Directions for Making Mürbteig or Rich Tart Pastry

Method I: By Hand

Pastry-making is easy if you have all of the ingredients ready and work systematically. The mixing should go rapidly so that the butter will not soften appreciably.

Choose a large, smooth working surface such as wood, Formica or marble. Have the butter and eggs chilled. If your recipe calls for baking powder, mix it together with the flour.

I like to make the pastry in a way that is pretty as well as efficient. This way of assembling ingredients also makes it easy to see what you have forgotten. Pour the flour on to the working surface. Make a well in the centre (rather like a little volcano). Put the sugar into the well and tamp it down again into a well. On top of the sugar add eggs or egg yolks. Cut the chilled butter into one-inch pieces and place them evenly around the slopes of the well. Add flavorings (vanilla, lemon peel, rum) to the well.

Begin blending the pastry with a large unserrated knife such as a butcher knife or a pastry blender (I prefer a knife to a pastry blender). In this way the dough has less contact with warm hands and remains manageable. Start in the center, cutting the eggs into the sugar, and gradually work in the butter and flour. As you work, keep the ingredients together by scraping toward the center. When the dough forms it will first be mealy, like oatmeal, and then will begin to clump into pea-sized bits. When it starts to form larger lumps discard the knife and press the dough into a ball with your hands. Knead it with the heel of your hand for a minute or so, until the dough is thoroughly mixed. The dough should not be sticky. Gather the dough into a ball again and wrap in wax paper. Allow it to firm at least two hours in the refrigerator or an hour in the freezer.

Note: Rich Tart Pastry will keep about three to four days in the refrigerator, or you may freeze it for weeks. To keep it longer than a few hours, wrap plastic over the wax paper.

Method II: Heavy-Duty Mixer

A portable mixer is too light to work the stiff Mürbteig, but by all means use a heavy-duty machine with a flat beater attachment if you have one available. Arrange the ingredients in the bowl of the mixer just as described in Method I for a flat surface. Put the machine on its lowest setting to keep the flour from spraying out of the bowl.

Switch the machine on and off quickly a few times to moisten the flour, then let it run on a slow setting. The dough will go through the same stages as when it is worked by hand: mealy at first, followed by increasingly larger lumps. It is finished when the sides of the bowl are clean and the pastry is in a ball around the beater. Take it off and press it into a smooth ball. Wrap it in wax paper and chill for two hours in the refrigerator or for one hour in the freezing compartment.

See the note in Method I for making the Rich Tart Pastry ahead of time.