Pastry Case for Tarts

Our answer

Many tarts, suchs as Rhubarb Tart (from Domestic Goddess), have a base of shortcrust pastry (either sweet or savoury). When making pastry it is always important to rest the pastry dough in the fridge, firstly after maing the dough and secondly after rolling it out and placing it in the tin. This reduces the risk of the pastry becoming too tough as it allows time for the glutens in the flour to relax. Chilling before baking is particularly important as it allows the fats to chill and firm up. If the fats are cold when the pastry case goes into the oven then the water in the fat turns to steam before the fat can melt which heps to give a light, flaky pastry. If the fats are warm before baking then they melt too quickly and this gives a greasy, heavy pastry.

Nigella mentions in How To Eat that the pastry can be rolled out and pressed into the tin and then left overnight in the fridge. Just make sure that the tin is tightly wrapped in a couple of layers of clingfilm (plastic wrap) so that the pastry does not dry out. We suggest (if possible) "overwrapping" which is wrapping the clingfilm completely over the top and underneath the bottom of the tin as this gives a better seal. The pastry-lined tin can also be frozen and baked blind direct from frozen.