped in plastic wrap and refrigerated for up to 24 hours, or tightly wrapped in plastic wrap and aluminum foil and frozen for up to 1 month. Bake from frozen.

To freeze baked tart shell, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and aluminum foil and freeze for up to 1 month. Let sit at room temperature until thawed, 1 to 2 hours.

Wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, unfilled baked tart shells can be stored at room temperature for up to 1 day.