Shortcrust pastry is one of the easiest types of pastries to make from scratch. It can be savoury or sweet, made with butter or lard and is the perfect pastry for pies, tarts and quiches.

There are lots of different types of shortcrust pastry. Pâte brisée, pâte sucrée and pâte sablée are the three most common types in French pâtisserie. However, English recipes often simply call for ‘shortcrust pastry’ or ‘sweet pastry’.

While all shortcrust pastry recipes contain fairly similar ingredients, some have additional sugar, almond flour or eggs, and each can use slightly different methods of mixing the ingredients together. With pâte brisée and pâte sucrée for example, the fat is traditionally rubbed into the flour and sugar. However, with pâte sablée the sugar and fat are creamed together, and then the flour is added.

Shortcrust pastry is incredibly versatile, and can be used in a whole range of different recipes, from sweet lemon tarts and fruit galettes, to savoury tomato quiche and steak and ale pie. If you have the freezer space, it’s always worth making some extra too, as it freezes very well.