Olive Oil Tart Crust

By hlovell

This recipe comes from that fantastic food blog Chocolate & Zucchini. The only adaptation I’ve made is to halve the salt. As a full teaspoon of kosher salt made the crust very salty, I suspect that the salt used in that recipe is somewhat different from the kosher salt we usually find stateside. Otherwise, I love this preparation and intend to use it for lots and lots of tarts to come.

Ingredients

• 250 g wheat flour
• 1 tsp dried herbs like thyme or rosemary (optional)
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup water

Details

Servings 6

Preparation

Step 1

If you will bake the crust, heat oven to 400.

Mix ingredients together with a fork in the order listed above, blending just enough for the mixture to be clumpy.

Use your hands to bring the mixture together, knead a couple of times if necessary, and roll it out. If, like me, you do not have or want a rolling pin, use an old wine bottle, but do wash the thing first.

Slide the crust into the tart mold (buttered and floured if necessary), clean up the edges and patch up holes or thin bits. You will not need the entire quantity for a 9″ or 10″ mold. The leftover can be cut into cute shapes and used to decorate the top of the tart or for snacks as crackers.

If you have 30 minutes during which you can let it rest in the refrigerator, do so. (I did not and was not bothered.)

If par-baking for the Swiss chard tart, prick the bottom of the crust many times with a fork and bake for about 7 minutes.