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Dessert

Shortcrust Pastry

A shortcrust pastry made with butter, sugar, lemon rind, plain flour, and potato flour.

From the Wikibooks Cookbook · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Shortcrust Pastry

1 crust

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Cream together butter, sugar, and lemon rind in a bowl.

  2. Sift together the plain and potato flours into a mound.

  3. Make a well in the center of the mound and add the creamed mixture.

  4. Knead lightly until the dough is consistent.

Chill

  1. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour before use.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

779Calories
18 gProtein
13 gFat
148 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Wikibooks Cookbook.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Lemon + potatotop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,230 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + potatotop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Unsalted butter
Provides fat that keeps the pastry short and tender as it sets.
Caster sugar
Adds sweetness and helps tenderise the crumb by interrupting gluten development.
Plain flour
Supplies the main structure that holds the pastry together.
Potato flour
Adds starch that makes the pastry more crumbly and tender than wheat flour alone.

The step that matters

Knead lightly until the dough is consistent. Overworking develops gluten, which makes shortcrust tough rather than crisp and crumbly. Stop as soon as the dough holds together.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, lemon, flour):

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, lemon, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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