Delicate and crumbly products are obtained from shortcrust pastry, but only if it is mixed correctly. So that cookies or cakes are not hard, you need to know some of the intricacies of making shortbread dough. We will talk about this below.
Recipe content:
- Secrets of making shortbread dough
- Ingredients
- Step by step cooking
- Video recipe
Shortcrust pastry products are always crumbly, because contain a lot of fat, like butter or margarine. This is what distinguishes the dough, which is why it is called shortbread. It is prepared easily and quickly, the main thing is to follow certain rules.
Secrets of making shortbread dough
- So, the first secret is the temperature of the ingredients. The butter should be cold and hard, not frozen. Other foods should also be cold.
- The crumbly effect will be obtained only due to the large amount of oil. Therefore, you do not need to feel sorry for him.
- Sift the flour and grind it with butter to a crumb consistency. It is important! Fat envelops the flour. The gluten in flour combines with moisture and creates crunch, crunchiness and softness, rather than firmness.
- Observe the proportion of flour and butter - 1: 2. Then there will be a pleasant result.
- The dough is kneaded by hand and not for long. Otherwise, the oil will melt, from which the products will not come out tender and soft.
- The dough is easier to roll out after chilling in the refrigerator for half an hour. It will shrink and shrink.
- The products are baked in a preheated oven at 180-200 degrees.
See Recipe - Plum Shortcrust Cake
- Caloric content per 100 g - 314 kcal.
- Servings - 700-800 g
- Cooking time - 15 minutes for kneading, 30 minutes for cooling
Ingredients:
- Flour - 500 g
- Eggs - 1 pc.
- Butter - 250 g
- Sugar - 1 tablespoon
- Salt - a pinch
- Baking soda - 1 tsp
Step by step preparation of shortcrust pastry:
1. Butter, cold temperature, not frozen, cut into slices.
2. Combine butter with flour sifted through a sieve.
3. Use a quick knife to chop the flour into small flour crumbs. Add baking soda, salt and sugar and continue using the knife to distribute the food evenly.
4. In the flour crumbs, make a small indentation into which you drive the egg.
5. Stir the mixture with a fork or knife so that the egg is evenly distributed throughout the mixture.
6. Knead the dough with quick movements, collecting it into a lump. Here, in fact, you do not need to knead anything, just rake the dough from the edges to the middle, forming it in one whole "bun".
7. Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate for half an hour, or preferably an hour. The dough can stay in the refrigerator for 1-2 days. It can also be frozen for a period of 3 months. After a certain time, you can start baking cookies, pastries, cakes, pies. But keep in mind that since the dough contains a large amount of fat, the board and rolling pin should 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.
Note: You can add a special flavor and aroma to the dough. To do this, vanilla sugar, lemon or orange grated zest, crushed chocolate, cocoa powder, ground or chopped nuts, cinnamon, etc. are added to the composition. Add additives when kneading the dough and cool it in the refrigerator with them.
See also a video recipe on how to make shortbread dough.
