Pâte Brisée Tart Crust

By CheeseDiva

Ingredients

• 6 tablespoons chilled butter, cut into ¼ inch bits - Plugra
• 2 tablespoons chilled vegetable shortening
• 1½ cups all-purpose flour
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 3 to 5 tablespoons ice water

Preparation

Step 1

In a large, chilled mixing bowl, combine butter, shortening, flour, and salt. Working quickly, use your fingertips to rub the flour and fat together until they blend and look like flakes of coarse meal. Pour three tablespoons of ice water over the mixture all at once, toss together lightly and gather the dough into a ball. If the dough seems crumbly, add up to two tablespoons more ice water by drops. Dust the pastry with a little flour and wrap it in wax paper or a plastic bag. Refrigerate for at least three hours or until it is firm.
Remove the pastry from the refrigerator five minutes before rolling it. If it seems resistant and hard, tap it all over with a rolling pin. Place the ball on a floured board or table and, with the heel of one hand, press it into a flat circle about 1 inch thick. Dust a little flour over and under it and roll it out-from the center to within an inch of the far edge. Lift the dough and turn it clockwise, about the space of two hours on a clock; roll again from the center to the far edge. Repeat-lifting, turning, rolling- until the circle is about ⅛ inch thick and 11 or 12 inches across. If the pastry sticks to the board or table, lift it gently with a metal spatula and sprinkle a little flour under it.
Butter the bottom and sides of an 8 to 9 inch false -bottomed quiche or cake pan ( I used an 8 inch and had lots of extra filling), no more than 1¼ inch deep. Roll the pastry over the pin and unroll it over the pan, or drape the pastry over the rolling pin, lift it up and unfold it over the pan. Gently press the pastry into the bottom and around the sides of the pan, being careful not to stretch it. Roll the pin over the rim of the pan, pressing down hard to trim off the excess pastry. With a fork, prick the bottom of the pastry all over, trying not to pierce all the way through. Chill for one hour.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. To keep the bottom of the pastry from puffing up, spread a sheet of buttered aluminum foil across the pan and press it gently into the edges to support the sides of the pastry as it bakes. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 10 minutes, then remove the foil. Prick the pastry again, then return it to the oven for 3 minutes or until it starts to shrink from the sides of the pan and begins to brown. Remove it from the oven and set it on a wire cake rack to cool.