Pâte Sucrée, also known as French Sweet Pastry, forms the delicate, buttery base of classic French dessert tarts. With its tender crumb and subtle sweetness, this pastry dough is perfect for mini tart shells filled with pastry cream, lemon curd, or fresh fruit.
If you’ve ever wondered how French patisseries achieve those crisp-yet-melt-in-your-mouth tart bases, this recipe is your answer.
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Recipe at a Glance
- Prep Time: 15 minutes plus 20 minutes in freezer
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Equipment: Food processor with steel blade; mini tart pans
- Ingredients: All-purpose flour, confectioners' sugar, unsalted butter, and egg
- Makes: 24 mini tart shells
- Difficulty: Easy
- Make-Ahead Friendly: Yes
Why You'll Love This Recipe
- Authentic Parisian Recipe: Adapted from a French pastry class Susan and I took in Paris.
- Easy: The food processor handles most of the work.
- Versatile Tart Base: Pair with pastry cream, lemon curd, chocolate ganache, apple pie filling, fresh fruit, etc.
- Make-ahead friendly: Dough can be prepared in advance and refrigerated or frozen until ready to bake.
Ingredients - Here's What You'll Need
Four simple ingredients for maximum texture and taste.
- Flour: I used Gold Medal Blue for its lower protein content, which keeps the crust tender.
- Confectioners’ sugar: Gives a smooth texture and subtle sweetness.
- Cold unsalted butter: Creates that crumbly, melt-in-your-mouth bite.
- Egg: Enriches the dough and helps bind it together.
Step-by-Step: How to Make Pâte Sucrée
- The Dry Ingredients: Pulse the flour and confectioners’ sugar in a food processor with a steel blade until combined, 5 or 6 times.
- The Butter: Add the cold cubed butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal, 8 to 10 times.
- The Egg: Add the egg and pulse again until the dough is crumbly but holds when pressed together, 5 to 6 times. If needed, add a teaspoon of heavy cream.
- The Dough: Transfer the crumbly dough to a piece of parchment sprinkled with confectioners' sugar. Knead the dough lightly, and press it into a disk. The dough can be made in advance up to this point, wrapped, and chilled.
- The Tart Shells: To shape the tart shells, pinch off an ounce of the dough, roll it into a ball, and flatten it. Place a piece of parchment paper on the dough, roll it into a rough circle, ⅛-inch thick, and cut it into a 3 ½-inch round. Press the dough into the mini tart pan, and trim the excess. Repeat with the remaining dough.
- Dock and freeze: Prick the dough with a fork to prevent puffing, and then freeze for 20 minutes to avoid slippage and to a lesser extent, shrinkage.
- Bake and Cool: Bake at 350°F for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven. Allow to sit in the tart pans for 5 minutes, and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
When the shells are cooled, store them in an airtight container, like a Ziploc bag.
Serve the little pastry shells filled with pastry cream and topped with fresh fruit. Alternatively, pair them with Lemon Curd for a zesty bite, or use them as a base for mini whipped chocolate ganache or apple pie fillings. Yum!
Frequently Asked Questions
Pâte sucrée is sweetened and enriched with egg or egg yolk, while pâte brisée is unsweetened and flakier.
Yes! Simply press the dough into a standard tart pan and bake as directed.
No problem. You can work the butter into the flour by hand, just as we did in Paris.
I ordered the little tart pans from Amazon.
Chula's Test Kitchen
- When I first made this in Paris, I was struck by how easy the dough was to handle - no cracking, no fuss. Using the food processor at home gives the same results in minutes. Freezing the tart shells before baking was the game-changer for me: no shrinking, no wasted dough.
- One of the most common frustrations with tart shells is whether they shrink or slip in the pan. The two issues may look similar, but the causes and fixes are different: Shrinkage - the dough contracts inward during baking, often due to overworked gluten or insufficient resting time. Slippage occurs when the dough slides down the sides of the pan, typically due to insufficient chilling before baking.
- In my testing, I’ve noticed that pan shape also plays a role. Sloped-sided tart pans make slippage less likely. Straight-sided tart pans make slippage more likely since gravity encourages the dough to collapse inward. Freezing the shells before baking makes a big difference. Same dough, different tart pans below.
- Docking prevents puffing. Freezing minimizes slippage. Resting the dough reduces shrinkage. Put all three together and you’ll get picture-perfect tart shells every time.
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Pâte Sucrée: French Sweet Pastry for Mini Fruit Tarts
Equipment
- Food Processor with Steel Blade
- Mini tart pans
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cups (8.75 ounces, 250 grams) all-purpose flour (See Tip 1)
- ¾ cup plus 2 Tablespoons (3.5 ounces, 100 grams) confectioner’s sugar
- 7 Tablespoons (3.5 ounces, 100 grams) cold unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch pieces
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon heavy cream (only if necessary)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350° F.
- Pulse process flour and confectioner’s sugar in food processor fitted with steel blade until combined, 5 to 6 pulses. Add butter; pulse process until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal, 8 to 10 pulses. Add egg; pulse process 5 to 6 times. Mixture will be crumbly. If necessary, add 1 teaspoon cream; pulse process 2 to 3 more times.
- Dump onto piece of parchment paper or other surface. Knead just until dothe ugh comes together. (See Tip 2).
- Pinch off 1-ounce pieces, about the size of a golf ball. Roll into a ball, and flatten onto a surface dusted with confectioners' sugar. Cover with a piece of parchment paper, and roll ⅛-inch thick. Cut with a 3 ½-inch round cutter. Gently press into the mold; cut away excess dough. Generously prick all over with a fork. (See Tip 3)
- Freeze for 20 minutes. (See Tip 4)
- Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until golden brown. Allow to cool completely. Yield: 24 mini tart shells.
Video
Tips/Notes
- I used Gold Medal Blue flour because if its lower protein content.
- Dough can be made ahead of time up to this point. Flatten into a disk; wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 2 days in advance. Remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes before use.
- I used mini round nonstick tart pans. They were the perfect size for producing mini fruit tarts.
- Freezing the dough before baking is important to ensure it doesn't shrink in the pastry mold.
Michelle says
This recipe is delicious. It's not too sweet and it holds its structure well. I marked this down one star because this recipe only yielded 17 shells for me. This might have been my mistake but I have make this recipe multiple times and each time I only get 17 shells.
Chula King says
Hi Michelle,
I'm sorry that the recipe only yielded 17 tart shells as opposed to 24. The main thing that I can think of is that you used slightly larger mini tart pans or rolled the dough slightly thicker than I did. These are the mini tart pans that I use.
Chula