Pate Brisee

Don't be intimidated by the French name, pate brisee can be loosely translated to "dough with little pieces of butter broken up in it." While sable dough is crumbly and sandy, pate brisee is a bit more flaky, although just as buttery and rich, thanks to leaving the butter in larger pieces. It is fairly similar to an American pie dough, and can be used for either sweet or savory preparations (think quiche).

350 g. all purpose flour
4 g. salt
14 g. granulated sugar
226 g. unsalted butter, chilled and cut into cubes
60-120 g. chilled water

1. Whisk together flour, salt and sugar. There's no picture for this step. Just put the dry ingredients in a bowl and whisk it really well. You're trying to evenly distribute the salt and sugar (and any spices you add) into the flour. If you keep this step, you could end up with part of the dough very salty and part very bland. More importantly, the even distribution of the sugar will help with even browning.

2. Toss the cold pieces of butter with the flour mixture until they are coated.

pate brisee

3. Break the larger pieces of butter into smaller pieces with your fingertips.

rubbing in butter

4. As you're breaking the pieces, rub some of the flour into the fat by smooshing it between your thumb and fingers.

rubbing in butter

5. Don't rub it in too well--you want to leave some larger pieces. The smallest pieces should look like cornmeal, and the whole mixture should be very sandy looking.

making pate brisse

6. Make sure your water is ice cold. I usually fill a glass with ice cubes and then add the water.

ice water for making pate brisee

7. Sprinkle on the 60 g. of chilled water and toss together.

pate brisee

This dough is still a bit dry. You can test it by trying to press it down into the bowl. If it breaks up, you need a bit more water.

8. Pinch dough to see if it holds together. If so, you're done. If it's still kind of crumbly, add another few sprinkles and toss again. You might not need all the water, so go slowly. As a matter of fact, I'd err on the side of too little water.

pate brisee

Once you get too much water in your brisee, it becomes sticky even after chilling. Even more annoyingly, it doesn't roll out as well and has a tendancy to spring back--too much gluten development with all that water, so be careful.

9. Pack the still sandy-looking dough down into the mixing bowl.

pate brisee

10. Cut the dough in half with a bench knife.

pate brisee

11. Flatten each half into a disc and place between two pieces of parchment paper. Roll out to about 1/8" thickness.

pate brisee

12. Refrigerate the rolled dough for an hour so the dough can fully hydrate. After refrigerating, you'll notice that the somewhat dry-looking dough has now turned into a rather lovely dough. That's because the flour has completely absorbed the water.

rolled pate brisee dough

13. Let dough temper on the counter for a few minutes so it is pliable, and then gently fit the dough into your pie or tart pan. Pat, but don't stretch, dough into the pan and roll across the top of the tart pan with a rolling pin to remove excess dough.

If making a pie, trim the dough with a 1/2" overhang. Roll the overhanging dough under the dough on the rim of the pie pan, making a double thickness. Press with a fork, or crimp decoratively.

14. Dock dough all over the bottom, and blind bake for 10 minutes at 350F, or until the edges of the crust are dry and set. Then remove your beans and continue baking for another 10-15 minutes until crust is dry and light golden brown.