07/08/2026
Pâte Sablée (Sandy Dough)
Pâte Sablée (Sandy Dough) is an extremely temperamental pastry that's perfect for tart shells or biscuits. It's very buttery, which is exactly why it melts in the mouth... and unfortunately in your hands too.
Working with it is like trying to nail jelly to a tree.
There's about 30 seconds where it's workable. Before that, it's as brittle as f***. After that, it decides it would rather be attached to everything except the tart ring you're trying to line.
So obviously I've spent the last week testing it.
Here's the recipe if you fancy having a go.
Ingredients
200g plain flour
35g ground almonds
90g icing sugar
2g fine sea salt
175g unsalted butter, cold and diced
30g egg yolks
Method
Add the flour, ground almonds, icing sugar and salt to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the cold butter and mix on a low speed until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
Add the egg yolks and continue mixing on a low speed until the pastry just comes together. Stop as soon as it does. This isn't bread and you don't need to beat the hell out of it.
Tip the dough onto a silicone mat and gently bring it together with your hands.
Roll the pastry between the first silicone mat and another (or two sheets of baking paper) until it's around 4mm thick. There is a very small window where it's actually pleasant to work with, so don't be afraid to keep chucking it back in the fridge for ten minutes if it starts getting stroppy. It should be firm but maleable.
Cut your base discs first, then your side strips. Lightly butter your perforated tart rings before lining them with the pastry. Press the strips neatly into the corners without stretching them, then add the base disc and gently seal the join. Stretch it now and it'll get its own back in the oven.
Free the lined tart shells for 20–30 minutes until they're nice and firm. Cut of excess pastry from the sides then bake at 160c for 18 to 20 minutes until they're golden. They may puff up in the oven. Don't panic they should shrink back.
Remove them from the oven and then once they're cool, the tart rings should just lift off nicely.
