Keeping things really simple with my sweet pastry recipe, if you want to read an in depth overview of the pastry, how to use it and the importance of different ingredients head over to Blind Baking Part 1.
This recipe follows a fairly straight forward crumbing method followed by adding liquid in the form of an egg to make a smooth, pliable dough. This recipe includes ground almonds, I like the texture and flavour that they add but if you want to make it nut free you can just substitute the weight of the almonds for plain flour. This is a really beginner friendly recipe, if you don’t feel confident with blind baking, I’d recommend practicing with this recipe and once you’ve got the hang of it you can blind bake with any pastry your heart desires!
This recipe makes quite a big batch, you can easily make half quantities but I don’t like to be left with half an egg, I usually make a full size batch and then freeze the leftovers, it’ll keep in the freezer for 6 months.
Sweet Pastry
Ingredients - Makes enough for 2-3 large tarts or 20-30 small tarts
330g plain flour
35g ground almonds
Pinch of salt
100g icing sugar
200g cold butter
50g egg (1 medium egg)
1tsp vanilla extract
Method
Combine the flour, almonds, salt, icing sugar and butter and mix until there are no lumps of butter and the mixture looks like breadcrumbs, do not mix for too long or it will form a huge lump! You can do this in a food processor, stand mixer or by hand!
Add the egg and vanilla and mix until just combined.
Give it a quick kneed by hand to ensure there aren’t any lumps.
Form into a flat rectangle, this will help when rolling later!
Clingfilm and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight before using.
