Ingredients (for about twenty biscuits or a 24cm diameter tart)
note: many use yeast in the shortcrust pastry dough. In my personal opinion, yeast should not be added. However, I have noticed that children appreciate these biscuits more when I use a sachet of baking powder for every half kilo of flour.
Preparation
The tricks to get a splendid result are now known to almost everyone:
- use high quality cold butter ,
- respect the proportion 2 parts flour and 1 part butter ,
-
work the dough as quickly as possible,
- leave to rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes (however, the longer you leave it in the fridge the better the crumblyness: I leave it for up to 24 hours),
-
cook for the necessary time and not 1 minute more (indeed, better 1 minute less ),
- use low-gluten flour for a better result! I discovered this last point a few months ago, when I experimented with the beauty of mixing flours . From wholemeal to spelt, from rice to the one that already contains baking powder. Positive results every time. Undeniable what I have indicated.
Place the dry ingredients on a pastry board or in a large bowl: flour, sugar, grated lemon zest and salt. Place the butter in the center and start working quickly with your fingertips, trying to create crumbs (if your hands get hot, wash them under very cold water! I usually work with the window ajar... that shiver that comes over me allows me not to heat the dough). Then add one egg at a time and continue working until you form a nice, big and shiny ball! Wrap it in cling film and let it rest in the refrigerator (the rule is that the longer it rests, the lighter and more fragrant the result will be).
Once the time has passed, turn on the oven and bring it to temperature (180 ° gas and static). Then take our ball of shortcrust pastry, let it rest for a few minutes at room temperature and then start rolling it out entirely or in part with a rolling pin. For this operation, given that the pastry will stick a lot, we can freely choose to use either the trick of baking paper (a layer below and one above the pastry to be rolled out) or flour (rice flour, I noticed, improves the final result).
We cut out the biscuits and then place them on the baking tray covered with special paper and cook for about 10 minutes (the time depends on the size of the biscuits) and in any case as soon as the edges take on colour we remove them from the oven.
Let's wait about 20 minutes before forming our bull's eyes and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Let's enjoy a truly unique and happy snack, breakfast or after dinner!
