Pate Brisee

Pate Brise (from Pleasures of Cooking)
You won’t find an easier crust to make or work with than this. This recipe is for a partially cooked pie crust to be used with a quiche type tart. If using for pies or fruit tarts, don’t pre-bake. Just roll out into pan and fill.

1 2/3 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
12 tbsps. unsalted butter
4 ½ tbsps. ice water

Process the flour, sugar, salt, and butter to the consistency of coarse meal, about 10 seconds.
Pour ice water through feed tube while processing. Stop motor as soon as dough begins to form a ball.

Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and shape into a disc about 1 inch thick.

Roll dough into a 15 inch circle and fit it into an 11 inch tart pan with removable bottom. Prick all over with a fork and refrigerate about 25 minutes or until ready to bake.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Cover the shell completely with a round of aluminum foil and fill with 2 cups uncooked rice or beans. Bake for 15 minutes. Carefully remove the foil and weights. Bake 5 minutes more, or until golden. Let cool before filling.

5 Responses to Pate Brisee

  1. Um, I know I’m supposed to ignore it, but the uncooked beans or rice part… is that to put a weight on the crust while cooking so it doesn’t get an air pocket under it?

    ps. you put sugar in pie crust?

    Reply

  2. Bardiac:

    Yes, those are to weigh it down. You can actually buy pie weights, little stone balls the size of peas that are used for the same purpose. Again, this is only if you are partially baking it for a quiche or other recipe calling for a pre-baked pie crust. For an apple pie, you just fill the crust and bake.

    You don’t need to refrigerate the dough if you are baking or using it right away, but if you are not, put it in the fridge till you’re ready.

    The Professional Chef textbook uses the term “blind baking” for preparing a pre-baked pie crust. They recommend covering the uncooked crust with parchment paper and then setting an empty pie pan on top of the paper (known as “double panning”)then placing the pans UPSIDE DOWN in the oven to prevent the dough from shrinking back doen the pans edges and blistering.

    For a great discussion about pie crusts on a great blog, visit Shuna Fish Lydon’s blog Eggbeater. Here are some links to Shuna’s posts about pies (and an article about her pie making class) –

    http://pajamasmedia.com/2007/07/building_a_better_pie_crust.php

    http://eggbeater.typepad.com/shuna/2006/07/pie_ii.html

    http://eggbeater.typepad.com/shuna/2005/06/pie.html
    Finally, yes this crust has a teensy bit of sugar. Not too much, or it is cakey. You can leave it out if you like.

    Reply

  3. Thanks 🙂

    I learned to make pie dough from my Grandma, and it was really just a 3 to 1 flour to butter recipe. But I may be remembering it wrong.

    Reply

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