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Shortcrust dough can be used to make both sweet and savory pastries. It tastes tender, fluffy and buttery. I will show you the basic shortcrust pastry recipe with or without egg. There are also some variations and tips for making it. You can find a detailed shortcrust pastry dough recipe with the exact quantities and step-by-step instructions below.

Basic shortcrust pastry recipe

Ingredients for basic shortcrust pastry recipe

Butter

For the classic basic shortcrust pastry recipe, you need room warm butter. However, it should not be too soft. It is best to leave it at room temperature for about 30 minutes before processing.

Powdered sugar

You can adjust the amount of powdered sugar in the recipe to taste. I only made the shortcrust pastry moderately sweet.

You can use fine sugar instead of powdered sugar. In this case, you may have to beat the butter mixture a little longer until the sugar dissolves.

Flour

The amount of flour specified in the basic recipe may vary. You may need a little more or less. Add as much flour to the butter mixture in batches until you have a very soft dough.

Shortcrust pastry with egg or eggless

Knead briefly and chill for longer

Unlike yeast dough, you should never knead shortcrust dough for long. After adding flour to the other ingredients, it is perfectly sufficient to simply mix everything into a barely homogeneous ball of dough.

You should also work with the shortcrust dough as quickly as possible. Otherwise the butter will melt from the heat of your hands. As a result, it will absorb more and more flour. In the end, the pastry could taste tough and not crumbly.

You should also chill the finished shortcrust pastry dough thoroughly. The best way to do this is to flatten the ball of dough so that it cools more quickly and wrap it in an airtight container.

Then place the dough in the fridge for around 1 hour. Chilling makes it firmer and easier to shape into the desired pastry.

Refine as desired

You can flavor the classic shortcrust pastry with various spices. Vanilla is perfect for this. Fresh lemon zest can also be used to add flavor. For Christmas cookies, such as speculoos, you can use cinnamon, cardamom and nutmeg.

For chocolate shortcrust pastry, such as the Russischer Zupfkuchen, the Polish Royal cheesecake, the chocolate raspberry heart sandwich cookies or the chocolate number cake, for example, replace some of the flour with the same amount of cocoa powder. In the recipe below, use around 30 grams of cocoa powder and 270 grams of flour. Depending on how chocolatey you want the pastry to be, you can also use more or less cocoa.

Shortcrust dough recipe

Basic shortcrust pastry recipe without baking powder

The basic shortcrust pastry recipe does not normally require baking powder. To ensure that the pastry still tastes light and tender, it is important to beat the butter mixture thoroughly.

To do this, first beat the softened butter with the sugar until light and creamy. This takes about 5 to 7 minutes. If you add eggs, beat for a few more minutes to form a homogeneous mixture.

Replace egg with egg yolk

Shortcrust pastry with egg yolks tastes even more tender. You can therefore replace one egg with two egg yolks in my basic recipe below. The dough for the Burgenland cookies, the korzinochki, the Krakow slices or the sour cream plum cake, for example, is prepared with egg yolks.

The leftover egg whites can be used in many delicious recipes, including the Sicilian almond cookies, the raspberry meringue roulade, the Pavlova cake, the apple zefir and the Bird’s milk sweets.

Classic shortcrust pastry dough

Eggless shortcrust pastry

You can also make shortcrust pastry without egg, as for the marzipan meringue berry cake. The basic recipe for this can also be found at the end of this article in the recipe box.

For the shortcrust dough without egg, simply use a little more butter. The step of beating the egg butter mixture is not necessary in this case.

Eggless shortcrust pastry tastes incredibly tender and sandy. It is looser than shortcrust pastry with egg.

Vegan shortcrust pastry

Classic shortcrust pastry can also be made vegan. Use the basic recipe without egg and replace animal butter with vegan butter or margarine. I used this to make the snowflake cookies, for example.

Shortcrust dough recipe with cold ingredients

Shortcrust dough can be made with cold ingredients, such as for the crumb cookies, the gata with nuts, the heart cookies or the cake “Antoshka”. This method of preparation is very popular in France.

The butter and eggs in particular need to be cold. You can add a few grams of baking powder for more fluffiness.

First, mix the flour with the salt and baking powder if necessary. Then quickly chop the butter into it. Now add the sugar and egg and mix everything into a roughly homogeneous dough. If the dough is too dry and cannot be gathered into a ball, you can add cold water by the spoonful.

Shortcrust dough made from cold ingredients has a fairly crumbly consistency and should not be kneaded into a homogeneous mass. After chilling, it is easier to work into pastries.

For eggless shortcrust pastry made from cold ingredients, use cold water instead of egg. Adjust the amount until the required consistency is achieved.

Dough for cookies

Savory shortcrust pastry

For savory pastries, such as the cheese crackers or the shortcrust tarts with tomato filling, make the shortcrust dough from cold ingredients as described above. In this case, leave out the sugar or only add a very small amount. You can use a little more salt if necessary.

Store and freeze

Shortcrust pastry dough can be prepared the day before and chilled overnight. It can also be stored in the fridge for 2 – 3 days.

You can freeze the shortcrust dough for a longer period. Wrap it airtight for this. Defrost it at room temperature before using.

Recipes with shortcrust pastry

Shortcrust pastry can be used to make sweet cookies, layer cakes or savory crackers. It is also ideal as a base for cakes, tarts and quiches.

Have you already discovered my delicious recipes with it? I have some with the classic shortcrust pastry as well as some variations on it, such as the shortcrust dough with sour cream:

How to make cookies

How to make shortcrust pastry: tips and tricks

You can adjust the amount of powdered sugar to taste.
You can replace the egg with two egg yolks. This will make the shortcrust pastry even more tender.
The amount of flour specified may vary. Add as much flour to the butter mixture in portions until you have a very soft, but no longer mushy dough.
Knead the shortcrust dough briefly and work it as quickly as possible so that the butter does not melt.
To make the pastry taste even more tender, you can replace a small amount of flour with the same amount of cornstarch.
You can flavor classic shortcrust pastry with spices or lemon zest.
For chocolate shortcrust pastry, replace one part flour with the same amount of baking cocoa.
You can find out how to make shortcrust dough with cold ingredients or savory in the article above.

Have you made shortcrust pastry at home using this recipe? I look forward to your result, your star rating and your comment below on how it turned out and what you baked with it.