Buttery Shortbread Pastry Dough

By bigbare

This versatile dough can be used for everything from tarts to pie crust to turnovers. The dough is quite soft, but all the butter in the recipe makes it forgiving and easy to work with. When baked, the crust is very tender—almost like a shortbread cookie.
Yields enough dough for 1 single pie crust, 8 mini tarts, or 12 turnovers.

Ingredients

• 9 oz. (2 cups) bleached allpurpose flour
• 7 oz. (14 Tbs.) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 2 Tbs. granulated sugar
• 1 Tbs. chilled heavy cream
• 2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
• 1 tsp. table salt

Preparation

Step 1

In a food processor, combine the flour, butter, egg, sugar, cream, lemon juice, and salt and pulse until the dough starts gathering together in big clumps, as shown below. Turn the dough out onto a counter and gather it together. Shape the dough as directed in the recipe you’re making.